By Joel Thurtell
Boarded up house in Mattyville. Joel Thurtell photo.
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They ought to call it “Mattyville.”
A proper place name might help focus the brains of the “protesters” who were kicked out of a recent Windsor City Council meeting for failing to restrain their emotions about a neighborhood of vacant homes in Windsor.
These critics haven’t figured out that the author of the urban blight they so detest is not the city of Windsor, but the billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge.
The bridge squats in the middle of a once vibrant neighborhood turned into a ghost town by trucking magnate Manuel “Matty” Moroun.
Oh sure, the “protesters” have a point — dozens of boarded-up houses around the Ambassador bridge in Windsor are not only eyesores, but firetraps and refuges for vermin.
It’s a bad situation.
But the protesters need to have their heads screwed on right.
Instead of berating council members, they ought to march on the Ambassador Bridge.
Better yet, picket the Grosse Pointe home of the billionaire Ambassador Bridge owner, Manuel “Matty” Moroun.
Another pad in Mattyville. Joel Thurtell photo.
It was Matty, through companies he owns, who bought and boarded up these houses to make room for a second bridge that now looks like a no show.
It is amazing — and sickening — that one rich man could create such blight in a community.
Southwest Detroiters will tell you he’s done the same thing on their side of the river.
But here in Windsor, in the shadow of Matty’s bridge, sit house after house, deserted.
A row of boarded up houses in Mattyville. Joel Thurtell photo.
Block after block.
Why these “protesters” would turn their rage against elected officials who never wanted to see a Mattyville of empty homes is beyond my ken.
To hold that Matty is not responsible, you’d need a certain willing suspension of belief in what is real and what is fantasy.
Matty Moroun is real.
The bridge is real.
The neighborhood is real.
Matty bought the neighborhood.
Matty turned it into a ghost town, very real.
If you want to protest something that is not fantasy, look the man who is really responsible.
That would be Matty.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com
Is there a reason you forgot to mention that the City passed a by-law preventing the demolition of the homes although the Bridge Company brought applications to do so?
Each time, the City Council refused to issue the demolition permit although for other applicants, permission was granted. In fact, on occasion, Council did so “on consent” to homes throughout the City, even those in control areas, which meant no justification had to be given at all by the applicant in person.
DUH, the City’s anti-demolition by-law prevents the Bridge Co. from tearing down the homes as they want to do to prevent blight.
They have been fighting the City for years over that.
Oooops, you forgot to mention that Joel.
“To hold that Matty is not responsible, you’d need a certain willing suspension of belief in what is real and what is fantasy.”
You should look at your quote real carefully. As others have commented it is the City of Windsor stopping the demolition of these houses – not ABC! Elected officials are supposed to act in the best interests of the citizens they represent; not hold citizens hostage in order to promote their own selfish, egotistical agenda. This is what is real.