Last week, with your help, Casino-Free Philadelphia successfully completed an incursion into SugarHouse investor Neil G. Bluhm’s home turf: Chicago. In the span of about 8 hours, we conducted a press conference and four protests, both large and small.
Our activities started with two of us flying to Chicago on Monday, September 15, 2008 to do some scouting activities. We located Bluhm’s headquarters at 900 N. Michigan Avenue, which is in a very swanky part of town. Just past Tiffany’s and plenty of other luxurious stores, that’s where Neil Bluhm’s offices are located. Not surprisingly, there were no slots parlors in this neighborhood. In fact, gambling and slots are illegal in Chicago due to the enactment of Municipal Code Title 8 (Offenses Affecting Public Peace, Morals and Welfare), which declares a slots hall to be “a common nuisance.”
On Monday we also scouted out our other protest locations and we finalized and copied our materials. Later that evening we were joined by a third CFP member as well as Mr. Les Bernal, from the national StopPredatoryGambling.org group. On Tuesday morning we were joined by two more CFP members, for a total of 6 people.
Our Tuesday started with a press conference held jointly with the Task Force Against Gambling in Chicago. Jethro spoke at the press conference about what Bluhm is trying to do in Philly. Doug Dobmeyer from the Task Force spoke about the Task Force’s twenty year success of keeping Chicago casino-free. Les spoke about national trends and how Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that any law that degrades human personality, is unjust. Casino-Free and the Task Force entered into a Joint Resolution so that we could coordinate activities in our two cities. Check out the Joint Resolution, here. (As it turns out, Neil Bluhm is trying to get approvals for a casino just outside Chicago, right near O’Hare Airport. That’s right, he flatly rejects putting SugarHouse near Philadelphia International Airport but putting a casino near O’Hare is just fine.)
The joint press conference was carried in full by Chicago’s public access television station (CAN TV), which will air it frequently over the next month. Once they post it online, we’ll provide you a link.
After the press conference, we then moved on to our four protests.
First, we stood outside of Bluhm’s headquarters wearing t-shirts that screamed “Free Money.” That made it easy to attract people as did our pitch line, “Hi, we’re from Philly and we’re here to try and protect our neighborhoods.” We handed out flyers explaining what Bluhm is trying to do to Philadelphia neighborhoods and stating that Bluhm, in his hometown, tries to play the good guy by donating tons of money to various educational or non-profit institutions. Our flyer asked people to call those institutions to urge them not to take “Bluhm’s Dirty Money.” Check out the flyer, here.
Second, we went to the Bluhm Law Clinic at Northwestern Law School. Someone from the school invited us into the building and showed us that anyone can post flyers on the wall. So that’s what we did. We posted our flyers on almost every wall, outside of every classroom and even inside the bathroom stalls. We rocked.
Third, it was off the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Inside the Bluhm Institute we found a Suggestion Box. Each of us filled out a suggestion slip, such as explaining how convenience Slots Parlors causes addiction, which of course is a mental health affliction, and that a health care institution like Northwestern Memorial could do better than accept money from the likes of Bluhm. We each submitted our own message. We did this quietly and respectfully because this was a place of healing and patients were all around. We slipped the suggestions into the box and it felt good.
Fourth, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago and handed out our flyers; here we explained that Bluhm is one of the Trustees. There must of have been a management meeting that day, because we handed out flyers to folks who seemed to be Art Institute management – they seemed to know Bluhm. Well, certainly the Art Institute wasn’t happy because four security guards came out and ordered us off the sidewalk. “Off the sidewalk?”, we asked. We explained that this is America and that we have the ability to be on the public sidewalk and exercise our First Amendment rights. The security staff threatened to call the police, we said “great, go ahead,” and then the security staff backed off. We kept flyering to our hearts content.
We did manage to get a good story in the Chicago Journal, here [http://www.journal-topics.com/dp/08/dp080917.3.html]. As we mentioned, we’ll link to the CAN TV spot once it’s posted.
Also, you can see some photos and our own video, here.
Finally, we again thanks everyone who contributed to our expenses. We are happy to report that we went under-budget!! Here’s how it broke down:
5 plane tickets for $200 each . . . . . $1,000
1 hotel room (yup, 1 room)….………$200
Subway fare (instead of rental car)..….$25
printing of flyers…………….$150
So that’s it. Our trip was a success. We got some good press. We made our points. And we’re ready to do it again, if necessary.
Thanks again to all who contributed. We stretched your dollars very far, as always. If you'd still like to donate to the trip, it's not too late, just click here and donate online! Also, Take a look at the flyer we passed out.