RIVERSIDE PARK BOAT LAUNCH -- As seen from canoe May 1, 2010, with Ambassador Bridge. Joel Thurtell photo.
By Joel Thurtell
PADDLING AT RIVERSIDE -- Curt Guyette in bow, Karen Fonde in center of canoe with blogger JT in stern just put in at Riverside Park boat launch. First boat launched from this public ramp in nearly nine years. Joel Thurtell photo.
We put a boat into the Detroit River at Riverside Park on Saturday afternoon, May 1, 2010.
It felt great!
Thanks to Matty Moroun, the billionaire owner of the nearby Ambassador Bridge, no boat had set forth from the public Riverside Park boat launch since before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Matty exploited 9/11 to seize park land adjacent to his bridge, and his henchmen padlocked the boat launch gate and hung a fake “Homeland Security” sign from its chain-link fence.
Sometime in late 2001 or early 2002, Matty’s goons ejected city recreation officials, citing Homeland Security authority which the real Homeland Security people tell me was a complete sham. But although city recreation officials and city lawyers wanted to take Matty to court and eject him, nothing happened while the Matty-supported felon, Kwame Kilpatrick, was mayor of Detroit. Then, with Kwame out of power, one of Matty’s shotgun totin’ goons tried to arrest a blogger (me) for taking pictures at the park and instead set off a chain of events that led us to put a boat into the river at Riverside Park on a windy afternoon in May, 2010.
SHOTGUN TOTIN' GOON
It was the first boat launched from the park in almost nine years.
And, as I say, it felt fantastic.
The boat was a 15-foot Michi-Craft aluminum canoe, the same one used by Detroit Free Press photographer Patricia Beck and me on our five-day, 27-mile odyssey up the Rouge River five years ago.
This time, on May 1, 2010, the canoe’s crew consisted of me, my wife, Karen Fonde, and Metro Times Editor Curt Guyette.
I’d been wanting to launch a boat from this ramp ever since September of 2008, when I learned that Matty had closed the launch shortly after September 11, 2001, citing security concerns for his neighboring Ambassador bridge. Those concerns were bogus. The opposite side of the bridge is accessible, as is the Windsor side in Canada. Matty’s real reason for wanting control of the park is that he needs the land for the bridge he wants to build to replace the aging and decrepit Ambassador.
OH, OH! SECURITY THREAT! BLOGGER APPROACHES MATTY'S BRIDGE IN CANOE! Where's the shotgun totin' goon when you need him? Joel Thurtell photo.
Most people buy the land they want for their construction projects. That didn’t suit Matty. He just took it. His fence still stops people from using part of Riverside Park, even though a judge ordered him to get out.
On September 22, 2008, when I went looking for the boat launch, I found instead one of Matty’s shotgun-totin’ goons, who did the same thing to me that Matty’s thugs did to City of Detroit Recreation Department staffers late in 2001. The goons kicked the city workers out of a public city park.
Matty’s goon tried to arrest me, and I high-tailed it out of the park.
Exactly what Matty wanted.
He thought the park was his.
But hey, the news today is that the city is committed to re-opening the boat launch. This is about more than a boat launch. By investing in Riverside Park, the city is telling Matty he can’t have Riverside Park. And if Matty doesn’t get the park, his dreams of building a new bridge are dead in the water.
CLEANUP AT RIVERSIDE -- Jennifer Roberts, public relations manager for Detroit's Recreation Department, sweeps at Riverside Park boat launch. Joel Thurtell photo.
I’d gotten a tip that recreation staffers would be working on their own time to clean the boat launch on Saturday, May 1. I got excited. Maybe I could put a boat in! Screw Matty and screw his goons! What a thrill it would be to dig my paddle into water at Riverside.
Recreation director Alicia Minter gave me permission to put the canoe in. I did not ask Matty.
Oh, by the way, I can’t help mentioning that Pat Beck and I co-authored a book about our Rouge adventure. It’s Up the Rouge! Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River, published in 2009 by Wayne State University Press. It was named a Michigan Notable Book for 2010 by the Library of Michigan.
I bought the canoe later from the canoe livery that rented it to us back in 2005.
OH, MY GOD! IT'S ANOTHER JOURNALIST IN A CANOE HEADING FOR MATTY'S BRIDGE! Metro Times Editor Curt Guyette checks Ambassador bridge security from canoe. Joel Thurtell photo.
As I chatted Saturday with recreation staffers doing volunteer cleanup work at the launch, who should show up but Curt Guyette of the Metro Times. Curt, who has done terrific coverage of Moroun, was game to go in the canoe. Curt, Karen and I paddled the little metal shell through the launch area and into the river.
Into, I might add, a strong wind from the south that was raising swells far higher than the low freeboard of a 15-foot canoe loaded with three passengers.
I was frankly glad to nose back into the placid waters of the launch area. Why, I didn’t even pull out my camera to shoot photos of the toilet paper-encrusted sewage outfall that stands beside the launch outlet.
As we loaded the canoe back atop my car, more and more volunteer workers were showing up to rake, pull weeds and haul junk wood out of the launch area. My photos from the water show lots of driftwood and flotsam in the launch area. That was gone later in the afternoon.
Community organizer Joe Rashid works on fixing Riverside Park ballfield. Joel Thurtell photo.
At the Riverside park extension nearby, Joe Rashid with friends and relatives, were putting a new surface on the softball field near the fenced-off park land Matty still holds illegally. I’ll be writing more about this effort.
There will be another work party on Saturday, May 15, 2010, so if you’re someone who likes parks or wants to put a boat in at Riverside, here’s a chance to help the city with this noble project.
Recreation officials told me the city plans to spend $250,000 to replace the two docks, install new LED floodlights, replace the restrooms and renovate an office, replace benches, a water fountain and trash cans and paint the railing. Later in the summer, the city will seek state grant money to repave the parking lot.
Meantime, while Matty sends flocks of lawyers to court in a try to endlessly stall a government-proposed international bridge, work will proceed through the summer so the boat launch can re-open in August. It would remain open through the remainder of the boating season this year. Next year, it would open in the spring for a full boating season.
RAMP INSPECTORS -- The boat launch works. Karen Fonde and Joel Thurtell. Curt Guyette photo.
AFTER THE TRIP -- Curt Guyette and Joel Thurtell after checking Riverside boat ramp. Karen Fonde photo.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com
I usually go in there when I stop at Westcott and raft alongside the Hogan or their work float. I didn’t have any trouble last time I was there, but the time before the Bridge Company flipped out and called Homeland Security and Border Patrol. Makes you wonder if they ever get tired of the Bridge Company’s bs as well….But they still came out.
Nice work. Used to play ball at Riverside and always thought that it was “homeland security” who appropriated the easement under the bridge with that fence bisecting the infield. Ha! Kudos to Joe Rashid and the People League too. From Cleveland, with regards.