"We're on a mission from Gahhd"

Here we are once again facing an apparent dilemma with sides chosen, changed positions, hard feelings and charges of skulduggery not unproven by what amounts to a simple cursory glance of the facts. Welcome to Fall River!

If a stranger knew nothing about this City other than it was the place where Lizzie Borden took the axe to mom and pops, it could see the essential Fall River in the controversy, just starting I might add, over the building of a "destination casino" on a tract of land currently restricted in use by contractual agreement with the state.

It has all the hallmarks of a real Fall River hum dinger. Divided loyalties among the City's people, charges of a lack of transparency by those who use a lack of transparency to their own purpose on other issues, tons of money coming into the City now or about to be to bolster opposing viewpoints, and a legislative delegation who see the same facts and envision vastly different needs and solutions. Ordinarily most outside observers would think this situation a real mess.

They would be wrong, of course. In Fall River, this is where the rubber meets the road. The fight over the casino and related uncertain fate of the Bio-Tech Park, which the casino, if approved in the end, would dispossess from it's site, is what gets the life juices of this City flowing.

For a Massachusetts community where, truth be told, little of  note happens other than the occasional drug related shooting, this is big news. Something to get fired up about. Something where the dormant yet always near the surface bellicose nature of politics springs to life like the sharpest of cactus plants suddenly blooming in the middle of a lush green spring meadow, right down near the pond. In other words, it cannot be avoided and will most definitely sting the most careful of persons. It is what Fall River says it hates, but loves in a twisted manner as if such hate is it's reason for existing.

Yes it's slightly perverse. That is because the City lacks any sort of worldly outlook. It eschews universality the way old fashioned still owners protected themselves from the "Revenue-ers" in the Ozark Mountains. It's entirely parochial in the way it sees the outside world. It's very simple, really. It is a world of "them" and "US", them being the world which is virtually any measurable distance just outside the City lines. It seems like it's always been this way. When you consider the advent of instantaneous communication available virtually anywhere on earth, the insular nature of Fall River stands as mystifying. It's not as if the outside world doesn't reach into the City - the City rejects it out of hand! 

It is this fact that has to be understood to fully realize why such possible good news for a community with the highest unemployment rate in the state, and also one of highest rates of drop outs and adult working populations, over 50%,  without high school diplomas or GED's, would question the bounty of an outside entity bringing them 3 - 5,000 jobs. The casino would also bring revenues to fund Fall River budget gaps to save public safety and school teacher jobs and bring the outside world to this floundering City.

Questions? They abound on every side of this issue.

     *Should we chose between one project over the other  (Casino vs. Bio-
      Park) or could we do both projects? Yes, I think we could accommodate both
        and we should. It appears one project would suit current education and training
        levels of the current population and deliver greatly needed jobs (Casino)while the
        other  (Bio-Tech) seems to be the real future of the City.

     *How many jobs will be produced by both projects?  Early estimates from
         proponents of the casino indicate 3-5,000 jobs from the casino, mostly
         manual labor-service/entry level jobs - original estimates for the Bio-Tech park
         were any figure from a low of 12  at original start up to a fully developed
         Industrial Park type complex that COULD hold as high as 12,000 fairly
         technical jobs available for those with appropriate training and education
         although most observers doubt the 12, 000 job figure. Something in the
         in the 2,000 range might be more realistic, but no one really knows, other than
         this could be a real long-term employer and industry for Fall River's future.

     *Where do the elected officials and political power entities stand on these
        proposals? To understand this you need both a scorecard and one of those
        tracking devices they put in cars to figure out where the car has been. Outgoing
        Senator Menard and Mayor Flanagan are in favor of both projects, trying to
        build the casino first due to immediate job needs, while one of the state
        representatives looking to win Menard's Senate seat wants a strong commitment
        to a Bio-Tech Park on the original location. Those are the two popular extremes.
        From what I can gather all other elected officials have taken a cautionary and
        semi-objective position which means in the end they'll support the option which
        gains them the most votes. It seems that rather than contribute to the building of 
        a consensus most of these officials wait for a popular consensus to build, then
        hop on board and adopt it as their own.
        In terms of institutions, FROED has flip flopped on this issue. Previously,
        FROED was a strong proponent of the Bio-Tech Park. Now they appear to be a
        co-sponsor with Mayor Flanagan of the destination casino on the spot that was
        originally purchased with a Bio-Tech park in mind. Mayor Flanagan had attacked
        FROED during his run for the Mayor's Office for lack of productivity and now
        seems to be partnering with FROED to see this casino project become reality.
        If there were any doubt about this all one had to do was see the photos of
        FROED's Executive Vice President Fiola with the Mayor's Chief of Staff Torres
        wearing sun glasses while visiting the site location for a photo op. They
        looked like the a poor man's version of the Blues Brothers, although they also
        appeared to be very pleased with being "on a mission from gahhd", to quote
        Elwood Blues.
    
     *Who appear to be the winners and losers? Quick listing here:
            Winners - Mayor Flanagan, FROED, Fall River workers, especially
            construction trades and those without HS diplomas, Senator Menard
            Malaysian developers, Wompanoag Nation, Fall River municipal employees
            citizens of Fall River.

            Losers - Rep. Rodrigues, Bio-Tech project, MA Bio-Tech Council, UMass,
            Green community, Satanists everywhere (Satanists are thought to perform
            occasional rituals in Freetown State Forest, part of the area taken by the
            casino), any member of the Fall River legislative delegation to vote against
            the casino project.
    
This is but the very beginning of what promises to be a convoluted soap opera in true Fall River fashion before it's all said and done. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Please feel free to ask any questions you'd like, or gives us your opinions, after all, they will be no less valid than anything you read here. Thanks for dropping by!