Crossing [[Ambassador ) Bridge of State Control

Bearinabox · June-29-09, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by BShea

The sense I get here is that people dislike Moroun, so they'd prefer to see DRIC built to harm him, even if it makes more sense to just have a new Ambassador span, and even if it means shippers pay higher tolls and even if it means we get taxed for the bridge because it cannot pay its bonds off.

DRIC as a punative measure is a terribly stupid idea.

That isn't what I'm arguing at all. I'm saying that Moroun's handling of the Ambassador and the Gateway project has exhibited a great deal of dishonesty, and absolutely no concern for anyone's interests but his own. If he is allowed to build a second bridge, he will run it in much the same fashion. We may think we know what we're getting with this second span, but we thought we knew what we were getting with the Gateway project too. Moroun is not trustworthy and does not negotiate in good faith. Thus, it does not make rational sense to hand him another bridge with which to abuse the public trust. It has nothing to do with "punishing" him, and everything to do with limiting the damage he is able to inflict on the community.

**BShea** · June-29-09, 02:56 PM

I'm saying that Moroun's handling of the Ambassador and the Gateway project has exhibited a great deal of dishonesty, and absolutely no concern for anyone's interests but his own. If he is allowed to build a second bridge, he will run it in much the same fashion.

Again, whether that is true or not, and I don't know either way, I'm talking about the need for a second bridge, whether he will run it like the troll from the Billy Goats Gruff or runs it like a saint is beside the point.

And DIBC doesn't really much "run" the bridge so much as the feds do. If Moroun allows it to fall apart, he'll lose money, so that would be a stupid business practice. And the feds can shut him down if they chose simply by pulling out their Customs agents, no? DIBC just maintains the bridge itself and collects the tolls.

That said, they need to follow the law and the plans they agreed to, obviously. If they didn't, that needs fixed and fixed ASAP.

But again, no one is able to answer my questions on the immediate need for a second bridge. DRIC has its 2013 goal of opening, and I don't want to get stuck paying a tax for it because it turns out it wasn't needed for another 20 years. That $3 billion could be better spent on other stuff.

**barnesfoto** · June-29-09, 10:42 PM

Even if you ignore the massive opposition from those of us who have dealt with the Bridge Company's decades of screwing over Southwest Detroiters, you are still consistantly ignoring that there's a country on the OTHER side of the bridge, and generally, when one builds a bridge, one does it by putting it where BOTH SIDES decide it works best, not by shoving it into the space that is most convenient for the billionaire wealth redistributionist [[whose antics you, in an imagined state of rationalism, are choosing to ignore).

**Melocoton** · June-30-09, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by BShea

I'm saying that Moroun's handling of the Ambassador and the Gateway project has exhibited a great deal of dishonesty, and absolutely no concern for anyone's interests but his own. If he is allowed to build a second bridge, he will run it in much the same fashion.

Again, whether that is true or not, and I don't know either way, I'm talking about the need for a second bridge, whether he will run it like the troll from the Billy Goats Gruff or runs it like a saint is beside the point.

You don't know if it's true either way? Really?

As for the need for a second bridge--it's unfair to accuse the anti-DIBC crowd of failing to make this case when the public has had nothing at all to do with the move towards a second bridge in the first place. Another bridge is clearly going to be built--whether we really need it or not--because the government and the billionaire have moved us towards this point, and they have a lot of power. What people in Southwest Detroit want to do is limit the damage to a community they've spent a long time building, and which Maroun has spent a long time abusing. [[And if it weakens Maroun politically in the process, then good.)