Dear Matty,…

BYOW

Bring Your Own Water to the softball game at 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at Riverview Extension Park in Detroit. Park is on 23rd Street a block south of Fort. Game is meant to assert public right to use a park where Ambassador BRidge tycoon Matty Moroun’s guards hassle people away.

[donation]

By Joel Thurtell

Detroit's Riverside Park near Ambassador Bridge. Benches line the walkway alongside the Detroit River. You can watch boats on the river and see Windsor. There is a boat launch, too, but it's been closed by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun. Joel Thurtell photo.

From: Joel Thurtell, Former Journalist

To: Matty Moroun, Billionaire

Dear Matty,

I want to thank your assistant, Mr. Dan Stamper, for being so kind as to send me a letter criticizing me for defending the City of Detroit’s formerly public Riverside Park, parts of which you have seized. Mr. Stamper also takes the park itself to task for not being more inviting to people who might want to use it as a public park, though he denies what I believe to be true, which is that people stay away for fear of being hassled by your guards the way one of them harassed me.

I must say, Mr. Stamper was very perceptive in his letter when he referred to me as a “former journalist.” Based upon my observations of the REAL journalists, as in staff writers for the two Detroit dailies, if I were one of them and not a former journalist, I never would have written my story last week headlined, “Please don’t look at these pictures!”

REAL Detroit journalists don’t have time to write about you, Matty. I understand that their reporters are “too busy” to write about you.

But my status as a journalist or not isn’t the reason I’m writing to you.

I’m writing to you because I assume that whatever Mr. Stamper put in his letter to me reflects what you told him to write. I thought I would eliminate the middle man.

First, despite your claim that you took over parts of Riverside Park and blocked access to its

This chain-link gate blocks access to the former public boat ramp at Detroit's Riverside Park. The fence was placed there by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun. Joel Thurtell photo.

formerly public boat launch at the behest of the federal Department of Homeland Security, I understand from city officials that you closed the park several months after 9/11 and without authority from the federal government. I would be interested in seeing the orders or authority you received calling for closing off part of the park. can’t find anyone in Homeland Security who knows anything about your closing of Riverside Park.

Second, your long description of how poorly maintained the park is, and how few people use it, is a tip of your hand, Matty. It tells me that you have some other use in mind for the park and plan to take over more of it. You have already proven that you can block public access to the basketball courts in Riverside Park Extension and to the boat launch at the main Riverside Park, and the city won’t object. What’s next?

What does a billionaire want with a little park in a city full of people who can use every scrap of green space they can find? Add to that the beautiful view you get from the actual river side of Riverside Park, and I’m at a loss as to why you would want to take that away.

You know what? I think you secretly agree with me. I see a hint of altruism in Mr. Stamper’s letter to me.

The altruism I see is your offer of free bottled water to people who plan to play softball in Riverside Extension Park at 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 23rd Street a block south of Fort.

I know my real journalist friends will accuse me of being a naive former journalist. But I believe I sense in that offer of free bottled water a sign of your own desire to give something back to the community.

Oh, sure, it’s only bottled water, and some will say the offer itself is meant as a big raspberry to the organizers of the softball game, and to its players.

But I can’t believe that someone as wealthy and powerful as you are would have such an insatiable appetite for taking over other people’s land that you wouldn’t stop and reflect that maybe now is the time to quit doing that. Maybe now is the time for you to give something real and tangible to the people of Detroit.

Instead of delivering bottles of water, why don’t you send some workers to dismantle that fence at Riverside Extension Park? Send some trucks to relocate the gravel so people can play basketball again. Send  guard to unlock those padlocks at the entrance to the boat ramp.

You would actually be fooling people, if that is what you like to do. You would be doing something that is totally unexpected. You would be giving the park back to the city before they can sue you to take it back. They will be astonished if you do that.

But you could astound them even more. How about — with the city’s permission, of course — giving that ball diamond a do-over, maybe even setting up some bleachers? How about building a decent bathroom with running water and flush toilets so people wouldn’t have to use that porta-john?

How about re-paving the boat launch and putting some nice new docks in?

How about donating some picnic tables and maybe some charcoal grills, too?

Be a billionaire with heart, Matty.

What do you say?

Yours truly,

Joel Thurtell, Former Journalist

Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com