The proposed addition of 2,500 slot machines to Casino San Pablo-a card room located off Interstate 80-would bring 34,000 more cars to the area each day and increase traffic on the freeway by 25 percent, according to a traffic report released yesterday.
The study, conducted by Katz, Okitsu and Associates-a traffic engineering and transportation planning company-found that the slot machines, granted by a compact between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, would create the need for an additional lane along I-80 and a new interchange to accommodate extra casino traffic.
The impact would not only occur during peak hours of commute traffic, but also cause traffic back-ups lasting all day, according to Full Court Press Affairs Manager Alex Shulman, who is representing local card rooms and grassroots organizations opposing the casino.
The study was financed by three card rooms in San Bruno, Emeryville and Pacheco which, for their own financial reasons, do not want the casino in town, Shulman said.
But the Pomo Indians said the report is based on inaccurate information, and not commissioned by a neutral third party, said Nick DeLuca, spokesperson for the tribe.
“They don’t have our project, because we haven’t released it. They created something of their own and criticized that,” DeLuca said. “Pretty much everything in there is hypothetical, theoretical-what might be, what could be.”
The Pomo Indians will unveil a downsized version of the project and address traffic mitigations today at San Pablo City Hall.
DeLuca said the new casino with slot machines would pump 6,600 jobs into San Pablo’s depleted economy and inject an estimated $155 million-25 percent of net profits-in local and state governments. The remaining 75 percent of the money would pay for housing and health care and provide education for the 275-person tribe, whose members mostly reside in Santa Rosa.
But jobs created by the casino would come at the cost of surrounding communities, since money spent at casinos means less money spent in local restaurants and retail shops, Shulman said.
Shulman’s concerns are not limited to residents of San Pablo. UC Berkeley senior Elliot Randall co-founded the Stop San Pablo Casino Community Coalition in November in response to Proposition 1A, which authorizes the governor to negotiate compacts with federally recognized American Indian tribes.
Randall said he delivered more than 1,000 letters of opposition to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who then reintroduced a bill opposing the casino.
“There’s a huge connection to Berkeley,” he said. “If you have this infiltration of casinos being built, Berkeley could potentially transform into a more criminal area, and you would have a decline in property value, and noise pollution.”
Source: www.dailycal.org