By Joel Thurtell
I wish I had the scoop on what Matty and the city of Detroit will be doing with that gem on the Detroit River known as Riverside Park.
I still have not heard back from city PR folk after I asked them whether, as rumor has it, the city is bargaining with Manuel “Matty” Moroun to sell him Riverside Park.
But I have been told by someone who knows the issues well that there are no dealings afoot regarding a possible sale of Riverside Park to Matty or anyone else.
I’m told that selling the park would be a bureaucratic nightmare, because there are trust restrictions connected to the park’s title. Unraveling the legalities would be complex.
Again, I was assured there are no talks going on about a sale of the park.
But I was also told that Matty would have a hard time achieving his plan to “twin” his beloved money-maker, the Ambassador Bridge, without owning the park. That’s because his plans reportedly show part of the new span occupying space in what is now the city-owned park.
I don’t doubt that Matty covets the park. Over the past few years, he’s treated the public park as if it already belonged to him. He fenced off a section of the park, posted phony “Homeland Security” no trespassing signs, and used a section of the park where once there were trees and basketball hoops as a private dumping ground for his construction junk.
He turned a shady park into Alley Cat Matty’s Litter Box.
In court back in December, Matty’s lawyer assured the court that the bridge tycoon had removed construction junk and cleaned up the area he’d been dumping in. But the lawyer claimed Matty needs parts of the park for security reasons, although there seem to be no such concerns about security on the Canadian side.
Several years ago, Matty padlocked the public boat launch and put up another of his bogus “Homeland Security” signs warning the public to stay our of “his” park.
Correction: The people’s park.
Now, the city is trying to evict Matty from a park that didn’t belong to him in the first place.
I reported on this situation back in September, after one of Matty’s shotgun-totin’ goons ordered me off public property in the name of the federal Border patrol. When I told him as a rent-a-cop he had no authority on public property, he chatted with somebody over his handie-talkie radio and told me he’d called the Border Patrol. Further, he ordered me to stay put till the Border patrol got there and when I took a hike, he tried to block my car with Matty’s pickup.
I had a few objections to his behavior.
What was a private guard doing with a shotgun in the cab of a pickup truck?
What authority did this rent-a-cop have over a citizen in a public park?
What right did this slug have to run a pickup truck over the lawn of a public park, anyway? If he did that in Hines park, Wayne County police would hand him a ticket.
What right did this knot-head have to detain me in the name of the Border Patrol,given that he is not an officer of the federal government but a privately-hired, privately paid security guard?
When I tried to report these matters, a Detroit police desk officer told me to get lost.
“Take it up with the Morouns,” the cop told me.
The hearing into Matty’s squatter’s possession of Riverside Park was postponed last year and was scheduled for last week. It was postponed again and I’m told it will take place in Detroit’s 36th District Court on May 6.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmal.com
