OAKLAND TRIBUNE

Article Last Updated: 3/28/2005 08:08 AM

Alamedans united to bar casino
City's anti-gaming coordinator says momentum is building to oppose Koi Nation plan

ALAMEDA - Anti-gaming forces in Alameda are keeping a close eye on at least two pieces of legislation they hope will keep the Koi Nation casino from opening in their back yards.

A draft bill by U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, would prevent Indian tribes from looking for spots outside their reservations to build casinos, often called "reservation shopping."

Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan called the Koi Nation casino - a spa resort palace proposed for a parking lot near the Oakland International Airport - "the ultimate case of location shopping," in testimony she delivered March 17 before the U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee.

The newly recognized tribe of landless Indians - whose authenticity and historical ties to Oakland have been called into question by authorities at the Bureau of Indian Affairs - has asked the federal government to acquire the 35-acre parking lot for it as its reservation.

Tribal leaders and casino proponents say the project will add more than 4,400 jobs and contribute $1 billion annually to Oakland 's economy. But the suggestion of an urban casino in East Oakland has met with opposition from almost every surrounding community, including the cities of Alameda , Berkeley , San Leandro , the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the East Bay Regional Parks District.

A second bill by state Assemblymember Joe Nation would put a moratorium on gaming compacts until 2008 while the state studies the impact of casinos on such things as public safety, the economy and the environment.

Christa Johnson, assistant to interim Alameda City Manager Bill Norton, and the person coordinating the city's efforts to fight the Koi Nation casino, called the recent legislative developments hopeful.

"There's momentum building," Johnson said. "It's pretty exciting."

Johnson devotes an enormous amount of her time these days fighting the casino projectfrom News 1

local opponents say will clog Alameda 's mostly residential streets with traffic and siphon money away from local businesses.

Preliminary traffic studies suggest parts of Otis Drive , Fernside Boulevard , High Street, Broadway, the Webster-Posey Tubes, and the Bay Farm Island and Park Street bridges could become alternative routes for casino visitors trying to avoid the congested Interstate 880 corridor.

Alameda stands to gain little to nothing economically from the project.

City Councilmember Tony Daysog has argued the casino will actually have a "net negative" effect on Alameda, where 3,000 homes in the quiet Bay Farm Island neighborhood, three public schools and four city parks, sit within two miles of the proposed casino site.

A casino could lead to disinvestment, even blight, in the region, particularly in poorer neighborhoods where people have less disposable income to spend, Daysog said.

"It's a big loser," Daysog said.

The city has spent as much as $50,000 fighting the project, mostly on outside legal counsel to advise city staff on the complicated and bureaucratic tribal land trust and gaming process, Johnson said.

She expects city staff to return to the City Council soon to request more money for the casino budget, despite a $4.8 million deficit that caused the police department to cut popular crime-prevention programs for kids last month, among other things.

City officials say the cost of fighting the Koi Nation project would be more without the collaboration of Oakland and surrounding communities.

"It's a real benefit that we have constituents around us that are taking opposition to (the casino)," Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson said. "We can pool resources."

Aside from banking on the Pombo and Nation bills to head off the casino proposal, Alameda has drafted its own anti-gaming legislation.

The proposed bill would amend the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to require the governor's approval when tribes seek land trusts in urban areas for the purpose of building casinos.

Johnson, who asked U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein,

D- Calif . to sponsor the legislation, said she is not completely comfortable handing the whole urban gaming approval process over to the governor.

But it is better than dealing "with some bureaucrat in Indian Affairs," she said.

City officials have asked the senator to write a letter to the BIA on the community's behalf.

The city has not heard back from the senator's office on either endeavor, Christa Johnson said last week.

Howard Gantman , a spokesman in Feinstein's Washington , D.C. office, said he was aware of the draft legislation Alameda presented.

"We're looking at a variety of ways to address the proliferation of efforts to both reservation shop and build urban casinos," Gantman said.

Contact Susan McDonough at smcdonough@angnewspapers.com .