A Visit to Windsor's 'Morounville'

[Honky Tonk]

I'm so fed up with folks dumping on Moroun. All the guy is doing is trying to make a buck.
Leave him alone to do as he pleases. A little planned obsolescence never hurt nobody.

Matty's prolly out trying to find the cheapest installation price for new windows like he did at MCS. Chances are, he'll have them put up in two to three years time.

I agree. I've heard he's down to his last 2 or 3 billion.

[animatedmartian]

I agree. I've heard he's down to his last 2 or 3 billion.

Tough life owning a monopoly.

[Richard]

Shame on the Maroun family for killing neighborhoods for their own selfish interests. I hope they all get locked up, assets seized, and their companies shut down. It's absolutely insane that any one family privately own an international crossing. And their lack of care for their properties in Detroit and Windsor is stifling our economy and opportunity for growth, and plaguing the landscape with blight.

What is the difference between a private corporate owned 100 year old bridge that was purchased with private funds and building a new private corporate owned bridge that is funded by the taxpayers and will need to be rebuilt or have major repairs every 20 years,again taxpayer funding.

Ambassador bridge is private funded,if it loses money it loses money privately and not backed by the taxpayer to shore up its losses.

Like it was already posted,the houses are boarded up and the lawns are mowed,maybe at least it is somewhat appeasing blight compared to burned out hulks etc.

I am not sure on how the property tax works on that side of the bridge but if it is similar to the US they are paying non homestead rates on improved property that requires no city services in return,verses a vacant lot.

What would be worse,if it was not spanned the houses are still there,slap some vinyl siding and some new energy efficient windows and you have a neighborhood back verses a completely leveled neighborhood of vacant lots.

[Sandhouse]

If I remember rightly, Moroun bought the houses on the east side of Indian Road a number of years ago, but the City of Windsor will not issue demolition permits for them. This provoked a bitter feud between the city government and the remaining occupants on the west side of the street, who get to stare at boarded-up windows. A quick Google Maps tour of the street shows at least half a dozen houses on the west side of the Indian Road now boarded up, in the southernmost block, so maybe Moroun is buying them, too, as residents get fed up and leave. That is probably preferable to leaving these properties to front on either blighted houses, vacant lots, or the replacement bridge, if it's ever built.

I think the Moroun scheme is best thought of as a replacement, and not a twin, span. It remains to be seen whether the remaining truck users of the Ambassador Bridge will be subjected to harassment once the Howe Bridge is done. I predict Ontario will somehow outlaw through-truck use of Huron Church Road, to improve local traffic conditions and force traffic onto the new route. That would really penalize Moroun's truck lines. Right now, he's paying truck tolls to himself, and selling himself untaxed Diesel fuel at the duty-free gas station. Moroun profits several ways from the bridge/trucking bundle of businesses.

[Richard]

Not sure if they could per-say outlaw through trucks because they would be shooting themselves in the foot restricting trade,remember they are predicting massive amounts of future trade,on a side note the new tunnel project that was going to be constructed with the new bridge has been shelved because of projected losses do not cover costs.

[Newdetroit]

I am confused. Perhaps this is a stupid question, so forgive me if it is.
I understand how you can own land abutting the Detroit River, but does that parcel of land give you title to the river, and if so, until where? Meaning, how can you own title of airspace or any part of the Detroit river to put a bridge connecting land you own in Windsor and in Detroit? I would think that this would be federal or state land/airspace/territorial waters.

[Gpwrangler]

What do the boarded up DPS buildings have to do with the homes that Matty bought and boarded up in Windsor?

Are you saying that what Matty did in Windsor is OK? That you don't have any issues with him buying up one side of the street and just boarding it up instead of at least trying to rent out the houses until he gets approval to build the bridge that he's never going to get approval for?

They look boarded up and properly secured to me, which is more than I can say for the buildings I mentioned. Hard to throw stones...

[animatedmartian]

I am confused. Perhaps this is a stupid question, so forgive me if it is.
I understand how you can own land abutting the Detroit River, but does that parcel of land give you title to the river, and if so, until where? Meaning, how can you own title of airspace or any part of the Detroit river to put a bridge connecting land you own in Windsor and in Detroit? I would think that this would be federal or state land/airspace/territorial waters.

Pretty much. Parcels that are on the river end either directly at the shore or a few feet into the river [[sometimes enough space for docks and marinas). But to build a bridge across the river requires approval by both the US and Canadian government.