BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com August 31, 2011 2:30PM
Customers gamble at the new Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. The Chicago City Council?s Black and Hispanic Caucuses want Gov. Pat Quinn to sign off on a casino for Chicago. | Al Podgorski~Sun-Times
Updated: September 1, 2011 3:56AM
The City Council?s Black and Hispanic Caucuses on Wednesday joined the bitter battle between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn aimed at pressuring the governor to sign a bill that would pave the way for a land-based Chicago casino and slot machines at O?Hare and Midway Airports.
It?s one thing for the governor to ignore a political plea from the newly-elected mayor of Chicago. It?s quite another to turn a deaf ear to elected representatives of black and Hispanic voters who helped put Quinn in office, the aldermen said.
?Our caucus came out and supported Quinn when it was a close call. He needs to understand that and see that our communities are suffering,? said Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), chairman of the City Council?s Black Caucus.
?Some of the prosperity seen downtown [was] not seen in our communities. There?s simply not enough money in the meager [aldermanic] menu program to fix everything that needs to be done in our communities. This is a way that we can help our constituents without raising taxes.?
What happens if Quinn refuses to sign the bill?
?There?s always a political consequence to anything you do or you don?t do. Those people who are out of work will look unfavorably on that,? Brookins warned.
?There are people on the other end pushing him saying, ?We don?t need any more gaming.? We just want him to know there are significant communities that we represent who really need a shot in the arm.?
Ald. Danny Solis (25th), chairman of the City Council?s Hispanic Caucus, said the casino controversy has become a ?he said-he said? between Emanuel and Quinn, but it?s bigger than that.
?We represent Hispanic and African-American constituencies that are the big majority of this city. And he should hear us, too,? Solis said.
?These are also the constituencies that ? have the worst neighborhoods and, as far as infrastructure is concerned, the biggest need. And speaking for Hispanics, this is the constituency that really does need to look at the problem of our crumbling schools and more school being built.?
Solis warned that a Quinn veto would unleash ?Downstate animosity? toward Chicago that could kill the golden goose.
?We?ve got a bill. Let?s fix it right now, instead of killing it and trying re-create one,? he said.
Quinn responded that the state is already investing in infrastructure and other city projects, and he urged ?anyone who advocates signing the [gambling] bill to first read the bill and ask themselves, do they want to have flaws and defects in a very important bill??
?I know what?s in the bill, and I think there?s some shortcomings in the bill that need to be improved,? the governor said at an event on the West Side. ?There?s always going to be people who have loud voices who say, forge ahead without thinking ... I?m not in that category. I believe we should reflect and study and if we see something that isn?t going in the right direction ... a mistake ... we correct that mistake.?
Although a parliamentary maneuver has kept the casino gambling bill from the governor?s desk, Quinn has called the bill ?top-heavy? and in desperate need of a re-write.
As Emanuel turned up the heat in recent weeks, Quinn stood his ground, denouncing the bill for its ?serious shortcomings? when it comes to ?honesty and integrity? and preventing corruption. The mayor has dismissed those concerns as a smokescreen.
At a City Hall news conference that featured photographs of Chicago?s aging infrastructure, black and Hispanic aldermen made the same arguments that Emanuel has made for weeks.
Chicago in general and minority neighborhoods in particular desperately need the $140 million jackpot and 20,000 jobs that only a casino can bring.
They also ticked off the same laundry list of desperately needed repairs. They include: 600 miles of century-old water main; 22 CTA stations more than 90 years old; overcrowded schools; 162 ?structurally deficient? Cook County bridges and a CTA Red Line that has 23.5 percent of its track plagued by slow zones that add more than 20 minutes to the average commute.
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