Card Club Seen as Business Boon or Community Curse

I have lived in the city of Cypress for 15 years. Cypress, like other California cities, may be a city in crisis, as Councilwoman Joyce C. Nicholson states in her letter to the Los Angeles Times (May 8), but the “Derby Club,” once known to us as Lloyd Arnold’s Cypress Card Club (also known as a 24-hour gambling club), is not the answer.

As Nicholson and Mayor Gail H. Kerry get more embroiled in the card club issue, they ignore the most likely outcome of such an enterprise: Surely it will mean an uncomfortable dependency by the council and the city on an undertaking that is entirely devoted to making money for its backers.

Mr. Arnold is trying to slide his club down our throats and into our city, making all the promises of a better life that he thinks we can swallow. Can we really believe that such a club, with all its various hangers-on of crime, could be Nicholson’s vision of a benevolent, harmless contributor to our community? Something to be proud of?

Could we still be a city anxious to attract good, enterprising, hard-working and contributing families to our area?

Nicholson ignores the full police report on the increase in crime likely if Measure A is approved; denies the prospect of lowered property values; can’t understand that increased police protection would be necessary throughout Cypress (and our neighboring cities), not just at the racetrack and card club grounds; and ignores the inevitable increase of traffic on our streets.

Please, Ms. Nicholson, take a look at Arnold’s half-truths and misrepresentations and listen with a better ear to our objections to the card club. You underrate us if you think we are just a group of puritanical non-gamblers, as you suggest.

MARY I. KRUEGER

Cypress

I applaud Stanton City Councilman Joe V. Harris for his efforts to bring revenues into this city.

I have been a Stanton businessman for more than seven years, and I have to say that operating a business these days is pretty tough. Councilman Harris has taken a stand for Stanton by endorsing the proposed card club (Measure A). I too support Measure A.

Stanton desperately needs more money to run this city without further taxing the businesses that provide jobs, revenues and opportunities for the residents. Higher taxes would mean killing the Golden Goose. Businesses would be forced to close down, and jobs would be lost.

On the other hand, a card club will bring in more business to Stanton. This means more jobs and more city revenues, without taxing those who live and work here. Councilman Harris understands this. I hope that a majority of Stanton residents understand this and vote “yes” on the card parlor proposal.

For those who oppose the club, I suggest that they come up with a better way to raise $2 million to $3 million annually and bring jobs to Stanton residents. I hope they have a plan to keep Stanton out of bankruptcy.

JOE ROJAS

Stanton