By Joel Thurtell
Not much happened in Wednesday’s (May 6, 2009) Detroit 36th District Court hearing into the city’s attempt to evict billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun and his Detroit International Bridge Co., aka “Ambassador Bridge,” from publicly-owned Riverside Park.
Oh sure, Matty’s mouthpiece still claims it was the city, not Matty, that closed the Riverside Park boat launch, even though Matty’s security chief has admitted that the bridge company padlocked the boat launch and placed phony “Homeland Security” signs on the gates.
There seems no argument that Matty’s people fenced off the east section of the park extension eight years ago, replacing play fields and basketball courts with heaps of construction materials.
City attorney John Nader argued before Judge Beverly Hayes-Sipes that the park belongs to the city and the city wants it back. He said the city will remove the fence.
Meanwhile, another lawsuit involving Moroun’s attempt to buy the park has made its way into federal court. According to Nader, the city doesn’t want to sell the park and doesn’t have to. But the U.S. Coast Guard has told Moroun that he can’t build a second span for his bridge unless he owns or controls Riverside Park, part of which he needs for footings for his proposed new bridge.
Most of the discussion Wednesday revolved around Moroun’s demand for a “buffer zone” between the public park and his bridge. His attorney, Jeffrey Stewart, argued there is a need for “security” around the bridge. Attorneys for Matty seemed quite concerned when Nader mentioned tearing down the fence Matty’s henchpersons placed on city property. They talked of “national security” and said they might have to have the court cleared spectators and press if the matter were dicussed in the hearing.
Curiously, on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, there is no “buffer zone” and people and traffic move close to the bridge.
The hearing ended in an agreement that the judge would meet with top bridge and city officials sometime in early June to discuss further whether the city should have access to its own park.
There was virtually no discussion about the public boat launch. In the hallway afterward, I mentioned to attorney Nader that I’d like to launch my motorboat from the public ramp at Riverside Park. Soon.
He suggested I talk to him about that later.
All parties agreed that Matty has been using Riverside Park for eight years. The judge wondered why the city waited so long before trying to evict Moroun.
I suspect there is a reason, but nobody seemed willing to mention it in court. It would be the same reason Matty’s stalling this eviction proceeding: He had the felon and former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, in his hip pocket and hopes he can control a new mayor, too.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
