Sending Detroit Back to the Stone Age

[Gannon]

Dan Gilbert doesn't like seeing the whole truth about him or his organization put on display in the public arena.

That seems like bully behavior. So does this.

I don't know Tom personally, but a few who are close to me have a long history with the guy going back to the now-defunct Bally Cork [[name Anglicized for the Gaelic-deficient), and every single one of them speaks highly of the guy, well beyond mere compliments, including those who worked with him before he was 'the boss'. I hope he wins this lawsuit and creates some precedent against having this seeming bully single-handedly drag Detroit back to the Flintstone era by chasing away those who have put their heart and soul and lifetimes into making something great in the city.

This town is becoming radically divided between those who kiss Dan Gilbert's ass and those who'd much rather kick it. In between are a growing number of individuals learning how this fellow deals with those who don't agree with him...or hold a place he would rather fill.

[[Wonder when those huge neon signs will be hoisted up to the top of One Woodward...were they purchased before they were approved?!)


I took the liberty of adding my interpretations of the statement released by the company regarding the lawsuit with Tom from Angelina's Bistro...


“We are disappointed that a tenant/landlord dialogue would be aired in the news media, because this taints the incredibly polished persona created by our highly-paid PR team, and we now have to hire an outsider 'crisis' team to clean THIS mess up at a thousand bucks an hour plus expenses. We do not comment publicly on these matters, since it would likely incriminate us. Not only do we charge market or below market lease rates [[which are easily offset by dramatic and unethical increases in charges hidden in the fine print of all our leases, and please ignore that we now define what 'market rates' are in Detroit) but we make every effort to promote our tenants’ businesses [[if we like them and/or have invested in them and/or they sell colorful, fun crap to distract our young employees) by marketing their products and services in numerous ways [[but don't ask us to actually numerate them, please see the first two statements above). We have a strong interest in the success of our commercial tenants [[so they can pay their rent and these abusive fees we arbitrarily assess, hey some of these trappings of success can be expensive to maintain) and go above and beyond to help support their operations [[as long as they agree to give a discount to all of our employees, and properly approach and consider our CEO's derriere!). We are proud of our tenant relations and track record with all businesses we [[publicly) engage with downtown, everybody loves us...you can take that to the bank.”