Diane Modica
Title: President, East Boston Chamber of Commerce
Age: 65
Experience: 24 years
Diane Modica knows East Boston. Modica, an attorney who moonlights as president of the neighborhood’s chamber of commerce, has lived there for her entire life. She lived there when she was in charge of licensing and regulating entertainment venues across Boston as commissioner of the city’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing. She represented her home turf as a district city councilor, with constituents stretching from Eastie to Beacon Hill and Downtown. Now, as chamber chief, she has been one of the strongest voices in support of bringing a casino resort to Suffolk Downs. Modica sat down with Banker & Tradesman to discuss a gambling operation’s impacts on her community and applying her experiences to the casino battle.
Q: Talk a little about how your background makes you a good fit to lead the charge to bring a casino operation to East Boston.
A: There’s not much I haven’t seen. I regulated [Boston’s] adult entertainment district for nine years, so I saw the good, the bad and the ugly. But I know that good operations and good management makes a world of difference. We did everything from Fenway Park to Boston Garden and Boston College football games. I come at it with a very broad perspective. The role that arts and culture play in any community, it makes a big difference in terms of opportunity for people and adds opportunities for growth, whether it’s jobs or tourism, small business development, vendors and service providers. When I look at the casino project, I can see it from a lot of different perspectives.
Q: What are the biggest benefits a casino would offer, the holes in the neighborhood that it could fill, besides the financial windfall Suffolk Downs has promised?
A: In the community benefits package you see a small business program. We want to see the jobs piece. There are onsite opportunities for at least five to seven businesses that could be retail or restaurants.
Q: Have they said they’d dedicate a certain amount of space to neighborhood businesses?
A: They said they would. They’ll have some high-end restaurants and national ones, but they’ve also said they would have some local restaurateurs who are interested in locating there. They’ve already started outreach to them.
Q: How would a casino resort in Eastie affect its image?
A: People come to East Boston for a number of reasons. We have a stunning waterfront. We have a burgeoning arts community that has created destinations and attractions. We have great food. We have really appealing diversity. All these assets beg for a rebranding campaign, a professional, ground-up rebranding campaign that repositions the community as a go-to destination for families and individuals. We also talked about infrastructure improvements across all of our four business districts. Those could be façade improvements, street lighting, public art, all the stuff that makes storefronts attractive and makes people want to shop there, diversifying our economic base.
Q: What are the challenges still faced in the effort to pass the casino vote on Nov. 5?
A: One of the issues is whether people will do enough reading about the pros and cons rather than just sitting on a premade decision. People need to be open to the benefits. There have been a lot of buzz words out there like addiction, prostitution, traffic impacts. I think all of that has been more than substantially addressed through the legislation, the community benefits agreement and the outreach that’s been done.
Five Changes That Would Transform East Boston
- Substantial and balanced waterfront development integrated into the entire community.
- Rebranding campaign to promote and accentuate the neighborhoods assets.
- Revitalization of commercial districts.
- Providing an array of residential options for current and future residents.
- Continuing to celebrate and strengthen the rich cultural traditions of the neighborhood.
