I just got home after spending the morning in a hot, packed, and tense City Council Chambers. After waiting in line for 30 minutes with my husband and then waiting through a bunch of unrelated city council business, Philadelphia's City Council voted 17-0 to place a referendum on the May 15th ballot.

17-0 is a veto-proof majority. I'm very, very happy that City Council unanimously voted to do the right thing: to give Philadelphian's the chance to vote on the single most important land-use issue in decades.

It was a very, very tough fight to come just this far: every which way, for over a year, ordinary Philadelphian's have been booted out of the process: whether it was simply "done deal" rhetoric, or not being allowed to speak at public meetings of the Pennsylvania Gaming Board, or being refused public documents concerning casinos, the cards seemed to be stacked against us.

But in the past few months, something has changed: our numbers have grown, we've become more diverse, and we've started to have confidence in our movement. And I think many of us have started entertaining thoughts not only that our local and state governments should be reformed, but they MUST BE:

Fundamentally, the story of casinos in Philadelphia is that of a sick and corrupt governmental process -- designed to cut out everyday people and elevate the rich and politically connected. And what we saw today was a win of democracy over an arrogant and entrenched plutocracy....a plutocracy that coined the phrase spending "Other People's Money" without shame.

I hope today is just the beginning of many such winning days.