Riverside Park: No sale, after all?

By Joel Thurtell

Mayor Bing is not — repeat NOT — working on a deal to sell Detroit’s Riverside Park to Matty.

So I’m told after hearing the precise opposite from Mayor David Bing’s office earlier today.

The mayoral spokeswoman who e-mailed an answer to me seemed at first to confirm a rumor that the park could be sold.

Later, she wrote to say she was in a  hurry and left out a word in her response to my question.

On March 18 at 7:09 p.m., I e-mailed her counterpart, Rose Love, asking:

Hello, Rose — Not sure if you are the person to field this question,

but I’ll start with you.

 I’m hearing that Mayor Bing is talking to Matty Moroun about the city selling Matty part or all of Riverside Park so he can build his “twin” to the Ambassador Bridge.

 True?

 Thanks.

 Joel Thurtell

At 11:47 a.m., Karen Dumas of Mayor Bing’s office e-mailed a response. She seemed to be telling me that the answer is yes: Riverside Park IS INDEED for sale.

“There are discussions to sell Riverside Park to Mr. Mororun (sic),” Dumas wrote.

But in a second e-mail at 4:32 p.m. on March 19 with the subject line, “CORRECTION,” Dumas wrote:

My sincere apologies for the typo. There are NOT discussion (sic) to sell Riverside Park, to anyone.

Karen Dumas

Group Executive/Communications

Office of Mayor Dave Bing

In another e-mail at 4:51 p.m., Dumas wrote:

Joel,

Typing way too fast. We are NOT in discussions to sell the park, and are also currently still in litigation. My apologies for the typo/omission.  Previously sent you an email clarifying this issue. Thanks.

Karen Dumas

That typographical error really had me worked up.

Now I feel great relief.

I’d been worried that Matty might find a weak spot in the city’s resolve to fend off his illegal occupation and his attempt to build a second bridge without permits and without owning the property it would be built on.

While the answer came as kind of a stutter and had me upset for a while, in the end, I heard the answer I wanted to hear.

But now I’m thinking: I asked one question today and I got two diametrically opposite answers.

I WANT to believe the mayor would not sell Riverside Park.

I HOPE the second answer is the truth.

But now, sorry to say, there’s this little seed of doubt that’s starting to sprout.

So I’ll put it to my readers: I’ve copied the correspondence into my blog columns. You know what I know. What do you think?

Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com