Bounce, Matty, bounce!

By Joel Thurtell

Rubber.

That’s what Matty’s bridge application was made of.

And the Coast Guard bounced his request to build a new bridge alongside his decrepit Ambassador span right back to the Grosse Pointe trucking tycoon.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Coast Guard told the billionaire he didn’t stand a chance of getting permission to build his bridge “as long as he remains in conflict with the City of Detroit over rights to land near the bridge site.”

“Moroun has feuded for years with the city and other parties over rights to property near the bridge site,” according to the Free Press.

That’s the paper’s laconic and coy way of summarizing the reporting it failed to do — and still won’t do — on the fight between Manuel “Matty” Moroun and the city over whether he could build his bridge on land he didn’t own.

The Free Press has constructed its own bridge over reality, a pile of facts that, for some reason, it just can’t bear to print. The Ambassador, for some reason, is a bridge too far for the good ol’ Freep.

Rashida Tlaib, the Democratic lawmaker from Southwest Detroit who has stood up to Matty, had this to say about the Coast Guard’s trashing of Matty’s bridge app:

“This is an unbelievable victory for the residents of Southwest Detroit. The Ambassador Bridge Company stole Riverside Park and a city street from our community, cut corners and disrespecting our right to breathe, and put our natural resources, families and neighborhoods at risk – all in the hopes of increasing their profits at Southwest Detroit’s expense by building a second bridge. I have always said that a massive project like this needs to follow all federal, state and local processes. What doesn’t work is trying to walk all over the little people and assuming you’ll get your way if you throw enough money around. I’m so proud of our residents for standing up to a powerful, billion-dollar mega-corporation, sticking with our fight and working together to keep our kids, families and neighborhoods safe.”

As readers of JOTR, Metro Times, The Windsor Star,  Crain’s, Forbes, The Detroit News and other media are well aware, Matty has been squatting on city property for years, hoping nobody would say anything till he’d completed his new bridge. Then it would be too late. Hah-hah, would have been Matty’s response as he ka-chinged up more billions in truck and car fares with his Detroit bridge monopoly.

In the past half-year, two judges have ordered Matty to get off two different pieces of city land that he tried to seize.

Turns out billionaires have to behave somewhat like the rest of us.

You squat on somebody else’s land, you get the boot.

Several years ago, Matty seized part of Riverside Park next door to his aging Ambassador Bridge. He needs the park land for the “twinned” new bridge he wants to build. The footprint of his bridge, which he started to build without permits, required him to own part of the city park. A whole truckload of reporting has been done about this, sans input from the Freep.

A judge told Matty last September to get off the seized park land. Matty’s appealing that one.

In another case, Matty built a gas station and duty-free store on another parcel of city property. Another judge told him to raze the buildings and vacate the land. Of course, Matty’s contesting that ruling, too.

Odd how the details of these cases don’t show up in Michigan’s biggest newspaper.

Moroun has feuded for years with the city and other parties over rights to property near the bridge site. 

For the Free Press, Matty is a story too far.

Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com