Matthew Moroun is a Stand Up Kinda Guy

[Gannon]

"Sounds like you are more jealous of his wealth! You think the state county and city can do a better job?? Not a chance!"

The major government run bridge crossings in Michigan are the Blue Water bridges, the Mackinac Bridge and the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie. All are run by government authorities. By all accounts, all are managed fairly and efficiently and the bridges are maintained through tolls collected at the bridges. I don't recall any of those operations running around dumping money into the pockets of lawmakers every election year like Manny does. Government-run versus Manny-run? The government operations are far superior in every way.

GRAND SLAM FUCKING HOME RUN! Outta the park, haven't seen one of those since Norm Cash in the late 60's, either.


Cheers

[Brian1979]

Exactly. And that's the case for millions of through trucks. US23 to I69 may or may not be farther, but it's a lot faster with less risk of slow-down or traffic jam in Motown.

Whenever I give directions, I always advise either US23 or I275/I696 depending on where they want to go so they can completely avoid Detroit, even if it might be a bit farther.

Friends don't let friends drive through town if it can be avoided.

Honestly US 23 and I-69 [[outside of Flint) both are four lane highways and when there is traffic on US 23 it's almost impossible to get around someone driving slow so I don't know how that would be any less time wise vs. going through Detroit. If I'm in Ohio coming up 75 and my destination is Toronto I think I'm going to take I-75 up to Detroit and cross over into Canada at the Ambassador Bridge rather than drive up US 23 to I-69 and cross at the Bluewater Bridge. And even if you want to cross at the Bluewater Bridge it'd still probably be quicker to take I-75 up to I-94 and up to Port Huron that way.

[Gannon]

I agree with you outside of the four or five hours per day that is commonly called 'rush hour'. You might've heard of it?! LOL!


But please...please...it is worth it to see downtown and take the tunnel. Trust me.

[downtownguy]

Well I can only speak from personal experiences.

While trying to bring a project to Detroit I tried to establish contact with what is considered the norm in any other city and state and this is the result.

Gov = No response
MEDEC = Thanks for attempting to bring business and employment to the city and state but thats what we can offer thanks and good luck.

At the city level.

Mayors office = Returned emails that really made no sense.
City council members whose district covered the area where the property was located. = No reply

Which of the nine "AT-LARGE" council members were responsible for this "district"?

[Richard]

Which of the nine "AT-LARGE" council members were responsible for this "district"?

What I did was go to the city web site which would be normal procedure and there was a district map that showed the city divided up into districts and which council member covered that district.

http://www.detroitmi.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=3000 The link for map no longer exists. Dec 2010 and Jan 2011 was when I was at that stage.

The whole at large thing creates a big cluster F*** as it leaves council members not accountable for what is happening in a given neighborhood and it shows.

I could go further into the politics of city council serving the needs of the community it represents but would rather not in the interest of a thread jack and it would be lengthy. But it is not my first time at the rodeo and email servers do not charge for storage : )

[Meddle]

council members not accountable for what is happening in a given neighborhood and it shows.

I could go further into the politics of city council serving the needs of the community it represents

You DO realize we're talking about Detroit, right?

[Richard]

You DO realize we're talking about Detroit, right?

LOL yep they have been telling me that the list for tax sales property will be updated tomorrow for two weeks now. Heck even the city web site little search box does not even work anymore.

[Gannon]

Go easy on 'em, Richard. Bernard Kilpatrick and his boys have not yet finished perusing the listing to cream off the good stuff yet.

[East Detroit]

All thoughts about Maroun aside, I don't notice that the bridge is backed up or that there is usually even heavy traffic. So, the government really wants what... to keep Maroun from making money? If it ever becomes an issue of national security, I am sure we wouldnt have an issue grabbing the bridge.... kinda surprised that hasnt already happened.

[Gannon]

I think Lebanon might take that as an act of war.

[Wesley Mouch]

All thoughts about Maroun aside, I don't notice that the bridge is backed up or that there is usually even heavy traffic...

Its pretty busy. I've seen lines of trucks across the entire span on occasion.



But the issues isn't so much whether the road can handle its as 1) what happens if there's a failure or other problem [[accident, deck collapse, environmental spill) and 2) Should a major transportation link vital to Detroit & Windsor metros be privately held.

[Gannon]

That is very telling, thanks for those numbers.

Homeland Security is his natural enemy. If only they were a part of the legitimate government, and actually accountable to somebody...<sigh>

[rb336]

All thoughts about Maroun aside, I don't notice that the bridge is backed up or that there is usually even heavy traffic. So, the government really wants what... to keep Maroun from making money? If it ever becomes an issue of national security, I am sure we wouldnt have an issue grabbing the bridge.... kinda surprised that hasnt already happened.

Every time I go near it it is pretty heavy, truck traffic-wise. Besides, you don't build major bridges for current needs - you build them for the anticipated needs. this project is being met with animosity for two reasons:
1) Maroun is deep in the pockets of a number of our state legislators
2) Out state [[and some suburban) legislators would actively like to kill Detroit, and certainly don't want to do anything to make it stronger. Witness some proposed new state legislator boundaries that would effectively deny Detroit ANY state representation by splitting off tiny chunks of the city and tying them to heavily republican burbs [[ok, I almost wrote "_ _ _" instead of republican)