Chicago’s new casino was sold to this city on the grounds that here would come a world-class resort facility, replete with hundreds of hotel rooms, a dozen or more distinguished restaurants, bars and lounges, artworks and fountains, a 3,000-seat theater for shows and musical acts, shimmering exterior architecture, riverwalks and well-paying jobs and local business opportunities galore.

The prime target customers were not to be locals but well-heeled visitors. This long-awaited casino was to be another sharp arrow in the city’s tourism quiver, a way to better compete with the likes of Orlando.

For all those benefits, those with misgivings, especially in Black churches, were told by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to pipe down, and, for the most part, they did.