Prominent Detroit Businessman Wants To Create A Mountain In The City

DETROIT (WWJ) - Decades of neighborhood neglect have led to piles of trash in some areas, causing residential complaints about lots full of abandoned tires, mattresses and more -- but one prominent Detroit businessman thinks he has a solution.

He wants to create one mountain of trash in the city.

Nico Gatzaros, owner of the London Chop House and Fishbones, is floating the idea of Mount Brightmoor. He wants to dig a hole in the Brightmoor area of Detroit and allow people to dump there for free, so instead of piles of trash around the city, there's one mountain of trash.

He does, though, propose some restrictions.

"Just hard-fill: bricks, mortar, timber, tires, couches, beds -- all those types of things -- and start a pile," Gatzaros told WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton. Then, Gatzaros suggested covering it up and using it as an outdoor venue for concerts -- similar to the DTE Energy Music Theatre or Mt. Holly.

Brightmoor -- in northwest Detroit -- has some of the highest crime rates and abandoned buildings in the city. He says if people get on the bandwagon, it could make a difference in Detroit.

This isn't the first time such a thing has been proposed or executed in metro Detroit. The downriver community of Riverview turned a landfill into a popular ski resort in the 1980s complete with two quad lifts, two handle tows, and eight slopes on 190 feet of vertical space.

The official name was Riverview Highlands, but local residents knew it by the moniker Mt. Trashmore. It was decommissioned after more than a decade in operation because of several factors, including the difficulty of keeping snow on the hill with the constant heat generated by organic matter in the garbage.