In case you missed it, or haven’t seen it yet, there’s a really well-reported feature story about one of Detroit’s least popular plutocratic families. It’s in the Harper’s, it’s about the Morouns, and it’s called “Crossing Guards” — subtitled “When private ownership of a bridge gets old.”
It’s not the first up-close-and-personal look from a national magazine at the family that made the Ambassador Bridge the centerpiece of a trucking empire. Thirteen years before the leftish Harper’s take on Moroun, Forbes magazine zoomed in on the family in a piece titled, “The Troll Under the Bridge.” Which goes to show that even arch-capitalists harbor some qualms about private ownership of a vital choke point.
One of the best things about the Harper’s piece is that it’s written by Matt Mossman, a native Ontarian who went to school with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. His touch gives the reporting a quaint hometown warmth when it concerns Windsor, Sandwich, and Essex County. (For the Morouns, well, not so much.)
To see the Harper’s article, click here.
This article appears in Nov 22-28, 2017.
