MCS Court Hearing Rescheduled
June 5th, 2009
The hearing scheduled for the 29th of May was rescheduled to the 12th of June, which is in a few days here.
A hard-copy of the petition, which now includes Michigan Senator Cameron Brown, was overnighted today and will be in the hands of Stanley Christmas tomorrow by noon.
I would like to find out more about what is going on. I am horrified that stimulus money is being used to tear down such an important monument. What kind of fund raising activities have been undertaken? What is the estimated cost to rehabilitate the entire structure? I am a former suburban Detroit resident and now live in Los Angeles. I am a City Planner working for the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles and would like to help in anyway. I strongly believe that historic preservation is a critical element in redevelopment.
Detroit resident Stanley Christmas sued the city of Detroit to stop the demolition effort, citing the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
From what Mr. Christmas tells me, there are many people working in many different ways to save the building. He is confident it will be saved. He can be contacted via his website.
Also, Preservation Wayne is accepting donations via this Facebook Cause. Don’t be shocked at the numbers on the Cause, it’s just been started.
I hope we can save the station. It is too gorgeous to tear down. Who is the owner nowdays? Maybe they could do a thing like Buffalo Central Terminal and sponsor cleanups and concerts or special events to get volunteers and the public to help out. BCT is coming along and looking great with lots of volunteers. I hope MCS is spared.
That’s why I’ve been posting the suggestion to look at the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation website!
I hope someone up there takes a page from our (the CTRC) playbook and applies the same logic to save Michigan Central Station. I hope there is an effort in the works to form a non-profit or not-for-profit preservation group in the Detroit community for the purpose of saving MCS.
My hope is if such a group comes about, the owner of MCS, Manuel ‘Matty’ Moroun could possibly be persuaded to sell (or donate) MCS to this preservation group, realize a tax break for doing so, and allow those who want to save and restore it to get involved with the group’s activities.
Let’s get that group going! There’s not much time. Find out what you need to do legally to organize such a group, before the court hearing date!
MCS might make a terrific college campus, among other things, if it is saved!
I live in California but I am doing more than a lot of people right in Detroit. Is there any people on this blog that actually live nearby the Station? They might be the ones to organize a committee on restoring and using the station for cultural and public events. We need to start a non-profit group to undertake this and to work on cleaning and restoring the terminal. It would not be hard for Amtrak to move back in if they had a decent place to go. Their current McStation is not very exciting or usefull for most travelers. The tracks are still there unlike Buffalo’s station.
I just had an idea. Could any Detroit people call the local tv station and get an interview about saving the station and turning it in to a cultural BCT type operation? I am sure they would get airtime on a local station and it might bring in more publicity and members for cleanups and restoration. I am sure the public would help if they knew about it. Lets kick that idea around before they try to tear it down again. Maybe “Moroun” might be interviewed also. Just a few thoughts I had. Let me know what you think.
A couple of months ago I submitted a guest editorial letter to the Detroit Free Press, and I was contacted by Nichole Christian of that newspaper, saying that they would love to print it if I could send her a photo of myself (I guess they have a thing about putting photos with letter writer’s comments). I don’t know if it ever got printed, I haven’t heard back from her. I don’t have time to religiously check the ‘Freep’ website to find out.
I know the guy who inflicted most of the damage to BCT, Thomas Telesco, after gutting out everything of value there, selling the stuff and pocketing the money, then sold it to Bernard and Sam Tuchman, who continued to strip out anything of value they could find, and allowed the place to become such an eyesore that demolition seemed almost inevitable. That is, until angry neighboring residents got together and took the Tuchmans to housing court, where Bernard Tuchman then told Scott Field, the founding CTRC president, that he would sell BCT to Mr. Field for $1 if he thought he could do something with it. Mr. Field promply responded by taking out his wallet, pulling out a dollar bill, handed it to Mr. Tuchman and said ‘You’re on!’. Shortly afterward, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation was formed. If anyone has access to a video produced by Canisius College, called ‘Central Terminal- Saving a Buffalo landmark’ I highly recommend watching it. The DVD is also available from the CTRC at http://buffalocentralterminal.org the online store has a link on the home page.
Walter, keep gathering as many signatures on the petition as you can, and let’s take this effort right down to the wire (the hearing date)! And, may the Force be with you, and all of you that signed the petition!
Tomorrow will be the day of decision. Let us hope for the best. Say your prayers for MCS.