By Joel Thurtell
At the same time Matty’s trying to shaft the people of Detroit out of their Riverside Park so he can build a second Ambassador Bridge, the Mogul of Grosse Pointe, aka Troll Under the Bridge, is hassling the owner and operator of the 23rd Street Bait and Tackle store near the approach to the bridge.
Manuel “Matty” Moroun, billionaire trucking magnate and Michigan’s richest man, needs this bait shop for his megalomaniac plans to expand his private bridge.
This is a bridge virtually nobody wants.
This is a bridge he’s begun to build without required U.S. Coast Guard permits.
This is a bridge impossible to finish because he doesn’t own Riverside Park, where the bridge’s support piers would have to be set.
Unless he somehow filibusters the city into selling Riverside Park, his bridge is literally dead before it gets to the water.
Still, he pushes on, and the bait shop is another of his victims.
In the past months, he’s used heavy equipment to tear up a public street leading to the bait shop, shutting off access for customers. The owner refuses to sell the store, so Matty is trying to take it anyway by showing his muscle.
Muscle is what he’s used to take over Riverside Park, fencing off one section and shutting down a public boat launch. It is to the city’s credit that it now, belatedly, is trying to evict this money-hungry trespasser.
But JOTR reader Hugh McNichol points out the city is “currently powerless” to regulate its own streets because of a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that says the Detroit International Bridge Co., aka Ambassador Bridge, is a “federal instrumentality” and so outside city authority. McNichol points out that’s “a ruling the city will be challenging in federal court as part of [bait shop owner] Mr. Lubienski’s suit against the city). Â Subsequent to that ruling, the district court judge issued an injunction against the city from interfering with any activity the DIBC undertakes to expand or modify its plaza.”
The Riverside Park issue is not part of the court injunction, so the city is trying to kick Matty out.
To show support for the store, state Rep. Rashida Tlaib is organizing a protest march Saturday, May 9 at 2:30 p.m.
“Please come out and support this business that has been so negatively impacted by the closure of 23rd Street,” Tlaib wrote in an e-mail.
Marchers will meet at Delray Senior Pavilion, 275 W. Grand Blvd. and proceed to the bait shop and Riverside Park.
I can’t be there, but would like to hear reports from marchers about what happens.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
