By Joel Thurtell
Bill Gallagher of Fox 2 stopped by Plymouth a few days ago and we chatted about Matty Moroun alongside the city’s picturesque Kellogg Park.
Later in the day, Fox 2 aired parts of our interview:
I seemed to be butting heads with Dan Stamper, another Plymouth Township resident who’s president of the Detroit International Bridge Co., paper owner of the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit in the U.S. with Windsor in Canada.
We know who the REAL owner of the bridge is.
Manuel “Matty” Moroun.
Here, as best I can recall, are the details of what I told Bill Gallagher:
If you or I decided maybe we’d pitch our tent in a city park and live there, how long do you think it would take Detroit police to run us out?
What if I went down to Riverside Park and tore down city-owned basketball courts and shade trees so I could use the site for a new money-making bridge for me while meantime storing construction debris where kids used to play basketball?
What if I put up a chain link fence to keep the public out of a public park?
Just to add insult to my actions, what if I hung phony “Homeland Security” signs from my illegal fence?
What if I hired security guards — shotgun totin’ goons — and had them run citizens out of this public park just because I wanted the place for my own money-grubbing pursuits?
What if I stole city property to build a duty-free store and gas station?
How long do you think it would be before a SWAT team hauled me off in handcuffs while bulldozers tore down the fence, trashed the signs and leveled my store?
Pronto is how fast it would happen.
If it were you or me we’d be jailed on charges of criminal trespassing.
But the perp is Matty Moroun, and Matty Moroun gets away with it.
The city’s been in court more than two years trying to evict this miscreant from a public park.
They’re in court now trying to make him raze that store and build according to plan.
But he’s Matty Moroun.
He’s a bilionaire
He gets away with behavior that would put you and me behind bars.
You know what? Matty used to claim his bridge was a “federal instrumentality” with the power to seize property under eminent domain. The courts told him that’s baloney.
But I know a REAL federal instrumentality invested with the power to seize private property liked Matty’s prized bridge.
It’s called the “federal government.”
Memo to Barack:
Take the bridge!
That’s more or less the gist of what I told Fox 2.
The Detroit Free Press talks with [Mayor Dave] Bing about city politics, troubles in the school system, and some of the city’s most notorious problems.
“Question: Michigan Central Station continues to be an iconic eyesore. Are you ready to give owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun a deadline for redeveloping the building or tearing it down?
Answer: That conversation will be in the first quarter of next year. We will develop a timeline in terms of what he needs to do — or we’re going to have to take some action. I think six months is probably reasonable. He’s had enough time to come up with some kind of plan.”
“what HE needs”?!?! “six months?!?!”
Joel, you’re so right: If you or I or John Q. Public tried even 1/100 of the illegal machinations that Moroun is guilty of, we’d be thrown in jail so fast it’d make your head swim. Can anyone tell me exactly why Matty Moroun is allowed to get away with (figurative) murder?
Money sure does talk and our kids learn that if you have enough of it you are above the law; we adults sit back in disbelief and watch this private company do whatever they wish, take over, occupy and even build on the public’s land, our 23 rd Street and our Riverside Park Land. They say they bought the last privately owned land in & around their bridge plaza as of just this Friday so every is good! Are you kidding me? DIBC you have seized the public’s land how many years ago? DIBC needs to pay dearly to the “public”! DIBC needs to pay the public $20 million for 23rd Street and $20 million for illegally occupying Riverside Park Land. I ask where is the public’s justice? I as a City of Detroit resident who has had to live on a daily basis with the negative repercussions of DIBC’s actions or inactions has diminished my quality of life even trying to drive to and from my home a stone’s throw away from the DIBC’s so-called new Bridge Plaza. The adjacent residents to DIBC’s so-called grand new Bridge Plaza and Bridge related traffic patterns needs to be compensated and I claim another $20 million for my Hubbard Farms Historic District (HFHD) residents. According to my calculations, DIBC needs to cough up $60 million to repay my City $40 mil to restore & improve our Riverside Park’s existing footprint and my HFHD $20 mil in a Trust Fund to be in invested into our historic neighborhood! Oh and wait, there’s that little ol’ bait shop that DIBC put out of business when they seized and closed our City’s 23rd Street years ago. Surely, the little ol’ bait shop deserves $20 mil as well. A Court of Law needs to protect the Public’s interest and make DIBC pay retribution to our City, our neighborhood & the little ol’ bait shop! Money talks and the least that a Judge can do is make DIBC PAY THE PEOPLE, PAY THE PUBLIC!!! Surely, that would be lesson our kids should learn from all of this most unbelievable illegal behavior we, the public has witnessed by a private company & billionaire owner over the years…Let’s make DIBC & Moroun pay the Public, afterall, we would be speaking Maroun’s language because he only knows that “money talks”!
“baloney”??? Learn how to spell
@Sarah: If you don’t like “baloney,” here’s balls, bilge, rubbish, crap, twaddle, piffle, tommyrot, bunkum, hogwash and — oh yes — baloney to you! (http://www.freedictionary.org/?Query=baloney) –Ed.
Your journalistic integrity is balls, bilge, rubbish, crap, twaddle, piffle, tommyrot, bunkum, hogwash and — oh yes — baloney!
You (and Deb) clearly have way too much time on your hands…
It’s really pathetic. Why don’t you find someone new to hate.
GET OVER IT!!!
Funny how my comment didn’t get posted until you had your planned rebuttle.
Lets see if this one gets approved in the next several hours!
@Sarah — At least you learned how to spell “baloney.” –Ed.
@Sarah: Since we’re in the business of correcting spelling mistakes, it’s “rebuttal”.
Anyway, it’s a moderated forum; when you post trollish ad hominems against the moderator, you’re lucky that your comments see the light of day at all.
If you don’t like the blog, don’t read it.
Those who actually think Joel is wrong about Matty Maroun are the ones that need to take their heads out of their asses. I work with a former employee (and their are a lot of ‘former’ employees) of Central Transport, that told me I should google Matty just to see the path of destruction this guy has caused.
Between my co-workers personal accounts and the other stories I have read about this guy, it’s no wonder somebody hasn’t tried to do something more drastic to him.
Sure sounds like the typical untouchable billionaire scenario. Don’t think he’ll make Gate’s list of billionaires who donate a large portion of their estates.
Great fearless style of writing, not just this article but all!