Quicken loans chairman Dan Gilbert, the man who is helping repopulate Detroit, is fed up with the leadership in Detroit and can't keep quiet about it.
Free Press columnist Tom Walsh reports that Gilbert was disappointed with Detroit City's Council's inaction on letting the state run Belle Isle, and on Tuesday tweeted:
"Det. City Council can't make easy decision turning Belle Isle into a state park. It's light years better. What is so hard?"
On Wednesday, while taking questions from the audience at Detroit Venture Partners conference in Detroit, he was asked by a young entrepreneur about what's missing in Detroit, according to Walsh.
"If you were to have one thing, it's a belief system that things can change and get better if smart people believe and put their minds to getting things done," Gilbert said, according to the Freep.
He said he was also mystified by the about people who complain about the city's future and are so resistent to change for the better.
What mystifies him is that some of the loudest complainers about the city's plight are also the most resistant to changes aimed at improving things.
"There's a belief system -- a venom almost -- there's a whole sector of human beings who not only bitch about the way the world is, they even become more hostile if someone dares suggest an idea or thought that could make it better. I haven't figured that part of it out," he said.
Gilbert told Walsh that his staff was concerned about him speaking up and ticking off the city council. He said he wasn't going to hold back his disappointment.
