Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

NickRick t1_j8ro7sp wrote

Well it's not much, but hopefully it helps.

30

Monkey_Brain_Oil t1_j8rzq5z wrote

I'm not sure if this plan is still in the works, but the securing of land in Taunton was at one time intended to allow opening of a casino, whose revenue would then fund development of a stronger Tribal government, including functions like fish and wildlife management and others.

9

UltravioletClearance t1_j8s2ufk wrote

The whole "casino" thing came about during the Great Recession as a way to create jobs in a struggling region. I do wonder if the plan will get the same level of enthusiasm it got in 2009.

5

amos106 t1_j8tnse7 wrote

It was also supposed to generate traffic for the nearby mall to help it stay open, but that's gone now too.

2

thetaterman314 t1_j8u9wqd wrote

I can confirm that, as of June 2022, the casino plan is still on. I was briefly involved with the project at that time. The plan has changed from the original idea though - now it’s a one-story building instead of a huge hotel tower.

3

thomastodon01027 t1_j8v8160 wrote

That makes a lot of sense. A good deal of research has been done on the existing casinos in MA and one finding is that it’s mostly local/regional patrons who drive there and then drive home. There was a thought at one time that a ton of tourists would come from all around to gamble in MA. What they’ve been more effective at is recapturing the spending of people who would have otherwise traveled out of state to gamble.

1

NickRick t1_j8s5nm4 wrote

The article says part of the fight was to stop the plans of a $1 billion dollar casino. So I would assume that's still in the plans.

2

1diligentmfer t1_j8sulj0 wrote

Alot has changed since the entire concept was voted on, including Covid, several other casinos establishing themselves first, and legalized sports betting. I'm pretty sure there will no longer be a 300 room hotel, concert venue, shopping plaza, and waterpark, and would assume this means a scale back on the casino size as well.

3

CrocodileTeeth t1_j8sdudq wrote

It's full steam ahead. Mass has 1 more casino license to dish out and pretty sure it's going here

2

NickRick t1_j8sg8oq wrote

I know they had right of first refusal when they were giving them out.

1

KosherNazi t1_j8spgrb wrote

Reparations are a slippery slope...

−8

NickRick t1_j8sqh4h wrote

I've never actually seen a slippery slope. Just an excuse for people who don't want to do the right thing. It's literally an argument of "even though we all agree it's a good thing to do, we shouldn't do it because later we might do something that we don't do agree it's good".

13

KosherNazi t1_j8srqme wrote

Is it the right thing? Why should descendants of people who were wronged be entitled to special rights? Why don't other people who were wronged get special rights? Like... all the millions of descendants of slavery? Their slave great-great-grandparents were even promised "40 acres of a mule" and never got it.

Generally though it just seems like an error in public policy to be rewarding people of the present (who did not directly suffer any harm) by taking from other people (who are not directly responsible for the suffering of those people in the past). Is that justice? It doesn't feel like it.

Teach about the past so it doesn't happen again in the future, sure, but it's an endless rabbit hole if you start trying to turn past grievances into present property rights. It's monetizing the ghosts of the past.

−4

Forward-Candle t1_j8svghw wrote

So the government can do heinous things, and as long as they wait long enough to admit it was wrong, nothing can be done about it? Sounds like quite the loophole to me.

This is more to do with the legal right of Indian tribes though— there's an enormous amount of land that legally belongs to various tribes due to treaties which are still in effect. The government has been illegally violating these treaties for centuries, in some cases.

9

KosherNazi t1_j8sxlax wrote

> So the government can do heinous things, and as long as they wait long enough to admit it was wrong, nothing can be done about it? Sounds like quite the loophole to me.

Yeah, that's how time works. Unless you can re-animate the dead you can't give them back what you stole.

−5

Forward-Candle t1_j8t02a1 wrote

The policies which created racial inequality were practiced well into the 20th century. There are still people alive who were stolen from their families and forced into boarding schools. This isn't old history

10

amos106 t1_j8t1nwq wrote

That's true but inheritance and generational wealth are real things in our modern society. If we want to make things equal we can either remove wealth inheritance rights from everyone or we can try to compensate the decendants of people who were wronged in the past. Anything else would be treating certain groups as second class citizens.

9

jennybens821 t1_j8t09y6 wrote

Due to the phenomenon of generational wealth, the descendants of people who were wronged in the past are indeed still suffering as a result of those wrongs.

9