Fiordaliza Guillen

My name is Fiordaliza Guillen. I live here on the South Side, and I have been living here for eleven years. For work, I work in the dining services at Lehigh University. In the café.

Economic reasons, from New Jersey. Everything was so expensive over there, and I moved here to have a better opportunity for my children and myself.

The good things about South Bethlehem is we all came like immigrants. It started when people came to Bethlehem Steel, always people from Puerto Rico, from some place, they come to work. It's like family, one family comes first, 00:01:00they bring their whole family. It was a good place to raise the kids. It's not too expensive like some states, like New Jersey, New York. So now it's still good to live here. And more jobs, like me, I walk to my job, I don't need to drive, I don't need to spend money on gas. We know each other, the neighborhood, we know everybody. Most of the people on the South Side.

Around the South Side? No. Not right now, because the crimes have increased here, around here. Now, to be raising kids around here, it's not a safe place like it used to be. Like the park is not safe. We don't have a lot of good things for the kids around here. So, like gang members now is big. Is not safe, 00:02:00it's not a safe place to raise kids around here right now.

It was different. My kids--where they go to school--we have a Boys and Girls Club. They have a lot of after school programs, like the neighborhood center. Kids go there. Now we don't have that anymore. So now, the kids, after they finish school, they don't have a place to go. What are they doing? They go to the park, they hanging together, maybe with the wrong crowd. And I see the effect on the South Side.

I was not happy with a casino to come here. But they promised that it's gonna 00:03:00help the neighborhood, but I don't see the help. They say they help for Broughal, to build Broughal, but that's.. from that, I don't see the benefits. They build the casino around here. They don't help the community.

They help a little bit, but I think they could do more. With the money they've been doing in the casino, like to create more programs for the kids around here on South Side.

If Sands Casino worked with Lehigh University and the City of Bethlehem, we could have a good place for the kids to go after school, like a good after school program. A sport, something they can do after they finish school. We don't have that around here because economic reasons. They cut a lot of programs. Lehigh do some after school programs, but they cannot do alone. With 00:04:00all the tax money they make at the casino, they can go through the neighborhood. We can build better young people in this community. They can build kids with education to help them. They can go to places like [Lehigh]. How are you going to send the kids if they don't have the education they're supposed to? Give it to them.      

Because even the mall they built, that's not for the people for the community. They don't have the stores like the people around here can go and buy. So you can tell that's not for us. That's for the people that come from someplace else, they can go to gamble. That's a high standard mall. You don't build a high standard mall in a place like this; you build something for the community, too.

I think they do some because everybody wants to look good, but I don't think 00:05:00they do enough. They can do more. You can give it to me for Christmas, a couple clothes and stuff, but that's not what we need. We need to see where that money goes, the tax money. Don't give me once a year: a pair of shoes and clothes for Christmas. I don't need that. I need something so I can raise good kids in a good community like this--the South Side. Because we're poor, that doesn't mean we have to end up in jail or on the street.

'Look the casino is here on the South Side. I can tell you what benefits we're gonna get from them-- I know you help, but the help we expect is not the one you give to us. Be more involved with what's going on around here. The money 00:06:00can go to, like I say, more programs for the children. Because it's not only one person to raise the kids, it's a whole village to raise the kids. The program you offer them, that's what you can do.' That's what I would say to them.

I hope the new owner they have, he can get out from his office and look around and see where the money--the tax money-- they make over there goes. If that really benefits where the casino is. If we work together, we can build a better