I think there is no denying that Greektown is less and less Greek. But I'm not sure the casino is killing it. Was Greektown beating back hordes of visitors before the casino came along? If so, why did Trapper's Alley fail? Why was there only 1, relatively small hotel? I think more likely than not, what the casino did was drive up property values & rents, which caused businesses that had lingered for years, with their finances predicated on downtown's real estate depression. That is, rent was miniscule versus what they would pay in a normal downtown. The casino caused the values to go up, and some businesses fell by the wayside. I'm not happy that they closed, but it happens to some extent every time a large enterprise comes to a neighborhood. In Brooklyn, there has been much drama about mom & pop shops being pushed out by high rent with the rise of the Barclay's Center [[new arena for the Nets). It's unavoidable. The other 2 casinos avoided this to an extent by opening in an area void of street level businesses. Greektown was damned if they did, damned if they didn't. We don't want "an island" like MGM or Motor City, but we want no consequences whatsoever for the neighborhood when they open. You can't have the good things if you don't have the bad things. If we want things [[casinos, transit systems, shopping centers, arenas, hotels, etc), they will have an impact on the neighborhood. One of those impacts is that they will drive up some costs including rent for existing businesses [[or make selling out very tempting to those who own). Hopefully, some will remain, and we will like the new things that arrive. All neighborhoods are either in constant flux [[which is healthy) or they are dying. I say, bring on the flux.