Liberated – Riverside Park boat launch
10/09/08
[donation]
By Joel Thurtell
The padlocks have been cut.
The boat launch at Riverside Park is open.
That’s what Southwest Detroit activist Deb Sumner tells me.
The bolt-cutters were hers.
Five volunteers cut the padlocks Wednesday and declared the boat launch open to boaters.
Meanwhile, according to Sumner and media reports, the city of Detroit is moving to take back its park, seized by Detroit International Bridge Company owner Matty Moroun, who claimed he needed parts of Riverside park to secure the Ambassador Bridge against terrorists.
Moroun owns the Ambassador Bridge
Sumner forwarded an email from one of the bolt-cutter operators:
The five brothers have removed the illegally placed chains and locks from the gates to the public Riverside Park boat launch.
Thank you Deb for loaning the bolt cutters. If we could hold on to them through the weekend in case new chains are illegally placed again, that would be helpful.
The boat launch area of the park is now free and you can launch your boats. We launched little paper boats that may have reached Canada by now. Not sure if they cleared customs, though.
Please let me know if the gates are illegally locked again. If necessary, we have larger tools that will be able to take on any size chain.
Sumner’s response:
Bon voyage to all of our City’s boat launchers!!!! Though, I am sure it’s getting late in the season for boaters to head out into the open waters of our nationally acclaimed Detroit Heritage River but we need to let the public know that they have their public access boat launch once again and they have every right to launch their boat from the public’s Riverside Park Boat Launch!!!!
Detroit founder, Antoine Laumet, Sieur de Cadillac, sieur de Cadillac, explorer who came up to the shore of our Detroit’s River in 1877 would be proud for the people of Detroit who can once again come to and from our City’s Public Riverside Park Boat Launch!!!
Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than simply opening the gates. The city had posted hours of operation, which means city workers looked after the boat launch and locked it overnight. This is not exactly boating season, so the city may wind up installing new padlocks for the winter.
But at least the city would have the keys!
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
