Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain at Hart Plaza OFF - Vandalized!

**Zacha341** · August-12-13, 07:50 AM

I went downtown this weekend to attend the Ribs and Soul Festival and walk the Riverwalk and noted that the big Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain was not running! The GM vertical spray fountains are down too! Talked to a few people and I hear the scrappers stole the copper works from both.

Great! Is there going to be any effort going forth to monitor this area? This type of vandalism has to take some time to accomplish. I guess it's scrapper delight after dark...

Older article but it speaks to the shut down of the fountains. Interesting comments as well....

http://www.freep.com/article/2013071...Plaza-shut-off

Detroiters and visitors looking to cool off along the riverfront with some whimsical splashing are in for a surprise.

No splash of cold water on the face here.

The General Motors Plaza fountain behind the Renaissance Center and the Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain at Hart Plaza — both part of the quintessential Detroit summer — have been turned off.

The GM sprays have been down since mid-June for maintenance issues, according to Alan Adler, a spokesman for the carmaker. He quoted CBRE, which manages the RenCen for GM, as saying there is no date set for when the fountain will be spritzing once more.

The Dodge fountain has not been working since January, when vandals did more than $1 million worth of damage to Hart Plaza, said Alicia Minter, director of the city’s Parks Department, which oversees it. She said the city has done $400,000 worth of work so far, though the fountain fix alone costs $300,000 to $400,000.

“It’s very expensive to repair and we don’t have the funding,” she said. “It’s disappointing to us that our facility would be vandalized to that level that we can’t offer that feature to our visitors who go to the plaza.”

See link above for the rest of the article......

**sumas** · August-12-13, 08:11 AM

The Scott fountain on Belle Isle was vandalized too. The only thing sadder was how long it took the city to notice it happened.

**noggin** · August-12-13, 08:39 AM

How dare the state steal the city jewels, right Joan Watson?

**piczka** · August-12-13, 08:42 PM

Don't worry. Things will get better! What a joke!

**Zacha341** · August-12-13, 08:44 PM

Ahh-hh! They must not have gotten the memo... the "jewels" contain metals that sell -- well. Apparently.

Originally Posted by noggin

How dare the state steal the city jewels, right Joan Watson?

**poobert** · August-12-13, 09:29 PM

The Scott fountain has been off all summer. Combine that with its surroundings of chain link and concrete barricades, and it is downright awful looking there.

I'm not sure what the point of the Parks and Recreation Department is. Is it to uniformly maintain all of the city's parks and fountains at a totally appalling and unacceptable level, and then make excuses about it? Because that is literally all that is happening, city-wide. Don't get me started on the national disgrace it is that is that the Parks idiots are [[mis)-managing Historic Fort Wayne.

I'm sorry, but for all the shit the Detroit boosters here give to Chicago, I can go there and enjoy some great parks, not least Grant Park and Millennium Park, when all the parks we have in Detroit are some variation on dogshit. It's unacceptable. The only thing decently maintained is the Riverfront, and that is run by a conservancy. Fire the entire rec department, jail the embezzlers, and manage the city's park through a conservancy. Boom. There goes your mom.

**Hamtragedy** · August-12-13, 11:42 PM

I second that poobert. The Rec budget is less than 12M a year [[2012) and that includes 6M for Belle Isle. Crowned jewels allowed to rot. Don't blame the Rec Dept, the good people there make less than 10/hr. Blame the city and those who can't / haven't been able to run it for decades.

**bailey** · August-13-13, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by poobert

I'm not sure what the point of the Parks and Recreation Department is. Is it to uniformly maintain all of the city's parks and fountains at a totally appalling and unacceptable level, and then make excuses about it? Because that is literally all that is happening, city-wide. Don't get me started on the national disgrace it is that is that the Parks idiots are [[mis)-managing Historic Fort Wayne.

+1 on all that... I don't know who has the juice in the Parks dept but apparently somene who lives near Balduck Park on the east side has their ear. It's looking better than it has in a long time. new-ish baseball backstops and foul poles, mowed regularly, even the wilder/natural side of the park looks better and had a massive cleanup done this spring.

Regarding the fountain behind GM... heard a totally unsubstantiated rumor/gossip from a worker bee down there--it was shut off because it was too popular, getting sort of overrun with people hanging out there all day, and becoming a nuisance for security. allegedly the decision to "close for maintenance" was made to take care of the issue... it will miraculously be fixed in September.

**Zacha341** · August-13-13, 08:20 AM

^^^ Interesting... was the GM fountain the one with the water that shot straight up in these spouts that the kids could run in? It was wonderful and I saw no nuisance. It was just an enjoyable option for cooling off.

**drjeff** · August-13-13, 02:04 PM

I'm not a violent person and I don't own a gun, but at this point I'm in favor of scrappers being shot on sight. They are ruining the entire city.

**poobert** · August-13-13, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by bailey

+1 on all that... I don't know who has the juice in the Parks dept but apparently somene who lives near Balduck Park on the east side has their ear. It's looking better than it has in a long time. new-ish baseball backstops and foul poles, mowed regularly, even the wilder/natural side of the park looks better and had a massive cleanup done this spring.

Regarding the fountain behind GM... heard a totally unsubstantiated rumor/gossip from a worker bee down there--it was shut off because it was too popular, getting sort of overrun with people hanging out there all day, and becoming a nuisance for security. allegedly the decision to "close for maintenance" was made to take care of the issue... it will miraculously be fixed in September.

I could be wrong but I think some group helps maintain Balduck, similar to Clark Park. Same with Messmer [[also in remarkably good shape).

Or the fact that a shitload of the city workers that still live in the city at middle-management level or higher live in EEV or those few streets east of Balduck [[Lannoo, Gateshead, etc.) Probably tug some strings at the office.