The surprise announcement that three casinos will be located on the Detroit riverfront, only a few miles from the Grosse Pointes, has residents there strangely nonplussed about what the move will mean for the suburbs nearest to the city's casino district. Protective of their property values and traditionally opposed to any Detroit developments, such as Detroit City Airport, that affect life in the wealthy suburb, Grosse Pointers are the only suburbanites likely to feel a direct impact from the riverfront casino district. And while some in the community acknowledged that there will be an increase in traffic from the Pointes to the Rivertown area, they seem resigned to paying that price for a more developed downtown. I work downtown and it's not likely that I will hit casino traffic at 8 in the morning.
Traffic is a sign of a vibrant city.
Try going to Chicago or New York and see their traffic. Still, Dulworth and other Pointers enjoy one of the quickest commutes to downtown Detroit, choosing between Jefferson or Interstate 94, both already heavily congested during rush hours and major events downtown. The hopscotching nature of the casino sites has made it difficult for traffic planners to predict the impact of an estimated 50,000 gamblers who will use the casinos daily. About 175,000 cars daily now travel I-94 east downtown, and another 16,000 cars travel from Grosse Pointe to Detroit using Jefferson. The strongest opposition to Detroit gambling from the near eastern suburbs has comes from St. Clair Shores residents, who Saturday are set to open a local office of the Coalition to Repeal Proposition E, the 1996 measure approving the casinos.