Paul Godfrey lives in North York, not in Toronto

It’s no surprise that North York socialite and gambling campaigner Paul Godfrey thinks nobody lives Downtown.  He doesn’t. He lives far away in another city that has sadly and wrongly been lumped in with Toronto when we were forcibly amalgamated.
That why, with all honesty, Godfrey could say he understands why no one would want to live near a casino.
It’s why he thinks Downtown is the right place for a gambling palace that will suck in customers from our streets and from the hinterlands, secrete them in a windowless paradise where they need not venture out for any of their needs and entertain them with nearly every lawful desire and vice an adult might have or be enticed by.

And of course for those who entertain vices of questionable or doubtful lawfulness, opportunities will arise as enterprising individuals present anything one’s heart desires and one’s wallet enables.
Not that we who live here don’t count in Godfrey’s mind. Surely we do. Maybe he thinks all these condos that are piling up everywhere are actually office towers and hotels. We’re just not part of his suburbanite consciousness: Maybe they live Downtown because it’s where depravity meets the rubber. And what’s more depraved than a gambling paradise with all the accoutrements it attracts?
Sure, it will kill many restaurants and clubs within Downtown. But think of the money it might attract! And who’s it hurting? Just look at how exciting Atlantic City is! Sure, restaurants left and most boardwalk businesses around its casinos are pawn shops, payday loan sharks and old-gold and jewelry buyers.
Since 2005, the violent crime rate in Atlantic City and adjoining Pleasantville has been twice the U.S. average. That could be a result of poor governance by the city, focusing on the boardwalk where casinos exist at the expense of the rest of the city. But casinos haven’t helped the city.
Wherever there are casinos, there is vastly greater violent crime within three years of the initial opening. That’s not only expensive to us as taxpayers, it’s personally costly as individuals when we become victims of crime.
That’s why Paul Godfrey wouldn’t want to live near a casino. He won’t have to. He doesn’t really live in Toronto. Paul Godfrey lives in North York.