By Joel Thurtell
Matty Moroun’s “bridge to nowhere” is gone.
The state of Michigan tore down Pier 19, the tangible sign of Matty’s “plan” to build a new privately-owned “twin” to his antique international bridge across the Detroit River.
Now, Matty wants voters in November to tell Gov. Snyder the state and Canada and private investors can’t built a public bridge to replace Matty’s monopoly span, the Ambassador Bridge.
What is the connection between the demise of Pier 19 and Matty’s ballot proposal?
Well, when was the last time you heard Matty talk about “twinning” his antediluvian Ambassador Bridge?
Matty’s “plan” to build a replacement for the aging Ambassador never was more than a puff of smoke.
Pier 19 was a bluff, matched by an equivalent piece of concrete propaganda on the Canadian side, where another set of supports ends abruptly because Matty lacked permission from Canada to complete this literal bridge to pointlessness.
On the US side, the city of Detroit owns the land Matty needed to complete his new bridge in Detroit. He tried to swipe the property after 9/11.
He got away with it, too.
Until somebody blew the whistle on his scam.
Matty needed Riverside Park if he was going to build his bridge. He stole part of the park in 2001. He built a fence around public park property, hung out his “Homeland Security” signs and was on track to bluff his bridge across the river. He had the felon mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, in his pocket. For seven years, nobody said a word.
Except, of course, for those pesky Canadians.
They just don’t seem to read Matty’s script, do they?
And this blog.
So what, then was the “twin”?
Nothing more than a card in the deck Matty had rigged?
Or was there a time when he might have bullied that bridge into reality?
Now, the state has razed Pier 19.
End of charade.
Matty can’t bluster about his twin.
So now he’s floating another brazen idea: Enlist the people to do his dirty work.
Bluff voters into upholding his family’s monopoly over traffic between the US and Canada at Detroit.
Dupe voters into rejecting the public bridge.
Wow! Wouldn’t that fix the uppity governor who tangled with a billionaire?
If the voters back Matty, he’d be sitting pretty atop his monopoly.
No new bridge of any kind.
What does he care?
Old bridge or new, he rakes in the cash.
What can he lose? He’s a billionaire. He can afford to buy the ballots of Michigan voters just as he bought the votes — or non-votes — of Michigan legislators.
Just as the “twin” was flim-flam, so is Matty’s threat of a referendum. First, how’s he gonna get 300,000 people to sign petitions? By now, many people know him for the rich faker that he is.
What’s he gonna do — pay people to sign?
At ten bucks a signature, the cost would be three million smackers — a bargain for a billionaire.
Matty knows buying votes is illegal.
Whereas, pumping millions into lying advertisements is perfectly legal.
But frankly, the ballot proposal is just another piece of Moroun legerdemain.
It’s no more real than Pier 19. Matty is scamming.
Playing head games.
He must be desperate. For most of the first decade of this century, he had it all his way. His squatting on Riverside Park — the location for the US end of his bridge of dreams — had gone unremarked by media and thus by the public.
Now, he’s very much in the public eye. His only hope is to pervert public perceptions.
Matty needs to fool the public — and especially the media — into believing that voters’ disapproval of a public bridge in November would be the last word. “No” means no.
The reality is that “no” in a referendum does not mean “no” to a public bridge.
Whether it’s “yes” or “no,” it gives Matty something to sue about and keep courts and journalists blathering about for years.
Every day, week, month and year of monopoly survival he can generate for his antiquated bridge is another day, week, month and year of tolls he rakes in from a poorly-maintained, overworked bridge that should have been replaced years ago.
The reality, though, is all in perception.
Just as Gov. Snyder doesn’t need the Legislature to approve a new bridge, so there is no need to wait for the outcome of a ballot proposal that may never occur.
The deadline for ballot petitions is July 7.
According to my JOTR Weatherscope, July 7 will be a fine day to break ground for the New International Trade Crossing.
By November, the governor would have his own version of Pier 19 to show voters.
Unlike Matty, Canadians would be hard at work on their side of the bridge.
The outcome of Matty’s vote?
Irrelevant.
