EDC votes to demo Tiger Stadium

[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.

[kraig]

They're out there in front of the Spirit of Detroit, in the rain. No matter how you feel about the stadium, you have to give it up for their fortitude.

[lo_to_d]

Biggest reason why this seems so fishy... from the Crains article...

{Now, the situation’s changed — the EDC approved the demolition at a cost of no more than $400,000.

And the price of scrap metal continues to fall, Guillebeaux said.

“I’m looking purely at the economics,� he said.}

Does he really think people are that dumb? If they are really looking purely at the economics, wouldn't it make more sense to keep the $400,000 for payment and transfer of the stadium to the conservancy? That is the most they would get for a cleared site for redevelopment anyway. Not to mention there are large sections of land that the DEGC could keep for development proposals [[large rectangular section of land to the north where the left field stands were, and large triangular section at the corner of michigan and trumble.) The DEGC's decision makes no economic sense, especially sense the conservancy is paying for security costs. Also, I would be interested in knowing how many DEGC board members live in the city?

[DetroitHabitater]

I'm sad about how little the city has listened to the residents of corktown itself. There has always been a resounding unified voice from the community to keep the stadium.

Ultimately we are the ones who are going to have to live with the development whatever it may be and the mayor/EDC/CityCouncil has repeatedly dismissed us for the last several years.

THE LAST thing I need is drunken hockey fans peeing in the empty lot next to me and littering plastic solo cups throughout the neighborhood.