Stations -- Petaluma, CA

By DAN VEREL, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL from Petaluma360.com Published: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 7:17 p.m.

The $800 million Graton Resort and Casino held Topping Out ceremony unattended by any tribal members. The event was attended by backers of the project, including labor union leaders and Las Vegas-based Station Casinos. The latter will manage the property for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which received approval to build the casino and hotel last May and broke ground last June.

“This is an enormous undertaking that will be one of the signature projects of Sonoma County,” said Jeff Janakus, who is overseeing construction of the casino as vice president of design and construction for Station Casinos. The project calls for a 3,000-slot casino and 200-room hotel and will include a number of other amenities, including a resort and five-story parking structure.
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As many of you may know, Petaluma is the city that tried to pull up the drawbridge back in the sixties and zone out all growth and all population influx by outsiders. Once again, it seems some lawyers created a casino which is hoped will fully absorb any customers that might be in the area and will drain the roads of Sacramento motorists who might otherwise become Nevada-bound motorists. This is really an Indian versus Indian casino with the county getting no less than nine million dollars a year. The existing casinos in the area all seem to be card rooms offering poker, Baccarat but no slots.

Flea: You should link your source.


Gang: I found a similar article, at PressDemocrat.com - which has the same byline.


To me, the most striking comment from the article, as well as from Flea's excerpt, is that no tribal member attended this ceremony.

FYI: A topping out ceremony occurs for many projects when the last I-beam is put in place, followed by attaching a flag. It's not necessarily a catered affair, but certainly something worthy of opening some champagne. And something where the timing is somewhat predictable, with at least a couple day's notice.

It's certainly something you'd expect the tribe to be involved in if it's going to be an indian casino.

It begs the question: Why could no tribe member be bothered to show up?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Flea: You should link your source.

Your Wish Is My Command .

>To me, the most striking comment from the article, as well as from Flea's excerpt, is that no tribal member attended this ceremony.
Many times Indian Tribes are the creations of lawyers and genealogists and are mere "fronts" for gambling operations.

>It's certainly something you'd expect the tribe to be involved in if it's going to be an indian casino.
Yes. Not everyone attending has to ride that final steel beam up into position and hammer in some golden ceremonial rivet. Most of the activities take place on terra firma.

>It begs the question: Why could no tribe member be bothered to show up?
Perhaps it was a publicity decision to not detract from the "local labor unions" aspect of the event. If so it was a misguided decision.

I thought it of particular interest because long ago the City of Petaluma tried to use its zoning authority to mandate ultra large land parcels and prior residency in the community as a way of "pulling up the draw bridge and keeping people out".

Quote: FleaStiff

Your Wish Is My Command .

Interesting. Identical to what I linked (except for the domain and url), but neither contains the exact quote you posted initially. Whatever.

Quote: FleaStiff

>To me, the most striking comment from the article, as well as from Flea's excerpt, is that no tribal member attended this ceremony.
Many times Indian Tribes are the creations of lawyers and genealogists and are mere "fronts" for gambling operations.

Oh, I get the concept that the tribe is a legal fabrication, but doesn't it still need to have living members to move forward? I mean, I get that the "members" might not have even realized their bloodline prior to the project getting underway, but even then, they should be the figurehead that they are and show up for photo opportunities.

Don't they stand to make a few bucks down the road? The LEAST they can do is stand around and smile....

Isnt this the casino that is being built for an Indian tribe that is NOT in this geographic area? It is one of the "exception" casinos that was approved a few years ago because there was not enough land on the Indian tribe's own reservation to accomodate the construction??

" It begs the question: Why could no tribe member be bothered to show up? "

Perhaps they were meeting with President Obama to help draft pending immigration legislation ? ?

Ask Cochise and Sitting Bull about not controlling immigration !

Its part of the new meaning of "Going to the road". Originally it meant losing one's native culture to go to some roadside encampment to play Indian for the tourists.

Now its to build a casino and stake one's tribal wealth on it, but many tribes find their reservations are geographically inconvenient and that the earlier tribes to establish casinos snapped up the good locations.

Now its Indian tribe versus Indian tribe in setting up casinos.
(And in Oregon recently, it was Indian Tribes and Politicians versus low house edge casinos.)

Quote: AlanMendelson

Isnt this the casino that is being built for an Indian tribe that is NOT in this geographic area? It is one of the "exception" casinos that was approved a few years ago because there was not enough land on the Indian tribe's own reservation to accomodate the construction??

If you know anything of the way the "white people" treated Indians, i.e. the Native Americans, then you would know most Indians do not live on their ancestral land. And these are the lucky Indians tribes that were not systematically eradicated by the "white man" -- the Indian tribes or nations on the East Coast faced the worst outcome of all Indians in the lower 48 states of America.

It's been said that the "white man" never honored any of their original treaties with a sovereign Indian tribe or nation.

Quote: Buzzard

" It begs the question: Why could no tribe member be bothered to show up? "

Perhaps they were meeting with President Obama to help draft pending immigration legislation ? ?

Ask Cochise and Sitting Bull about not controlling immigration !

Buzzard, are you are racist or something. You clearly are bigotted in my opinion.

No Indian tribe arrived in North America but that it displaced some earlier arriving tribe.

Evidently your opinion never allows for satire !

I used to live in that area. There is River Rock casino north of santa rosa (meh) and even further north is Sho-Ka-Wah (tiny place in the middle of nowhere). They might get the Marin county people who want to play.

It seems the casino opened... massive traffic jams with reports of two hour delays on the road and casino parking lots filled to capacity early in the day.

sfgate


Marketers of the 254-acre, $800 million, 13-restaurant, 144-table, 3,000-slot-machine betting palace have billed it as "43 minutes from Bay to play."

Plush with streaming waterfalls, modern decor and the first skylight in an American casino that shines natural light onto many of the 78 blackjack tables, the Graton facility has industry analysts praising it as a "game-changer."

But it has been controversial with locals, many of whom fear blocks of deadlocked traffic along the notoriously sluggish Highway 101, the nerve center of Sonoma County travel.

Quote: FleaStiff

As many of you may know, Petaluma is the city that tried to pull up the drawbridge back in the sixties and zone out all growth and all population influx by outsiders. Once again, it seems some lawyers created a casino which is hoped will fully absorb any customers that might be in the area and will drain the roads of Sacramento motorists who might otherwise become Nevada-bound motorists. This is really an Indian versus Indian casino with the county getting no less than nine million dollars a year. The existing casinos in the area all seem to be card rooms offering poker, Baccarat but no slots.

First off, unless all of the recent TV commercials are inaccurate, Granton is in Rohnert Park, not Petaluma. Yes, there's a difference.

Second, if "Sacramento motorists" means people who live in the Sacramento area, then Jackson Rancheria, Thunder Valley, and Cache Creek are all much closer than Granton. Even the eastern side of San Francisco Bay might consider Cache Creek over Granton.

Quote: FleaStiff

It seems the casino opened... massive traffic jams with reports of two hour delays on the road and casino parking lots filled to capacity early in the day.

I went to Graton Casino's grand opening on Nov 5th and filmed gamblers demanding casino officials to open early. They were loudly chanting "Open-Open-Open!", then rushed the doors. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbBloY_L7Kk

Quote: ThatDonGuy

First off, unless all of the recent TV commercials are inaccurate, Granton is in Rohnert Park, not Petaluma. Yes, there's a difference.

Sure there is a difference between Rohnert Park and Petaluma. Ten full miles according to mapquest, but many readers of the post might not have heard of Rohnert Park whereas Petaluma has been famous since the sixties. Petaluma zoning case made headlines the world round, ain't nobody heard of Rohnert Park. Polly Klass lived in Petaluma, not Rohnert Park. Winona Ryder lived in Petaluma. John Mark Karr who gained a certain notoriety in relation to the JonBenet Ramsey murder lives in Petaluma as Alexix Valorian Reich, not Rohnert Park. The famed HopMonk Tavern with its "pot" instead of hops in the ale, is in Petaluma, not Rohnert Park.

So quibble away if you must, but it ain't even the distance 'tween Las Vegas, NV and Paradise, NV.

I wonder how long it will take for the San Francisco/Marin/Sonoma bus service to run a line to there. Right now, there's a bus stop pretty much across the street (if I am reading the map correctly), but it's only on commute lines, which means the only buses that go there do so in the afternoon and the only ones that head back south do so in the morning.