TYRE, N.Y. — Ever since they settled in this tiny farm town along the New York State Thruway more than a decade ago, the Amish have been a benign, generally welcome presence: guiding their buggies down local roads, delivering fresh produce to their neighbors and paying their taxes — though they do not vote.
But the possibility that a glittering casino could be built here, halfway between Syracuse and Rochester, has torn at the bonds that knit together the area’s Amish and secular residents.
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Bishop Daniel Schwartz, 43, who raises corn, cows and chickens across a two-lane highway from the proposed casino site, has objected to the plan in simple but dogmatic terms. He is talking about pulling up stakes and leaving the region if the project becomes a reality. And he and some of the hundreds of other local Amish have mounted a primitive but potent public relations campaign, appearing silently in court, traveling to state hearings, stating their views in handwriting. In hopes of thwarting the project, Bishop Schwartz himself, wiry-whiskered and rosy-cheeked, even granted what he said was his first sit-down interview.
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Inside the farmhouse of Daniel Schwartz, an Amish bishop in Tyre. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
“Gambling goes against the teaching of the Bible,” Bishop Schwartz said, “and the fruits of gambling are all bad.”
The town leaders, however, are having none of this. Backed by regional leaders and deeply desirous of the jobs, tourism and municipal improvements that a casino could bring, the town supervisor and others have accused the Amish of allowing themselves to be used as sympathetic props to drum up opposition, exaggerating how threatening the plan would be to their way of life, and overstating their population in Tyre — as well as their importance to it.
“As the old saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts,” said Ronald F. McGreevy, the supervisor, who campaigned for the casino. He insisted that there were only a few Amish families in Tyre proper, which has a population of about 950. “There is certainly not going to be a mass exodus if this comes to fruition,” Mr. McGreevy said.
Clashes like the one in Tyre — perhaps the most colorful, given the cultural differences in the mix — have broken out across New York as the State Gaming Commission prepares to decide the location of up to four new casinos this fall. Expressions of local support were a requirement for each of the 16 proposals, and applicants have worked hard to demonstrate community ties: hosting job fairs, announcing business and labor partnerships, and trumpeting how residents could benefit. One bidder even promised a town new fire trucks.
Standing in the way are opponents whose objections are often emotionally charged. Environmentalists are suing to stop a $1.5 billion project from Genting, the Malaysian casino company, over possible damage to a public forest in Tuxedo, in Orange County; leaders in Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic village in Orange County, sued over the feared impacts of two separate casinos; and opponents of a casino in East Greenbush, near Albany, accused leaders there of rigging the process by which its developer won the town’s support.
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The plaintiffs all cite local officials in their complaints. But the lawsuits are also intended as a siren loud enough to be audible in the state capital.
“We wanted to show the Gaming Commission that the town’s show of community support was not so smooth and un-pockmarked as they might want it to look,” said Rodger Friedman, a member of the group opposing the casino in Tuxedo.
Economic issues are at the heart of the appeal of the $425 million Tyre project, called Lago, in an allusion to the nearby Finger Lakes: With thousands of slot machines, a 1,700-seat theater and a 207-room hotel, promising “the high energy and excitement of Las Vegas,” its backers say it could pour millions of dollars of revenue into a town so small it has no post office.
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The Buy-In
Articles in this series are examining the ramifications of New York State’s embrace of casino gambling.
Albany Doubling Down as Casino Boom Fades
A Rich Plan in New York’s Casino Race Is No Sure Thing for Cuomo
In Pursuit of Casinos, It’s Worst Foot Forward
Today, the busiest commercial spot in Tyre is a truck stop off the Thruway. A municipal court shares space with a dog kennel. And the upkeep on the one-room hall used for civic events is partly paid for with barbecue fund-raisers and redemption of the deposits on recyclable cans.
The closest thing to a residential hub is a small cluster of homes along a creek that feeds the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, at the marshy northern shores of Cayuga Lake — a protected federal area that town officials say pays very little into the town’s coffers.
The casino legislation was promoted by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as a way to help the upstate economy, and Mr. McGreevy said Lago would pay for better water, new Internet service and lower taxes, and would help stave off the need to consider dissolving the town altogether.
“Tyre deserves a chance to survive,” said Mr. McGreevy, a retired lawn-mower salesman whose town office is a converted bedroom in his home.
The casino’s developer promises Lago will create 1,800 permanent jobs, or nearly twice the town’s current population. Regional supporters include the Seneca County Board of Supervisors; a collection of labor unions, arts organizations and business leaders; and Tyre’s town board, which voted unanimously in favor of the casino plan in June.
But the townspeople themselves are divided. Earlier this year, a small group of residents formed Casino Free Tyre to try to block the project.
Defeated twice in court, the group has presented a vigorous opposition, in Albany, in protests at the casino site and in petitions blasting the town board for “selling out to a casino developer.”
The group contends that Tyre was chosen for a casino on a bet that the Amish, who do not vote, and its rural residents would put up little fight. Indeed, Casino Free Tyre styles itself as a defender of the Amish and others who have farmed in the area for generations, and has collected sympathetic statements from Amish leaders in nearby counties and communities.
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Lake Ontario
481
481
NEW YORK
414
414
NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY
90
Syracuse
Tyre
81
Proposed casino site
CANADA
Cayuga
Lake
Area of detail
Seneca
Lake
Albany
PA.
10 MILES
New York City
“We as leaders of our Old Order Amish group humbly ask youce not to let a casino be build” in the area, reads one handwritten letter, signed by six Amish men representing two church districts, roughly equivalent to parishes.
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James Dawley, one of the founders of Casino Free Tyre, said he worried the casino might drive away the Amish and the quiet spirituality and wholesomeness they project.
“They add a level of protection from, I guess you would say, what is a worldly influence to our town,” he said. “They are a protective barrier because of their faith.”
But casino supporters say the objections of the Amish themselves have been exaggerated in an effort to turn the sect’s piety, and its power as a symbol of old-time simplicity, into a kind of cudgel to be wielded against the casino project on behalf of other people who were simply against development.
“They are being used, for lack of a better term,” Mr. McGreevy said, “by this small anti-casino group, saying if we do this, this casino is going to be the end of life as we know it.”
Mr. McGreevy said the group’s distortions included overstating the Amish population in Tyre, which he put at only four families, with perhaps six or seven members in each.
Supporters also contend that the moral arguments against casinos, which once carried more of a stigma, have lost force as much of the country has legalized gambling in pursuit of budget relief.
Apprised of Mr. McGreevy’s remarks, the Amish bishop in Tyre, Bishop Schwartz, took the unusual step of agreeing to an interview.