Anti-casino organizers have done a wonderful job in Philadelphia.

A patchwork quilt of civic and community groups has been woven together into a full fledged anti-casino movement. Although this activism started later than anti-gaming activity in other parts of the state (where religious leaders led the fight against Democratic House leaders and the Governor to introduce legislation to allow gaming at PA racetracks), the energy that talented organizers have cultivated from every day citizens has been invigorating—especially in a city where grassroots organizing is so often moribund.

Folks who have worked so hard to oppose casinos have created some leverage for the city to use in further negotiations with the state regarding casinos. I know many anti-casino folks want to stop the introduction of casinos at all, but I am of the opinion that casinos are inevitable and that if properly sited, they need not harm any neighborhoods.

Which brings me to the Navy Yard.

The Navy Yard, located along the southern most portion of Broad Street is almost a full two-miles from any one house. It is a bizarre enclave, with an eclectic mix of brick mansions, mid-century military architecture, warehouses, and towering, ghostly ships.

The Navy Yard has seen a renaissance fo kinds with the relocation of the Urban Outfitters Company to the Yard (which occupies four buildings including a renovated warehouse with a canteen operated by the old Frog Commissary guys, a gym, a model sweatshop, Koi pond, and coffee bar—in short a California, dot-com, style workplace sure to be featured in ReadyMade, Dwell or some other hipster design magazine). TastyKake is also relocating to the Navy Yard and combined with ship building, some remaining Navy personnel, and more, it’s a commercially viable place.

That said, there are still lots of old brick warehouses, located right on the waterfront and around piers of varying lengths. In fact, without too much work, it’s not hard to imagine the Navy Yard as a Philly-version of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or San Fransisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

Those comparisons might make the urban aesthetes among you sneer, but the fact is that as commercial and touristy as both those places may be, they are the kinds of places where a casino might fit in well. And frankly, I could see myself making a trip to a Navy Yard Casino once or twice a summer for an evening of waterside drinking, bad karaoke, and nickel-dropping into a slot machine.

Beyond the fact that the Navy Yard would be a good fit for casinos, casinos have a lot to offer the Navy Yard.

Just two weeks ago, it was reported that a plan has been approved to spend money to study the possibility of extending the Broad Street Subway south to the Navy Yard. Such an expansion will easily cost $1 or 2 billion. There’s also been talk of tunneling under the Delaware to New Jersey-which would add at least another $4 billion to the price of subway expansion. Extensions of the sub to both the Navy Yard, and especially the Garden State, would greatly expand regional economic development and greatly reduce highway congestion.

However, these expansions will cost a lot of money which, study or no study, it's hard to imagine SEPTA or the city or the state paying for anytime soon. That's where casinos come in.

I am not an anti-casino activist, no do I think I will find the time to become one anytime soon. However, if I was planning a campaign, I would seriously consider using the leverage built so far to convince the current or future Mayor or Council to get behind a casino compromise plan to be presented to the state Gaming Board.

Such a plan would involve a major compromise on all sides but would basically allow full-scale gaming—slot and table games—in exchange for only one license being granted to a site at the Navy Yard (which would I think require an exemption to state law since its pretty close to the Chester site) and a promise that the casino operator dedicate a portion of their profit, on top of whatever other taxes they pay, to the payment of a bond for subway expansion to New Jersey.

We live in a big city with a lot of needs. I don’t like the fact that so much power is concentrated in the hands of corporations and profit-driven engines, but when it comes to casinos, I don’t know that I think we’re going to get away without having some. If that’s the case, it’s not too late to site them as far away from neighborhoods as possible, it’s not too late to make sure that they hire Philadelphians and pay them well, it’s not too late to actually be able to have fun at the newly built casinos, and last, but not least, it’s not too late to get casino profits to fund the public good.

That’s why I say, put the casino at the Navy Yard.

PS- I have suffered a hard drive crash which, along with a desire to have fun, has taken me offline as of late. However, whatever your opinion on casinos, remember that more than anything, the above post is a tribute to the old-school style of YPP postings--half-baked policy ideas designed to stir the imagination.