- ERIC SANDY/SCENE
- Construction is under way outside Horseshoe Casino
Opaque fencing has swallowed the Prospect Avenue corner of Horseshoe Casino, meaning only one thing: That goofy skywalk is coming.
Thanks to the exclusively-minded planning of folks like Dan Gilbert, Mayor Frank Jackson and Ward 3 City Councilman Joe Cimperman (repping downtown, Ohio City, Tremont, et al.), the skywalk will connect what city leaders champion as the savior of downtown economic development (gambling!) with the parking garage located across the street. It also completes the cycle that began when Rock Gaming totally altered its original development plans and knocked down the Columbia Building to erect that very parking garage.
From a June 26 Scene article:
On the surface, the whole skywalk thing is kinda innocuous. But greased by city stakeholders and championed by those precious few, it’s yet another step in a corporate catering direction. Really, the crowd using Horseshoe’s valets and the casino’s impending skywalk are a fringe and suburban bunch. But the red carpet almost makes it seem like this is Cleveland’s most prized demographic.
Now that the job is on the clock and under way, the city’s all-in bet on casino revenue (which has been shaky at best since opening) and the glamor of 20th-century civic development is on full display. At its heart, though, this skywalk business can be chalked up to a vast disparity between city leaders’ overzealous use of the rubber stamp and the vocalized desires of downtown residents (at the very least a willful minority, though dissenting chatter online and IRL seems fairly widespread).
More than 500 people signed a petition to halt the project. That effort, helmed by Cleveland resident Joe Baur and OurCLE, fell on deaf ears down at City Hall and within the gilded confines of the casino.
The whole thing – all $5.6 million of it – is slated to be completed by Jan. 1, according to General Manager Marcus Glover.
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2013.
What does “exclusively-minded” mean?
it means they don’t want people to go anywhere except inside the casino. people will park their car, walk above Cleveland in the tube, and into the money-extraction pit without actually setting foot on a city street/sidewalk. basically an urban planners nightmare.
Who cares? I like the skywalk. It will keep you out of the weather. It’s not like you walk past any business on the way to casino. Except maybe the hot dog guy. Also will protect people from the undesirables on the street.
People care because healthy cities have people other than the so-called “undesirables” walking on the street. Ontario St and Prospect Ave are lined with businesses… check ’em out.
Exclusivity-minded, I think.
The only votes that count are the feet of the pedestrians… Let’s see, I parked in the casino’s garage and I am going to the casino. Should I go down to street level, obstruct traffic and risk my safety mixing with automobiles and buses in all elements, or should I walk across the bridge to the casino. If I am going somewhere else afterwards (Indians Game, Cavs Game, Concert at The Q. Hilarities, House of Blues, etc.), I can cut either through Tower City to avoid the elements or walk down Prospect , Euclid, Ontario. etc.
the question is not whether the casino should have a walkway (they should); the real question is why other downtown properties do not have connecting weatherproof access for pedestrians. Go to Toronto, Minneapolis or even Cincinnati, and you can walk and connect with major portions of the downtowns in those cold weather cities without needing to be outside much. Tower City, the Arcades (Colonial and Old etc.) were great pedestrian walkways with local businesses and commercial activity. Every casino is designed to keep players in, and our casino will likely kill some or even many competing restaurants in the immediate neighborhood. The promises of downtown resurrection were largely over inflated, but the walkway, as many readers pointed out, will not increase the damage the casino does to local businesses.
If I am in the Casino parking garage I came to gamble. I did not come to shop, go to a movie, go to a comedy show, or an Indians game. Therefor keeping me out of the weather and away from the beggars, thieves and general scumbags is a good thing. Grandma from Bay Village that likes to play slots feels the same way. Also Public Square looks like monkey island these days.
It’s about time Cleve entered the 21 st Century!
500 hundred people signed a petition against the skywalk? 500 a-holes who probably wont visit the casino anyways! this skywalk will help guarantee that people visit the casino during the winter months! bout time!
wasn’t part of the reasoning why we needed this casino so bad was to bring people (and their dollars) to the city? it seems like the casino is doing a pretty good job of isolating people from the city so they only spend their dollars in the casino. shocking, i know, who would have thought.
Does anyone else remember Gilbert claiming this was a “temporary” casino while a new permanent casino is built? Still believe that? That seems unlikely with the skywalk going in.
If you know anything about gambling or even have got at any time arrived foot or so inside a casino, it’s rather obvious that the odds are usually simply the property. Which is, if you don’t take place to have an accomplice operating in the casino that’s capable that will help you defraud. freeonlinegamblingcasino