EDC votes to demo Tiger Stadium

[izzyindetroit]

Found this note on Facebook.

"Here's what transpired yesterday at Tiger Stadium:

The MCM/Farrow group commences "final demolition" at 3:41 p.m.

The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy gets a temporary restraining order at 5 p.m. Work crews ignore it and begin to demolish the upper deck, while blocking the gates, thus Conservancy Treasurer Gary Gillette and his lawyer are unable to serve the demolition foreman w/ court documents.

Stadium activist Rod Nelson then calls the police so that they can demand entrance.

Meanwhile, Conservancy board member Rick Ruffner's business partner, a man named Chip Owen, squeezes through the fence, runs across the field, and serves the papers.

He is then held for possible trespassing charges.

Demolition finally stops just before 6 p.m., after the crews got in what Nelson describes as "40+ minutes of malicious, felonious destruction of public property, willfully violating a court order.""

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?not...9062&ref=share

If this is true, then this just ain't right.

[warsaw7]

It's really funny, I was in Toronto this weekend and this was one of the top stories on their news ticker.

[HazenPingree]

An email I sent out tonight. Please come!

URGENT: Tiger Stadium's last stand


Friends of preservation, thank you so much for your support of the Tiger Stadium effort. As a friend of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, I ask for your help.


As you may know, last week the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation voted in secret to demolish the remaining historic portion of Tiger Stadium. Demolition Permits were granted, and demolition began on Friday. Fortunately, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy stepped in with a court ordered temporary restraining order.

The court hearing to settle the dispute will be tomorrow, Monday the 8th at 9:30am. We would like to peacefully gather in front of the Spirit of Detroit [[Jefferson and Woodward in Detroit) between 8:30 and 9am to show our support. Tomorrow, if the Judge is willing, the temporary restraining order that halted demolition on Friday will be extended another three weeks, giving the Conservancy more time to formulate a plan.


While supporting the Conservancy's effort in court, we must also appeal to Mayor Dave Bing who can intervene and end the wranglings between the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy and the DEGC.


Please bring all of your friends, and bring tasteful signs.

[urbanoutdoors]

You know I will be there andy let me know if there is anything I can do besides spread the word...

[rjlj]

Mary Kramer's column only echo's the puzzlement of all the eager people who have submitted re-development proposals for old Tiger Stadium over the past 10 years to the DEGC's deaf ears. I feel the only reasonable explanation is that there are greater forces at hand here. Who is the one with the greatest baseball interest in the area that doesn't want competition? Or are the powers at be just without basic reason??? Has this quasi-public organization done more positive than negative in this city? If not, it time for them to go. Good luck tomorrow OTSC.

[kraig]

An email I sent out tonight. Please come!

URGENT: Tiger Stadium's last stand


Friends of preservation, thank you so much for your support of the Tiger Stadium effort. As a friend of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, I ask for your help.


As you may know, last week the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation voted in secret to demolish the remaining historic portion of Tiger Stadium. Demolition Permits were granted, and demolition began on Friday. Fortunately, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy stepped in with a court ordered temporary restraining order.

The court hearing to settle the dispute will be tomorrow, Monday the 8th at 9:30am. We would like to peacefully gather in front of the Spirit of Detroit [[Jefferson and Woodward in Detroit) between 8:30 and 9am to show our support. Tomorrow, if the Judge is willing, the temporary restraining order that halted demolition on Friday will be extended another three weeks, giving the Conservancy more time to formulate a plan.


While supporting the Conservancy's effort in court, we must also appeal to Mayor Dave Bing who can intervene and end the wranglings between the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy and the DEGC.


Please bring all of your friends, and bring tasteful signs.

I'm glad you made a point about bringing tasteful signs. This is has been one of those situations where the DEGC is looking to capitalize on any mistakes that are made by Tiger Stadium supporters. Also, beware of counter protestors, even though Kwame is gone, there are still some people involved with this that are operating from his playbook. Whatever you do, do not take the bait. They're going to try to make you do something that you'll regret. Don't fall for it.

While you're at the building, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have some of the OTSC representatives stop by the City Council meeting since they've been big supporters, for the most part, of the Conservancy's efforts. Their meetings are streamed live and the press is always there. Good Luck.

[histeric]

I couldn't agree more that courteous and appropriate signs are called for. I was very disappointed to arrive at the "vigil" and find your typical ego driven rabble rousers calling for George Jackson's head, job, what have you. After almost a decade of working to be taken seriously, it was a complete slap in the face to find our cause had been relegated to the hands of ignorant, rabble rousers. The fact is, that if it were not for Peter Zeiler and George Jackson, this project would never have even gotten off the ground floor. We were ignored by Mayor Archer, his deputy and their cohorts. So to demonize Mr. Jackson was a very disappointing development. And that is coming from the founding member, whose signature actually created the original documents that formed the OTSC. I say this to remind all involved that George Jackson actually stepped to the plate, under the previous administration, and was willing to work with the community development org from Corktown.

It seems to me, that since Mr. Jackson works at the mayors pleasure, and our new mayor has Denise Ilitch and Freeman Hendrix as his advisors, it might be time to call a spade a spade. This decision was made by the Bing organization. Plain and simple. Hendrix finally gets to finalize a poor decision made almost a decade ago...to which he was party. If anyone needs to be demonized, it is our current mayor. And I shouldn't have to, but I will, remind our mayor that in the Detroit of today, the swing vote exists among the minority, living in the historic districts of our fair city. Pay attention. Be forewarned.

[Fnemecek]

Thank you for reminding us of this.

[lo_to_d]

Something seems very fishy about this... Could I make the ignorant suggestion that Ilitch might have secret plans to build a hockey arena there? It is right down the street from the MCC casino. Just a thought, maybe he wants DEGC to be the fall guys, so he doesn't have to.