But they don’t really go together and they’re all things I want to get in today.
So anyway, for anyone who was wondering the Erie mayoral race turned out thusly:
Council Guy: winner
Guy who actually lives in Fairview: second
Woman who rubs many the wrong way: third
Incumbent mayor: fourth
Last night, I missed the end of “House” and “L&O: SVU” (yeah I watch two shows at once a lot) b/c the local media cut into the mayor’s pity party.
Instead of standing up and being a grown-up and saying something like “I’ll work to make sure my party retains the mayoral office” or “thanks to all my volunteers” he stood up there and got all weepy and blamed “his political opponents, the Erie Times-News and city residents willing to hang onto ‘the status quo’ for his primary loss.” (quote from the Erie Times)
Did he ever consider that maybe people didn’t vote for him b/c of the cleverly-placed pp that follows the above quote?
Filippi will be in court this morning to face charges that he and two business associates tried to personally profit from a land-speculation deal, using inside information gleaned from the mayor’s office. The defendants all deny the charges.
I tried to be on this guy’s side before we’d moved to CO. I thought it was ageism (he’s quite young and the council are collectively quite old). I thought it was unwillingness to change on the part of the council. Turns out he is just a crook and a two-faced shyster after all.
It’s a long, tangled story (as I’ve said before) but basically the entire county has a hard-on for a casino/racetrack (horses) that someone wants to build in the county. Originally they wanted to build in Summit Township, which is nothing but retailers and trailer parks (property taxes so high, who else could afford to build there?). The city got the bright idea to woo the casino away and put it on the site of a shut-down papermill.
They promised them subsidies (damn, I’d like a subsidy too — who wants to woo me?) and everything else to get them to move. One idiot on the council said, “We’ll give you millions even if you don’t build here!” He went over everyone’s head to do this but as he’s an asshat, it matters not. Well that was a sweet deal. The casino is apparently going to build in McKean Township.
Here’s the kicker: once he found out that the casino was going to build at the old papermill, the mayor and his buddies started buying up property all around the site. Then they got busted. And there’s a nice paper trail, from what I understand.
But casinos don’t corrupt people! They’re good for the community!
I have nothing against a casino. I’ve been to casinos in Atlantic City and Niagara Falls. I’ve even won a little money. Hawk won’t go w/ me b/c he wins if I’m not there and loses when I am. But when there are studies of how communities are affected by the addition of businesses like casinos, I wonder if the effect on local officials is included in that. It should be, after this.
