A Stop Horseracing Article from All-Creatures.org

The Redevelopment of Shuttered Tracks Is a Beautiful Thing

FROM HorseracingWrongs.org
November 2023

On our list of shuttered tracks is Scarborough Downs, an erstwhile harness venue in Maine that closed in 2020 after 70 years of animal abuse.

To paraphrase an old legal adage, if you have the facts, pound the facts; if you have the truth, pound the truth; if you have neither, pound the table and yell like hell. We have the facts, the truth; they—the racing industry and its slow-witted apologists—are yelling, or distracting, like hell. As the desperation mounts, they search for something, anything, to hold on to; lately, it’s all about “jobs,” or more specifically, what will become of all their hard-working folk should we, the evil activists, get our wish and horseracing is defunded (has its subsidies stripped away). Well.

Here are some of the racetracks that have closed since the turn of the century, and the redevelopment that followed. New jobs. New business. New tax revenue. New, in-demand replacing old, no-longer-viable—the American economic system as it was designed to function. And moral progress, to boot.

On our list of shuttered tracks is Scarborough Downs, an erstwhile harness venue in Maine that closed in 2020 after 70 years of animal abuse. Last month, the Portland Press Herald ran a short piece on the redevelopment of that property, opening with this:

“The Downs will break ground Wednesday on a new town center at the heart of the 525-acre former racetrack property. [T]he first phase of town center development will include businesses, boutiques, restaurants, housing, tree-lined sidewalks, walking trails and recreational greenspace.”

Part of the tract has already been redeveloped, including a brand-new Costco, set to open this month. Again, new, better jobs; new, higher tax revenue; new, desperately-needed housing. So what else you got, racing industry?

A few pics taken by HW of the shuttered Scarborough:

And some of the already-completed housing. Now, doesn’t that look a whole lot better?

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