Focusing on support for a possible Capital Region casino, town by town
Don't squint, and don't scratch your head -- it'll make sense when you see the bigger versions.
The Capital Region is in line to get a casino as part of the vote to allow full casino gambling last fall (as you know). And based on comments made by Andrew Cuomo in last week's State of the State address, the selection of the casino site is scheduled to happen sometime during the six months or so.
As the selection process picks up, the discussion around it is focusing in part not just on where a casino might be viable, but also which municipalities do -- or don't -- want one of the gambling facilities. Examples: The vocal opposition in Saratoga Springs to a full casino, despite conventional wisdom that the Spa City would be a leading potential site; or, conversely, the mayor of Rensselaer's lobbying for his city to be in the running.
The casino selection process doesn't include local approval. Even so, we thought it'd be interesting to get a better feel for how cities and towns in the Capital Region might be leaning on the issue based on how residents voted last November on the state constitutional amendment that allowed casinos.
So we pulled the vote totals on the ballot question for the Capital Region by town, mapped 'em, and also put together some "tree maps" (kind of like square pie charts) to get a sense of how a city or town's support or opposition fits into the whole.
That's a long way of saying: look at these maps and charts...
Maps and charts above in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.
All cities and towns, by support
Vote percentages from the November 2013 general election. (So it's possible some people have changed their mind since then.)
Statewide
Here's map of the casino amendment statewide vote by county, from last November.
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Comments
The fact Troy only managed to raise 6771 votes on the matter is indicative of a larger issue, no?
... said komradebob on Jan 13, 2014 at 4:32 PM | link
Interesting. So basically, if you live directly on the Hudson River, you probably want a casino, but the rest of us (generally speaking) definitely don't.
... said KB @ Home-Baked Happiness on Jan 13, 2014 at 6:55 PM | link
Seems that the areas with a higher average household income (and probably better/more education) don't seem too into a casino.
Can't wait until people get a choice of benefit card for food or cash equivelant card for casino.
We are all doomed.
... said J.Welf on Jan 14, 2014 at 8:35 AM | link
Riverboat gamblers! And I (as a Saratogian) say give it to Rensselaer! They want it. They deserve it. And the big city swells can step right off the train and have their pockets lightened.
... said Otis Maxwell on Jan 14, 2014 at 9:05 AM | link
I've got the perfect solution. Drive out GE and put a casino on that large land parcel, conveniently located right beside a highway.
It would put an end to the "death by a thousand paper cuts" that GE been inflicting on Schenectady for ages and revitalize downtown Schenectady in the process. Sounds like a plan to me!
... said Linda from Sch'dy County on Jan 14, 2014 at 11:00 AM | link
This is interesting to look at, but really irrelevant. The only total that matters is the statewide one that passed the amendment. If we're looking at local numbers with the intent of getting the sense of whether or not a community supports it, then we have to take into account the votes (and non-votes) of all eligible voters. When we do that, I'm guessing the winner in each town and city would not be "yes" or "no", but instead "I don't care".
... said Merfohorf on Jan 15, 2014 at 8:23 AM | link
Merfohorf -- Non-voters are irrelevant when measuring support for ANYTHING -- be it for a casino, a presidential candidate or whatever. Decisionmakers aren't accountable to people who don't bother to vote. Non-voters desires can (and should) be ignored. Hence, the yeas versus neas for a casino in a town or city ARE a perfect measure of support.
... said Linda on Jan 15, 2014 at 12:18 PM | link
Linda-
Fair points, but it still needs to be taken into consideration when majorities simply don't care. To state that a town is "against" something when, say 20%, of the population voted "no" doesn't really tell the whole story. It, of course, doesn't matter in terms of election results, but it is reality. And if decisions are made regarding placement of a casino based on data like that presented above, it should be noted that, probably in every single city and town, there were enough non-voters to turn the vote the other way. If more data like that were presented, it might convince people to actually vote.
... said Merfohorf on Jan 15, 2014 at 1:53 PM | link