The Commonwealth of Belle Isle

[JoeBob]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130112/NEWS/301139971#

[cameraman]

The guy needs to put away that crack pipe.

[TravelGal]

Good grief. This works in Dubai when you make palm shaped islands and $1 Billion is chump change. Detroit? Not so much.

[chop456]

"It might sound crazy, but I guarantee you it's going to happen. We're going to spend the rest of our lives working on this."

Knock your socks off, Chief. :gomer:

[Andrew Longman]

I don't know. They built CityCenter in a city the middle of the desert and did it with private money.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20121105/ARTICLE/311059994?p=3&tc=pg

It would have been interesting to see how it would have turned out if the economy hadn't dumped.

The key thing here is that the top x% have so much money that they are highly motivated to ask and get way they want to keep from paying taxes on it. The whole tax haven thing might give this legs. Unlikely, but possible.

The thing that will stop it IMO are the political forces that will scream about the injustice of not making that the investment into the blight that is within sight of Belle Isle. And because that blight is within sight, I doubt the people who look for tax havens will want to spend time looking at it.

[Napoleon]

I don't know. They built CityCenter in a city the middle of the desert and did it with private money.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20121105/ARTICLE/311059994?p=3&tc=pg


The key thing here is that the top x% have so much money that they are highly motivated to ask and get way they want to keep from paying taxes on it.

And they control the entire state of Mich and even though the people of the state undid that emergency manager law the people in control have come right back with another version of the law which will likely allow them to push a project like this along that with tax breaks and matching funds that will push the cost off on Joe Sixpack at the benefit of that top x%.

[Ed_Severson]

These people know that Belle Isle is, like, right next to Detroit, don't they?

[Andrew Longman]

These people know that Belle Isle is, like, right next to Detroit, don't they?Perhaps they figure that at the rate huge sections of the city are literally going back to nature, they will soon have nice parkland to recreate in.

Either that or they figure they will need somewhere cheap for "the help" to live. Can't build all that luxury and then overpay for waitresses, housekeepers, bartenders, bus boys, trash handlers, gardeners, etc.

All I know is the last time I was on Belle Isle, sometime in the late 80s I think, it was infested with rats big enough to give 70s era NYC rats a run for the money.

;)

[G.]

All I know is the last time I was on Belle Isle, sometime in the late 80s I think, it was infested with rats big enough to give 70s era NYC rats a run for the money.

;)
He was still there in 2001 as a team owner, after he retired from driving.


Wait. We're talking about Rahal, right?

[Chief]

Sounds like the perfect investment for a certain family from Speedway, Indiana. :laugh:

[SurfaceUnits]

Belle Island ghetto to stay a ghetto. The inhabitants of Detroit and the city council demand it

I won't polute the boss's forem : http://lmgtfy.com/?q=belle+isle+park+protests+

And they hate the GP http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/05/26/boycott-detroits-belle-isle-grand-prix-and-its-bankster-sponsors/

Belle Isle protesters and IMS place fans sound like perfect arrangement: status quo trumps improvement