For one driver, an expensive night of drinking

By Charles Sercombe
There must have been some bad juju around Wendy’s burger joint over the weekend.
On Friday at about 10:30 p.m. a wall made of cinder block came crashing down on Wendy’s parking lot, causing damage to at least one car but no injuries. City inspectors say it appears someone accidently crashed into the wall recently, which weakened the structure.
The wall, which covered part of New Martha Washington Bakery’s building, was built in the 1980s by the restaurant.
And then early Monday morning at 2:30 a.m. a suspected drunk driver collided into a bus shelter near Wendy’s. The driver took off after striking the shelter but police were able to follow the trail of radiator coolant leaking from the car to his home on Goodson St.
The shelter was removed Monday morning. DPW Superintendent Martin Ladd said the driver will be charged for a new shelter. That alleged night of drinking will now cost the driver an additional $3,500.
And speaking of brick walls tumbling down, anyone walking near the former Citizen newspaper office on Jos. Campau and Zinow may want to take a wide detour around the building. The brick façade of the building has buckled and looks like it will come down at any moment.
Ladd said the owner of the building recently received a grant from the city’s Downtown Development Authority to fix the wall.
And there’s one more cinder block wall coming down. Over at Keyworth Stadium school officials report a wall built to cover a former entrance is falling down. The stadium has historical significance. It was built during the Great Depression in the 1930s and President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the newly constructed stadium to personally dedicate it.
For Hamtramck, that is a day no one will forget.