Illitch

i can't stand it when i hear people criticizing the Illitches... i'm not saying they're saints or anything, but the mere fact that they even try to do anything in Detroit is a great thing to me... have they handled everything the way i would or would want them to??? no... but why should i expect a businessman to not do things that are in his best interest, that would make him money??? people expect the rich to give up things just because their rich, but often times, those same people don't make similarly proportioned demands on themselves to give up what is theirs for the "greater good" or what is best for a city...

i'm glad the Illitches have restored the Fox, that they helped build Comerica Park and that they haven't given up their properties to crappy businesses (muffler shops, liquor stores) that wouldn't bring about the Downtown Detroit that we all want to see... people accuse them of being slumlords and for harboring abandoned properties, but do people ever think that their properties aren't being used because people simply don't want to do business in the D??? it's not like people are begging to do business here... if someone else owned those properties and fixed them up, i doubt they'd be filled... take a look at lower Woodward... they just "spruced" up that strip and only a small handful of those properties are being used...

i for one am grateful that they'd even take a chance on the D... seriously, if people had the chance to make large investments with that kind of money, most wouldn't gamble on the D... the Illitches could easily go to Oakland County or Chicago and prolly make even more money than they would here... but they're here and have some level of commitment to Detroit... it's more than we can say for a lot of other businessman who started in Detroit and then moved on...

again, i'm not saying that they're saints or that they've handled anything perfectly... but quit the whining and complaining and be grateful that someone would even want to do business in our city...