Casino-Jamming in the Catskills

Way back in February Gov. Eliot Spitzer declared his support for a plan to build a $600 million casino in the Catskills. Now opponents of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe project, which would be located at the Monticello Racetrack in Sullivan County, have launched a public-relations campaign highlighting the traffic congestion and sprawl they say would result.

A billboard (above) on Route 17 directs the public to the website of Catskill Mountainkeeper, one of several groups opposing the development. The group hopes that the prospect of increased traffic on the already heavily traveled highway will prompt Catskill residents to lobby Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who has been sitting on the proposal for some time already, to turn down the application for what would be an “off-reservation” gaming facility. Among the project’s most avid supporters is Sen. Chuck Schumer.