It’s hard to figure what Michael Gordon had in mind when he decided to attack Dick Irby and photographer Dave White of Fox41 last week.
Gordon owns the Gordon Motor Sports dealership on Hurstbourne, in what used to be a Dillon’s Steakhouse. Irby’s been investigating the city’s planning and zoning department, discovering that the department is a bit lax when it comes to citations for certain individuals who break the rules.
I don’t want to give Irby’s story away - because you should tune in tonight at 10 for the footage - but he found out that Gordon wasn’t abiding by rules for preserving the building, which is 213 years old. Bascially, he gutted the structure and added modern exteriors in violation of city regulations.
So when Gordon saw Irby and White taping some footage outside his dealership (but not, incidentally on his property) Gordon went after the camera in an attempt to break it. Not smart. White knew how to handle Gordon, even though he suffered a scrape on his hand, and Gordon’s lucky he’s not getting sued. But he should be plenty embarrassed.
Planning Division director Charles Cash has an embarrassing on-camera interview as well.
The station’s been promoting the story all weekend, as it should.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Gordon // Nov 17, 2008 at 2:53 pm
That Gordon guy (not me) is sort of different. The dealership features a Medevil theme, and you sit in thes huge chairs that look like something from a Monty Python movie. There are swords and all sorts of stuff. It’s really sort of creepy. But he does deal in very high quality used cars. I believe he has or had a Ferrari on the lot a couple of weeks ago.
2 notwhatitseems // Nov 17, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I went to test drive a car on his lot and it seemed to be a nice enough high end car but when I went to start it, the battery was dead. I also thought it was a little creepy in there and Mr. Gordon was a little over confident in his sales pitch. Kind of funny that when I came back to him with his keys to tell him it wouldn’t start, he didn’t miss a beat and had an appropriate response waiting. Can’t wait to watch the story.
3 Carter Burger // Nov 17, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Why isn’t this prick being sued? Would be kinda hard to defend your actions when you are caught on videotape. Perhaps not being held to the rules in the past is why he thinks he can send a big ole FU to the Planning Commission and do what he wants to.
4 Hmmm // Nov 17, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I just wanna know why it’s “news” in this town that Planning & Zoning is lax about enforcing rules when it comes to businesses. If this story constitutes “news”, then could someone direct Dick over to IPL where he can ask some questions about condo developers in this town?
5 Crutnacker // Nov 18, 2008 at 6:31 am
Does planning and zoning actually DO anything? Any board worth its salt (of which I’m guessing there are zero in the state, much less the country) would pay far more attention to laying out the community in a thoughtful manner instead of placing a development every fifty feet in a busy community.
Dick Irby’s comment at the end of the piece was out of character for him, but totally appropriate. Charles King should be ashamed of the way he’s handled it. Anyone check what type of car HE is driving?
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