Petaluma is no place for a Las Vegas-style casino

June 7, 2006

Plans by the owners of River Rock Casino near Geyserville to build a similar casino complex on 277 acres of farmland it recently purchased just south of Petaluma should be fought vigorously if local residents hope to preserve this community's cherished quality of life.

Greed appears to be the driving force behind the super-secretive Dry Creek Rancheria Pomo tribe, which is not disclosing its exact intentions for the property, only to say through an anonymous source that they have "no current plans" to build a casino on the site stretching from Highway 101 to the Petaluma River. River Rock, which hauled in more than $12 million dollars in profits last year, is generally viewed by its neighbors as a blight on what was once-bucolic countryside in the Alexander Valley.

Common sense dictates that if the competing Coast Miwok tribe, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, is successful in constructing its own monstrously large casino and commercial complex proposed in Rohnert Park, the number of visitors to River Rock will dwindle and profits will plunge.

So why not leapfrog down to Petaluma, and entice the lucrative Bay Area gambling market with the most accessible casino complex of any urbanized area in the state? This would certainly help ensure that profits will continue to roll high even if the Rohnert Park casino gets built.

This is a classic case of what has come to be known as reservation shopping, a shameful practice whereby competing tribes purchase private property well beyond their own ancestral boundaries in order to develop more profitable gambling enterprises. Though still legal, it vividly demonstrates how bad laws, money and political influence have overwhelmed and ultimately begun to ruin local communities throughout California.

The result of a large casino complex on Petaluma's southern flank is easy to predict: massive traffic jams and increased accidents along Highway 101; increased crime and pollution; severe water shortages in an already water-scarce region; wastewater disposal problems impacting the nearby Petaluma River; lowered housing availability, particularly for lower income families; and impaired fire protection and law enforcement services. Concerns about design aesthetics and environmental degradation would go unanswered since county laws regulating this type of development would simply not apply due to its "sovereign" status as an Indian reservation.

Rohnert Park politicians made the mistake of opening their doors wide to the false promise of economic prosperity and pledges of money that lulled officials there into thinking that it actually makes sense for a city in Sonoma County to welcome gambling kingpins Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta of Station Casinos, Inc., a billion-dollar Las Vegas gambling enterprise that has partnered with the Coast Miwok tribe.

Yet outside Rohnert Park, the proliferation of Indian gaming casinos is widely seen as a hugely troubling statewide trend.

South county Supervisor Mike Kerns and members of the Petaluma City Council, as well as Assemblyman Joe Nation and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, have all pledged to do whatever they can to prevent a casino from locating in Petaluma.

To help them in this cause, drop a letter to Dick Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior, and ask that he not take the land into trust for the Dry Creek Tribe. Send it to: U.S. Dept. of Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20240, or fax Kempthorne at 202-228-6956.

You may also write to Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, asking that he disallow the last-minute gaming land applications in Sonoma County that would pave the way for casinos in Petaluma and Rohnert Park. Send it to him at the U.S. Senate, 838 Hart Office Building, Washington D.C., 20510, or fax to 202-224-5429.

On the local level, you can urge city officials to place an advisory measure on the November ballot so officials in Washington can tell exactly where this community stands on the issue. And you can support all other efforts by elected officials seeking whatever legal means necessary to prevent tribal gaming from getting a foothold in southern Sonoma County.

Preserving Petaluma is worth a fight before this beautiful piece of the North Bay is irreparably transformed into a gaudy, smoggy, traffic-choked gambling mecca.