- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Traffic An Easy Bet For Any Downtown Casino
The one sure thing about a casino potentially coming to downtown Cape Girardeau is traffic.
If the state awards the available license to either of the developers who have expressed interest in our city there will be lots of traffic. That is a foregone conclusion. Bumper-to-bumper Buicks, Cadillacs and Lincolns will be a virtual certainty in downtown when and if a casino opens for business here.
Traffic won't be as big of an issue if the state chooses Cape Casino Company and their development south of the bridge route. While that company is keeping details of its proposal close to the vest, traffic management for their development should be a piece of cake. It should be especially easy if Fountain Street is extended to the south side of the Shawnee Parkway.
However, if that company is chosen I doubt that the rest of downtown will benefit significantly from their presence. Most visitors will breeze off the bridge route, gamble then leave and probably not bother to see the rest of Cape.
But it is another matter when you discuss the Isle of Capri proposal using property controlled by David Knight and Jim Riley.
You can't get to that location without going through some portion of downtown. Unfortunately, there is no single direct path. I can think of a dozen different ways to get from the Shawnee Parkway to their site on North Main, and all of them are either convoluted, easily confusing to someone who hasn't been here before or just plain congested.
I can only imagine the horror if traffic is funneled from the bridge route, east on William and north on Main. Forget about trying to parallel park in the 100 and 200 blocks of North Main if a casino opens just down the street. That will be nearly impossible.
And if that path is designated as the primary route, I would give the clock at the intersection of Main and Themis about a month before some out-of-towners plows into it while trying to figure out if the old Hecht's building has the loosest slots in town.
I think the Isle of Capri site is a great location for a casino because otherwise this parcel of land has very little revenue potential.
But the fact there is no easy or direct way to get from the bridge route to the Isle of Capri's proposed casino location is a problem.
And I am a little curious as to where gamblers might park if they do happen to meander their way thru downtown Cape. The proposal by Isle of Capri includes 1200 gaming positions, a 750-person events center, four restaurants and possibly even a hotel. That doesn't leave a lot of room for parking, especially if you factor in the need for extra large parking spaces that can accommodate your typical Buicks, Cadillacs and Lincolns.
However, I've got an idea that would be beneficial to all parties, provided of course that Isle of Capri is chosen by the state.
Rather than try to shoehorn a bunch of close parking into the area surrounding the North Main site, I think a better location would be on the south side of the bridge route where the Cape Casino Company is proposing their offering. A shuttle service could then run between it and the casino with stops along Main Street. The service could then loop back down Spanish on its return trip, exposing all of these visitors to even more of downtown Cape.
I think this would be a win for everyone.
It would be a win for all downtown businesses with sustained exposure to fresh-faced customers and convenient access. Potential customers would not have to fret about trying to find a parking spot. If they saw an interesting store they might want to shop in or a restaurant they wanted to eat at, they could just hop off at one of the convenient downtown shuttle stops.
It would be a win to the entire area by cleaning up a very industrial looking portion of the city that contrasts oddly with the $54 million River Campus on the north side of the Shawnee Parkway.
And it would be a definite win for out of town visitors with easy, stress-free access to parking right off the bridge route. It would especially be a win for them if the spaces were roomy enough to accommodate all those Buicks, Cadillacs and Lincolns.
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