Originally Posted by
DetBill
R8R for some clairity perhaps. yes. I live across the freeway bridge from Greektown. and was/am a daily runner/walker/socializer there since 1991. The amount of foot traffic has increased enormously since pre Casino days. Many , many people I know of go to Greektown now, for gambling , and do have dinner there, something they never did before. Unfortunately, the type of patron [[ as mentioned in the article) has changed, and do not seem to really want as many ethnic restaurants. Many of the Tiger and Lions fans also make the trek over to Greektown because of the Casinos after the games, just take a walk with them after and see the stream of people headed to the Casinos , and inturn a percentage eat in Greektown [[ take a look at Pizza Papalis and Pegusus and the jerseys worn after any given event.) Many of these people would have little interest in running over to Greektown if no Casino was there. It is no secret many casino goers do still go out onto the restaurants and bars. However, they dont seem to want the Greek ethnic restaurants as much. The Casino itself does not excel in restaurant food and purposely so. Take this whole element out and you would have had a materially deader greektown and a increasingly changing night clientele. Many suburbanites I know of have said they had no interest in going to Greektown whatsoever prior to the Casino as they were increasingly feeling very unsafe. Also, Police personnel [[ two chief of police also since 1998) who live in our neighborhood have consistently stated that the streets of Greektown just prior to Casino development had increasing crime . Unfortunately , there were "pools of blood" as you coined, several times with some gang related shootings, I had the luxury of witnessing some in 1999. Auto break ins were becoming alarmingly high, this was borne out by police attendees at our neighborhood crime meetings. Crime has actually decreased per police stats due to increased security being present. There was no intention of spreading it on to "thick". For those of us who live in the direct area and found Greektown to be a alarmingly dangerous place to walk over and visit any given night, the Casino actually brought some stability to the streets with increased security present. It very sad to see the flavor of Greektown go, but as mentioned , Id take this anyday compared to the direction it was going in the late 1990s.