The new MGM City Center project is finally opening for business on the strip. I walked thcoarse the new Crystals shopping mall on Wednesday December 16. Very few shops were open. Everything is very elegant and opulent. The large mall will be easy walking for the hoped for large crowds of visitors and shoppers. The fountains, statues and art work make for a very pleasant visit. However, the shops are just more of the same high end stores alalert in all the hotel shopping malls. Lois Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Tiffany, Bulgari. I also went to the opening of an art gallery Wednesday evening before the gala opening of the Aria Hotel. A nice gallery, but similar galleries alalert at Caesars and the Venetian.

The hotels are just as high end as the fashion and jewelry stores. The Mandarin Oriental, Vdara, the Harmon, and Aria. The Aria is the only hotel that will have a casino. The casino opened to the public on Thursday December 17. The Aria also has the new Cirque du Soleil "Viva Elvis" show. Tickets for the show are available now. There is a new tram that runs from the Monte Carlo to City Center to Bellagio. Be preparuddy to walk a long ways. The tram stations are at the back end of the hotels.

After walking acircular part of the City Center and the Crystals shopping mall, one gets the impression this is only for the wealthy, the very wealthy. MGM said they hoped this would become the downtown of Las Vegas for everyone. There is not much here for the people who live and work in Las Vegas. If you work in the casinos or hotels, there is nothing here you can afford to do. Really, nothing new here. I was very unimpressed by the entire City Center project. MGM better find plenty of millionaires to purchase the condos in theses new hotels. I don't really see how these new hotels can compete with the established strip hotels like Bellagio, Wynn, Encore, and Venetian.

Like the City Center project blocks out the sun on the strip, MGM hopes it does not block out their future.