It’s mid-morning on a weekday about a block from the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland. Along East Fourth Street, restaurant workers are setting their outdoor dining tables for the coming lunch crowd. Shannon Bizka manages Chinato, a trendy, white tablecloth restaurant on the corner.

Bizka:  “There hasn’t been a big customer increase, I definitely see more people walking on the streets, (though) not necessarily frequenting the restaurant.

Niedermier:  “So you may be getting more walk-in customers?  

Bizka:  “We’ve definitely has an increase in walk-ins over our reservations. And there’s the noticeable increase in foot traffic on the streets. And anything that brings new people to the city is great for Cleveland.”

Nearly half a million
Since opening, Horseshoe Casino officials say attendance has hit about 470,000, well ahead of the 420,000 people they estimated would come have come to downtown to gamble each month. To help ensure that the casino will not strangle existing dining and entertainment venues, the casino offers gamblers comps to visit other establishments. Chinato is not part of that program, but John
Q’s Steakhouse a block north is. Manager Alana Rego says business in up 30-percent since the casino opened May 14^th.

Rego:  “Our dinner crowd has been much better. ... Nightly we have people coming over from the casino to use their comps and it’s been very positive for us. If you look around on a Friday or Saturday night in Cleveland, it’s so much busier that in the past. We get people coming in off the street, some before they go to the casino and some after. We haven’t seen a problem with the parking yet. We’ve added valet, so that’s how we’re going to remedy that situation right off the bat.”

Immediately after the casino opened, some downtown workers and residents voiced concerns about parking shortages because of the crowds. Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman represents downtown. He says complaints about the casino have been minimal, while a new attitude has overtaken his ward.

Key to the city's new direction
Cimperman:  “While the long lines of waiting hours and hours to get in have certainly subsided, there are still a lot of people coming down and the weekends are picking up. The people I’ve talked to say they’ve seen say they’re seeing a real sense of happiness, like it’s fun to be downtown.
"A friend said on Saturday there were people going back and forth to the casino and Warehouse District or East Fourth Street, and they seem to be in a really good mood. It’s a big attraction and huge construction project completed and now with medical mart and the Flats East Bank and Innerbelt Bridge being coming as well, I think a lot of people are anticipating more activity.”

Niedermier:  “Have you heard any complaints about a lack of parking from downtown residents or workers?”

Cimperman:  “No, residents say they haven’t seen that. I think the idea for where parking would go has accommodated it. And we’re not a cow town, we have a lot of parking options. We’re had no problems in the past where the Indians and Browns have had games along with a major concert on the same night. And, there’s an increase in charter buses bringing people to the casino and parking outside of downtown. So there hasn’t been a parking problem for people coming downtown to do business. The parking situation could change in the winter when more people are driving to work, but we’re haven’t seen a problem yet.”

Niedermier:  “Talk about the expected synergy between the casino and medical mart and events like Marine Week.”

Cimperman:  “These events and venues bring people downtown. Many of these people haven’t been down in a long time or never been here. They have a good time and see all the progress and they come and they tell other people to check it out.”

Niedermier:  “We’ve heard this before with Gateway, etc.”

Cimperman:  “The difference is we learned from those opportunities how to create sustainability. The Browns Stadium when we built it was going to be the end all be all, the same with Gateway. The casino is open 24 hours a day, it employs people 24 hours a day; the Medical Mart is going to bring hundreds of conventions to town, the Flats East Bank is where people are going to work.
"We’re changing our diet from cotton candy to garbanzo beans. ... It’s a very different sustainability now, and I think you’ll see the benefits of all these development projects for years to come.”
Cleveland’s new convention center and Medical Mart is slated to open next summer.

A few cautions
Despite the smooth start, the early weeks brought some complaints about the tone of some early morning crowds. So the Horseshoe casino posted a new code of conduct. It governs everything from vandalism to loitering and sagging pants. Horseshoe Casino spokeswoman Jennifer Kulczycki.

Kulczycki:  “There were individual situations where people were asked to pull up their pants or put a shirt on over some shirt that might be offensive But nothing significant. Again, the code of conduct was posted to make sure we were transparent in terms of the expectations we have for guests and their behavior.”

Cleveland’s casino has resulted in one causality. The nearby Nautica Charity Poker Festival organization folded earlier this month, citing an 80 percent drop in attendance after the casino opened. The organization had hosted fund-raising poker games for civic groups.

And, about 100 miles away in Erie, Pennsylvania, and, 170 miles away in Detroit, the Cleveland casino is cutting into the number of customer and revenues at casinos there. Detroit is also seeing some of its business go to the recently opened Toledo casino.