longer and is more complicated than the bsky post or NYT article describes. The Ambassador Bridge was built long ago with private money and was run that way and the shares of the company that owned the bridge could have been bought by the state of Michigan or the US government all along but they chose not to. Then in the '70's Manuel Maroun bought up the shares and invested big in maintenance etc. and collected tolls.
But subsequently political types in Michigan began to see the potential for huge revenue as the cross border trade, mainly auto related, boomed and they wanted the bridge. They have been fighting with that family by denying permits, limiting street access, refusing to fix and maintain the streets and on and on for years they have been battling. Maroun refused to sell. That's just a brief recitation. There is much, much more.
Finally pols in Canada and Michigan got together and said they would construct their own bridge. The Gordie Howe Bridge. There are supposedly legal commitments that were made through the years by the governments of Michigan and Canada regarding The Ambassador Bridge that Maroun kept arguing with Michigan and Canada about them not living up to those and they argued back about other things with Maroun. There have been lawsuits.
Did the man and now his heirs want to maintain their bridge as the primary link across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario? Certainly but this is not some evil billionaire and his heirs trying to strangle Detroit etc. It is a long running battle between political forces who didn't want to take responsibility for something, then saw the revenue potential and have been screwing with the owner who did take responsibility and invest huge money over the years in maintaining and upgrading the bridge.
So they had a right to build their own bridge which they now have done. But the State of Michigan, long time political types, the US government, Canadian government and political types there along with others don't have clean hands either in this long running saga of the question about bridges between Detroit and Windsor. The last I knew a few years back Michigan and Detroit have still not met their commitments about maintenance and improvement of access streets etc. A big part of the arguments about the whole planning and spending on The Gordie Howe Bridge were on the order of "You have huge millions to spend on the access streets for that bridge but you cry year after year you have no money to meet your commitments at The Ambassador Bridge."
There were other issues between the parties to be sure but as I said it is way more involved and long running than the article boils it down to. It has been going on for way longer than Crumb The 1st has been on the scene.
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