Thursday, February 22, 2024

Photos of BU Bridge Rotary and Related, Cambridge, MA / Charles River.

Photos of BU Bridge Rotary and Related, Cambridge, MA / Charles River.

1. New Photos.

We have three new photos for you, a rush hour scene of the BU Bridge Rotary, a felled tree near the overpass I showed being “Storrowed” last time, and a new photo of the Charles River White Geese.

First of all, to place things in perspective, here is the Drone Photo of our principal area:


"From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw


2. Charles River White Geese.

A. Report and photo

* * * *

Two whites were among the Canada geese on the Charles River.  

They were off the gravelly area next to the observation deck.

That was a nice photo op. they came in close to the shore to see if I had any food for them and the sun was sparkling in the water so nicely around them.


B. Location in the drone photo.

Starting at the left end of the BU Bridge, the open space below it is the environmentally responsible MWRA plant.  The brownish color is probably out of season grass.

It is surrounded by trees.  The next open area in the main parking lot for the Magazine Beach recreation area.  Then there is a softball field which is part of the Magazine Beach playing fields..

During the outrages inflicted by Cambridge and the state bureaucrats, they walled off the Magazine Beach playing fields with a row of introduced bushes which were allowed to grow to heights exceeding 13 feet.  They thus turned the playing fields into a situation where the playing fields might as well be ten miles from the Charles River.  That wall, in 2008, commenced years of heartless abuse of the Charles River White Geese from their principal feeding area for most of their residence on the Charles River, the Magazine Beach playing fields.

In 2008, the two also introduced poisons onto the Magazine Beach playing fields with obvious problems for resident animals.

A lot of games have been inflicted on that opening, primarily as part of the continuing heartless abuse of the Charles River.  A nonsensical pond was introduced.  Over the pond was placed a bridge which was too weak and narrow to support vehicle which had transported boats to the Charles River at that location.  That “bridge” thus was another barrier to boat use of the Charles River from Magazine Beach.  This barrier was to boats larger than a canoe.

The Charles River White Geese loved the introduced pond, and used it, horrors, to get food from grass on either side of the parking lot.  With the contempt of governmental entities for resident animals, that could not be allowed.  So the pond was drained and converted into sloping wetlands and another wall of bushes was introduced between the introduced wetlands and the parking lot keeping the Charles River White Geese from that parking lot.

Most recently, the Cambridge City Council, in an essentially SECRET action, “improved” the opening by splattering gravel which would be offensive to web feet and putting in a new wall, an observation deck.  The lie to explain this SECRET was that they were creating a canoe dock.  Since they did not change the bizarre “bridge” which in reality was a wall for boat larger than canoes, they created nothing.

The photo was taken from the gravel area.


3. BU Bridge Rotary..

A. Photo.

In the drone photo, the BU Bridge Rotary is to the left of the BU Bridge.

The report:

* * * *

The picture shows two #47 buses bulling their way through the daily 4:30 traffic jam at the BU bridge rotary. The two together is so typical of how the T runs buses (and trains). One is late, so everyone jams on it when it finally arrives, then another appears right behind it after the first one is loaded and runs mostly empty. The schedule may call for a bus every 20 minutes but you get two with a 40 minute gap between, essentially. On the 47 route sometimes the driver won’t even stop to pick up people waiting at a stop, which is really bad for those who rely on the T to get in to work on time. Don’t know if this happens on other lines but I’ve seen and experienced this, as the 47 goes right down Pearl Street and I used to use it quite a bit. Quite a ride, though, for the price, long route all the way to Southie via Roxbury


* * * *

The near bus is approaching the BU Bridge Rotary from Brookline Street, Cambridge.  Beyond the Yield sign is the other bus, going under Memorial Drive..

The Yield sign is for the BU Bridge Rotary.  The ramp from the rotary to Memorial Drive Westbound can barely be seen beyond it.  Memorial Drive is overhead.  The buildings visible under Memorial Drive are on the far side of the Charles River, very certainly Boston University. Structures look closer than they are because of telephoto distortion.

* * * *

B. . Continued Thanks to Governor Healey.

Kitty Corner from the ramp in this picture is the entrance to the Destroyed Nesting Area of the, Charles River White Geese.  Governor Healey arranged for that entrance to be reopened.  All that can be seen from the blockage is one lone barrel.  Governor Healey reopened this entrance to allow the 43 year resident Charles River White Geese to regain access to the luscious grass under Memorial Drive at that point.  That much LESS heartless abuse by the Cambridge City Council and selected state bureaucrats.


C. Continued Target of the Cambridge City Council and, maybe, state bureaucrats.

Walking up the ramp and crossing over the Grand Junction Railroad bridge, you come to the Wild Area.  I have repeatedly presented a winter view of the Charles River White Geese swimming in the bay next to the Wild Area in the worst of winters.  Here is a view from the BU Bridge, from about halfway across the bridge behind the above photo.


Memorial Drive can just barely be seen over the Grand Junction railroad.  The trees on the left are the Destroyed Nesting area of the Charles River White Geese.  Kitty corner across the DNA is the view in the immediately preceding photo.  The most recent plans of the relevant state bureaucrats that I am aware of show exactly one tree in that area.  My video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o goes into an extended analysis of these plans.  The plans reported in the video resulted in the destruction of hundreds of trees on the Charles River running from the white Boston University building in this photo to the second bridge east of the BU Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge.  This limit was a pleasant deletion.  The Cambridge City Manager condemned int this video has, thankfully, retired.

Recent maneuvers have been telling.  The state bureaucrats had plans to destroy on the Charles River starting with the Wild Area and going beyond.  They lied that the eastern end of the plans was the BU Bridge, but proved that claim a lie in slides which included the Wild Area in their definition of “BU Bridge.”  The bureaucrats backed of the  part of the plans east of the River Street Bridge (1st bridge west of the BU Bridge), but an employee of the Cambridge City Council spoke in a public ZOOM meeting to regain this destruction.  The bureaucrats gave somewhat of a concurrence, but seem to have backed off that, although their action certainly is telling.

Hopefully, Gov. Healey’s intervention will protect this area.  I have fought these outrages since 1985 with success based on non DCR entities.  Cambridge’s destructiveness does not cease, and it is impossible to tell exactly what is going on behind the scene.

The white shapes in front of the Wild Area is a flotilla of the Charles River White Geese hunting for what food has not been destroyed for them.


D. Information from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The most useful graphics of this area that I am aware of appear in a report submitted by MIT to the Cambridge City Council in 2014.

Here is part of the presentation by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the Cambridge City Council in 2014.

The photo in the bottom right is of the Grand Junction under that Memorial Drive Bridge, shown in the photo of the Wild Area above..  

Upper right is an overview of the area around the BU Bridge rotary.  At the far left is the Memorial Drive Bridge over the Grand Junction.  The top left graphics is a key map showing a broader area than the close up.

On the map, point 2 is very close to the location of the camera in the first photo above of the B.U. Bridge Rotary.  The two lines left of point 2 show the traffic flow around the BU Bridge rotary.  The further line is the area shown in that photo.

Here is a blowup of that plan:


Key in this area is the diagonal line with the 3 marking blue lines under it marked 1, the line connecting to the 2, and the curved line IN THE DESTROYED NESTING AREA marked 4.

Line 3 is supposedly a bike highway.  It is a stalking horse for a private off ramp from Interstate I90, visible above the Charles River in the drone photo above and at the beginning of the next section.  The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Company in 2003 proposed that an exit be created from I90 for a nonsensical express bus route.  Once proving it could be done, the MBTA “suddenly” discovered the expense could be justified for an express bus.

The proposed highway would connect to Memorial Drive heading east bound by destroying the Wild Area, and to Memorial Drive heading westbound by an off ramp running past the number 3 and connecting to the BU Bridge Rotary.  Looking at the drone photo above and at the beginning of the next section, the big highway at the bottom of the photo is I90.  There is a side road in I90 to the left of the BU Bridge, and the railroad can be seen going under the BU Bridge.  The game proposed was to widen the railroad by cantilever construction and build ramps in two directions around that side road including the large unbuilt area on the opposite side of I90 to get connection to and from the west, i.e. the left, in the photo.

That stalking horse bike highway appears to have been funded.  It supposedly will CONNECT to the mess at the BU Bridge Rotary shown in the above photo.  “Suddenly” the “planners would discover the mess and say they have to connect to the I90 area described in the MBTA plans.  ALL SORT OF GAMES have been tried by organized people in the planning for I90's rebuild.  Naturally, after the smoke has clearly with bike highway and the RELATED widening of the railroad bridge, suddenly somebody will discover what a great off ramp that will make to MIT and MIT’s speculative development.

LAST I HEARD, MassDOT had rejected those games, BUT I HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE LOOP FOR YEARS.

The blue lines under the supposed bike highway are marked by the number 2.  Near the upper right corner is the connection MIT proposed in this plan.  MIT seems to be in the process of destroying that connection for another dormitory, with help of property maneuverings by the Cambridge City Council which were essentially secret.

Connecting to the bend in that blue road (Vassar Street) at the middle of the plan by a taking of a parking lot between the bend and the supposed bike highway will satisfy the “suddenly needed” connection for the bike highway.  Review of the aerial photo above in the combined MIT page shows the viability.  There is an open area parking lot under the bend which could be partially taken to put in platform parking to replace the parking lost.

The route marked 4 is MIT’s exposure of a highway in planning through the Destroyed Nesting Area.


4. Tree Destruction between the two overpasses.

A. The drone photo cropped to the overpass.

Here is the drone photo cropped to the overpass..


The overpass is the almost vertical line at the left.  Morse School is to its right above Memorial Drive.  The trees at the bottom are at the northwest corner of the Magazine beach playing fields.

Here is a tree destroyed from nature combining with neglect, photo with commentary.  Apparent distances are confused by the lens used.

* * * * *

here's another photo of the stressed trees along the Drive (opposite the school) that just blew down in the past few days


* * * *

The green figure to the left is the overpass.  Straight ahead is, first, Memorial Drive, and then Cambridge’s Morse School, also shown in the blowup.


5. Our 50 page report.

Presented to the Cambridge City Council, Governor Healey and others.  Cite is to the City Council records.  This document is the basis for the clean up of the food access of the Charles River White Geese at the on ramp to Memorial Drive east from the BU Bridge Rotary.  It also provides photos with more detail than have been possible in this report.

https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, Pages 2654 to 2713, Communication 177, City Council, 6/26/23.

Plus a very distressing list of horrors from Cambridge and state bureaucrats.

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Update on recent Cambridge, MA / Charles River Photos

 Update on recent Cambridge, MA / Charles River Photos.


1. Central Square Revisited

2. Memorial Drive at Magazine Beach, box truck being “Storrowed”


1. Central Square Revisited

I recently passed on a particular outrage in Central Square, Cambridge, business as usual in spite of environmental nonsense.

About 8 excellent Locust Trees were destroyed, probably to brag about the “replacements” while keeping the destruction silent.  The number may include one or two different varieties outside the planters.

Officially, this location from which these excellent trees were destroyed is called “Carl Barron Plaza.”  I understand that Wikipedia has “late 1980's” for the creation of the plaza, and thus for the planting of the Locust Trees.


We do not seem to have before pictures for the plaza more recently..  

We, however, have been provided the following two photos for Locust Trees planted in 1991 at 11-15 Green Street, east of Central Square and a block south in the notorious Simplex area acres of former industrial properties which MIT converted to a many acre wasteland for speculation.  MIT did not evict anybody.  They simply did not replace industrial  tenants as tenants moved out, 

In the first photo, the Locust Trees are on the right, in front of 11-15 Green Street.


A closer view from the opposite direction.


2. Memorial Drive at Magazine Beach, box truck being “Storrowed”

The Boston media are particularly fond of reporting box trucks being “Storrowed,” trying to drive on the Boston boulevard following the Charles River, Storrow Drive.  They are warned of low bridges and keep on driving with fully predictable results, thus "Storrowed."

Magazine Beach has its own access bridge running over Cambridge’s Charles River boulevard, Memorial Drive.  This bridge was rebuilt with a whole bunch of games.  One thing that I thought was a lie was the height warning.  I figured the rebuilding had been intended to be higher and that a warning sign was a lie to fool Cambridge residents into thinking the blockage continued.

My guess appears to have been wrong.  Here is a box truck Storrowed at the Magazine Beach overpass.


Here is the drone photo I have used to place things at Magazine Beach.  


The Destroyed Nesting Area of the 43 year resident Charles River White Geese is just beyond the BU Bridge on the Cambridge Side of the Charles River.  In the middle is the Magazine Beach playing fields on which the Charles River White Geese fed for most of their residence, until the heartless City of Cambridge and state bureaucrats introduced poisons and created the Starvation Wall which separated the playing fields so that they might as well be ten miles from the Charles River.

The bridge where the truck is being “Storrowed” is barely visible to the far left, slightly below the middle.  This still is taken from “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw

Here is a blow up. The overpass is the almost vertical white line at the far left.  Below it is the Magazine Beach playing fields.  Apparently to its right is Cambridge’s Morse School, an elementary school.








Saturday, January 27, 2024

Winter on the Charles River, Cambridge, MA, USA

 RE: Winter on the Charles River, Cambridge, MA, USA


1. Magazine Beach this week.

2. Misleading self-praise from Cambridge.

A. The con.

B. PART OF the reality.

3. Drone View.


1. Magazine Beach this week.


We have received the following photos and comments from the Charles River:

A crew replaced a broken water pipe (goes to fire hydrant, I believe) on Magazine Beach today, most unusual sight

Ed:  This is the grove of large trees at the eastern end of the Magazine Beach recreation area.  The Destroyed Nesting Area is a few hundred feet to the right.  The brick structure running horizontally beyond the grove is the Memorial Drive overpass which is connected to the BU Bridge by a ramp system on either side of the  bridge and the BU Bridge Rotary under the bridge.  The food mentioned in the next section of this report is below Memorial Drive just beyond the BU Bridge rotary.  Covered by snow to the right of the grove is the primary parking area for Magazine Beach.  The grey shape is a car going from the parking area to the nearest ramp.  In section 3 I provide a drone overview of the area.

I interrupted this fine fellow today (a juvenile Cooper's Hawk) hunting a bunny bigger than himself. He gave me the eye for a while, trying to decide if I might be tasty too.



2. Misleading self-praise from Cambridge.


A. The con.

A city magazine for its voters includes the traditional level con on the environment..

Self-praise was heavily present for its planting of trees.

This is a continuing con game.  The City Manager's name is on the magazine.  Clearly it would have been written by the destructive Development Department.

For years, Cambridge bragged about being a Tree City USA.

The con was and continues to be:

The usual environmental bragging is about class patronage for contractors.

They are bragging about all the trees they are planting.

The usual DEADLY environmental destruction is kept silent, class patronage for contractors.

Cambridge keeps as secret as possible the continuing, outrageous destruction of the environment, which looks like class patronage for contractors in the opposite direction.  

While bragging about paying contractors for saplings, they have long kept as secret as possible the unnecessary destruction of the environment primarily with benefit for contractors, at the same time as outrageous destruction, planting saplings to “replace” mature trees which should not have been destroyed in the first place.

The next step in the destruction will, of course, be “new trees,” WITHOUT mentioning the destruction.

This con is a dominant factor is the outrages on the Charles River.


B. PART OF the reality.

Here is my 29 minute video / slide show on the outrageous destruction of hundreds of trees between the BU and Longfellow Bridges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o

Here is my CONCISE summary of outrages I have lived through on the Charles River, including very prominently PART of the heartless abuse of the 43 year resident tourist attraction, the Charles River White Geese.

From the official records of the Cambridge City Council:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713, City Council communication 177, City Council Meeting, 6/26/23.

The real benefit from this summary is that I gave a copy to Governor Healey who through a representative gave me a name at the Department of Conservation and Recreation to whom to provide the report.  That person, would appear to have undone part of the outrages, as stated in detail below.

My report to the Cambridge City Council on the ongoing and increasing destruction of 60 to 65 mostly excellent trees and animal habitat at Magazine Beach on the Charles River.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/charles-river-state-destruction-plans.html.  Blog version, 12/16/2018, Re-submittal to Cambridge City Council, December 17, 2018.

The City Council has proceeded to play games as secretly as possible, through bizarre SECRET votes on the banks of the Charles River which included “public” review by burying the actions among a large, very varied collection of programs.

My recent report on a reversal of PART of the heartless abuse of the 43 year resident tourist attraction, the Charles River White Geese, thank to intercession by Massachusetts Governor Healey. 12/24/23, following up on the large condensed report of destruction cited above.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/deluge-on-charles-river-extreme-cold.html.

My report on Cambridge’s destruction of the excellent grove of trees which adorned Cambridge Central Square.  1/5/24.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/update-on-recent-cambridge-ma-usa.html.  

Coming up, they will, as usual, brag about the “replacements” of these mature trees.

3. Drone View.

We have published a lot of drone photos of the world of the Charles River White Geese, under attack by destructive bureaucrats at the state level and by the environmentally destructive City of Cambridge.

Our source is “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw.

Here is a good drone overview taken from the Boston side of the Charles River, above Harvard’s coming Allston Village campus in planning..


The larger area beyond the Charles River is the Magazine Beach playing fields.  This area was the principal habitat of the 43 year resident Charles White Geese until state bureaucrats and the environmental vile City of Cambridge started their destruction, including heartless starvation of these beautiful and valued birds.

Note the GREEN EDGE of the Magazine Beach playing fields.  This is the Starvation Wall  imposed on the Charles River White Geese which is hated by people who love the Charles River and who want to visit it.  ON THE BANKS OF THE CHARLES RIVER, the Starvation Wall made the playing fields as remote from the Charles River as if it were ten miles away.  More importantly from the point of view of these irresponsible government entities, the Starvation Wall keeps the Charles River White Geese from their food for most of the last 43 years, food which these terrible ;people started poisoning in 2008, after it had been pristine for the better part of a century.

The baseball field in the middle of the picture is just below the grove in the above picture.  To its right is an environmentally responsible sewage treatment plant of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.  The MWRA brought the distant ancestors of the Charles River White Geese to the Charles River to sound the alarm against trespassers after the MWRA’s guard dogs passed away.

Just beyond the MWRA plant is the BU Bridge, the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese and the Wild Area.  

The Wild Area has been under attack by Cambridge and its apologists since at least 1986, a few years after the first arrival of the Charles River White Geese. 

The Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese and the Wild Area are the last remaining havens of nature in this part of the Charles River.  They are the thick woods just beyond the BU Bridge.  Memorial Drive is just beyond.  I have been fighting to protect these areas since 1986, with major success as pointed out in the 50 page summary to which Governor Healey has impressively responded.  

Under Memorial Drive just beyond where the BU Bridge reaches Memorial Drive is the vestige of food which Governor Healey has returned to the Charles River White Geese.

Friday, January 05, 2024

Update on recent Cambridge, MA, USA, environmental activity.

 Update on recent Cambridge, MA, USA, environmental activity.


1. Introduction.

2. Technical Correction and related.

3. Follow Up.

4. Recent view of former excellence.


1. Introduction.

A week ago, I praised Massachusetts Governor Healey for standing up to Cambridge and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation in their years long starvation attacks on the Charles River White Geese.

I concluded with a report on tree destruction by Cambridge in Central Square, perhaps a mile from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the heartlessly abused 43 year resident and tourist attraction gaggle.


2. Technical Correction and related.

At the end of the report I added:

“CAMBRIDGE just destroyed ‘eight fine healthy locus trees’ in the heart of Central Square,”

First of all, I included a typo.  The trees were locust trees.  I am not a tree expert.  I noticed the lack of a “t” and figured I could be thinking of a plague of locusts” and let it slide.  I have learned “locusts” was correct.  Additionally, there is a chance that one or more may have been another variety of tree.  Since the evidence has been destroyed, it is impossible to check, so let us be with that notation.

The casual destruction of excellence by Cambridge and the DCR is nothing less than outrageous.  It gets worse when you listen to city councilors loudly bragging of environmental sainthood.

Cambridge received a Tree City USA award for several years.  The game was that Cambridge bragged about a lot of REPLACEMENT trees planted and “neglected” to mention all the trees destroyed by Cambridge.

The most wanton outrage in recent years was the destruction of hundreds of mostly excellent trees on Memorial Drive between the BU and Longfellow Bridges, followed by the ongoing destruction of 65 (number keeps increasing) at Magazine Beach on Memorial Drive, the in season residence of the Charles River White Geese, UNTIL CAMBRIDGE AND THE DCR STARTED STARVING THEM AND OTHERWISE ABUSING THEM.  

Last I heard, the Cambridge City Council had funded the hiring of the woman who poisoned the Charles River to do the planning of the destruction of the excellent MicroCenter Grove as part of the 65 tree destruction.  A few years earlier, she provided the City Council with plans she had agreed to which would destroy that grove.  The poisoning was done as agent for the DCR, with assistance in removed destroyed excellent vegetation from Cambridge.

Planning for destruction, of course, was also with the DCR.

And the Cambridge City Council keeps up its bizarre claims of environmental sainthood.


3. Follow Up.

I have gotten the following comment:

* * * * *

I've passed by the site of the destruction a couple of times now and it just sickens me to see the stumps of those beautiful, healthy trees. There were street trees along with the ones in the raised planters, which tends to give me the idea they may have been of several species. So many street trees dying on the neighborhood streets, and here we lose these fine hardy specimens. You'd think a city as rich as Cambridge could afford to have them professionally excavated and safely moved elsewhere, at the very least.

There are two huge locusts in the yard of my neighbor behind me. One is a black locust, that bears clouds of sweet-smelling white blossoms in June (it looks like it snowed in my yard when the petals fall from the tree) and the other a honey locust that is probably a good 60' tall. Locust wood is exceptionally strong and bug resistant. When I lived on a farm many years ago there was a pasture enclosed by a locust wood fence whose posts the locals told me had been put in during the Civil War, and it was still sound.

* * * *


4. Recent view of former excellence.

Wednesday, I passed by the destroyed excellence in Central Square.

Here are two photos I took as an update:






Sunday, December 24, 2023

Deluge on the Charles River, extreme cold, and thanks to Gov. Healey.

Deluge on the Charles River, extreme cold, and thanks to Gov. Healey.


1. Introduction.

2. The Charles River White Geese in Winter.

A. Bad weather protection.

B. The Charles River White Geese on Thursday.

C. Sickness as Usual in Cambridge.

3. Thank you Governor Healey.

4. Sources.

A. Destruction of hundreds of trees outrage by DCR and Cambridge between the BU and Longfellow Bridges.

B. Letter received by Governor Healey.


1. Introduction.

On Thursday, I visited the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.

The Charles River White Geese had gone from the second heaviest deluge in history to a very cold day.

I only saw about half the geese I expected.  So I anticipate the rest were on the river looking for food, and taking advantage of the warmer temperature of water.

I was very pleased on entering the DNA to see a great improvement at the entrance, for which I thank Governor Healey.


2. The Charles River White Geese in Winter.

A. Bad weather protection.

Last weekend, we had the second largest deluge ever.  Flooding occurred in sensitive rivers, but I was not seriously concerned about the Charles River White Geese.  They have a bay near their nesting area which is well protected to which they go during extreme conditions.  It is below the Wild Area on the far side of the Grand Junction railroad  THIS LOCATION IS NOW SUBJECT TO THREATS BY THE DCR / CAMBRIDGE.

When it is extremely cold, in particular, there are many Canadas in the DNA (Destroyed Nesting Area) and no Charles River White Geese.  The Charles River White Geese are in the nearby bay.  Here is a photo from years past.  The Massachusetts Dept. of Cons. & Rec.’s plans show one tree NOT BEING DESTROYED in the Wild Area, through which this photo was taken.


B. The Charles River White Geese on Thursday.

The remaining portion of the gaggle were under large trees near the water on the BU Bridge side of the DNA.  In the background is the Grand Junction railroad bridge and the hill in the DNA supporting the tracks.


The Geese with large black spots are descendants of either Toulouse Geese who were dumped at Magazine Beach in 2006 or so, or White Geese with vestigial markings.  In either case, the offspring from mating with the rest of the gaggle frequently have these combination markings.

Brown Beauty, a female goose, stands out in my memory.  A daughter of the assassinated leader of the gaggle, Bumpy, she was hatched before 2000, 1996 stands out in my mind for some reason.  There has been a male that I am aware of since then with vestigial markings as well.


The bare ground has commonly been created by nuts working in support of the DCR with a shared contempt for ground vegetation.

Here is a view in the other direction showing the very close BU Bridge.

During repairs on the BU Bridge in 2010 or so, a strip of about 50 feet was needed for repair access.

And here is a view standing away.  This small area is a rare area which has not seen destruction by the DCR / its friends,


C. Sickness as Usual in Cambridge.

As part of the sick situation in Cambridge, CAMBRIDGE just destroyed ”eight fine healthy locus trees” in the heart of Central Square, and, as on the Charles, lies of environmental sainthood are normal from the Cambridge City Council.

The pols create “plans” which CAREFULLY EXEMPT WHAT THEY WANT DESTROYED.  I do not know if the bureaucrats bothered with the supposed “protections.”


Citizen “reviews” commonly amount to sales pitches.


Cambridge has received multiple “Tree City USA” Awards.  The applications brag of plantings BUT KEEP SECRET THE EXCELLENT TREES NEEDLESSLY DESTROYED that the bragged about plantings are “replacing.”  

Central Square is business as usual.


3. Thank you Governor Healey.

I was pleased to see the entrance to the DNA in the corner next to the BU Bridge and its rotary under Memorial Drive.


I complained of the starvation blockade of this entrance at pages 34 and 35 of the letter the governor received.  The nesting area is to the right.  Almost all food has been destroyed in the nesting area.   The luscious, LAST REMAINING FOOD is straight ahead.

Straight ahead is the ramp from the BU Bridge to Memorial Drive heading east.  The Charles River White Geese CAREFULLY stand on the sidewalk straight ahead and wait for traffic to clear before carefully crossing.  Drivers who come along sit and wait with smiles for the geese to get to their food.

Here are photos from the past.   The DCR learned, horrors, that the Charles River White Geese were actually getting food in spite of their starvation attempts.

Here are two photos.  The obstacles are placed fully blocking transit.  People move them to get in.  The ability to get food varies with the amount of moving done by the public.



Hopefully, the entrance will remain unobstructed.


4. Sources.


A. Destruction of hundreds of trees outrage by DCR and Cambridge between the BU and Longfellow Bridges.

Video, “Memorial Drive Destruction, Final Cut,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.


B. Letter received by Governor Healey.


https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True

Pages 2654 to 2713, Communication 177, City Council, 6/26/23.


At the direction of Governor Healey’s representative, electronic masters of this document were provided to a person at the DCR.  Those electronic masters are available and will be provided to interested folks.  

A caveat, this is 50 pages very heavily filled with photos.  The files are large and require multiple sendings.  Files originally attempted to be provided in accordance with Governor Healey’s wishes had to be further split to get into the state computers.  Contract us at boblat@yahoo.com.

Friday, November 03, 2023

Historical fraud from Massachusetts Institute of Technology continued. Historical “improvement” FLAT OUT LIE.

 Historical fraud from Massachusetts Institute of Technology continued.  Historical “improvement” FLAT OUT LIE.

Continuing the “historical" outrage from MIT IN WORSE DETAIL.

Here are two more photos from the same shoot.

It turns out that the Mass. Ave. Side is also totally gutted.

First, straight in from the Grand Junction.

Then turning the camera to the left and showing the gutting behind the Mass. Ave. frontage.


Sunday, October 22, 2023

MIT’s lovely promises for “renovation” of historical building translate as sugar coated DESTRUCTION, AS USUAL.

1. Introduction

2. MIT’s “Explanation.

3. Cambridge’s Most Recent “Explanation” Compared to Reality.


1. Introduction

MIT’s lovely promises for “renovation” of historical building translate as sugar coated DESTRUCTION, AS USUAL.

I have done two posts on this outrage.  It is highly relevant to the Charles River White Geese because this outrage WITHOUT THE DESTRUCTION is perhaps the emblem of a bike path which is the front for and which is part of the ongoing efforts to destroy on the Charles River.

And this DESTRUCTIVE REALITY IS TOO MUCH THE REALITY WITH SO MUCH OF THE USUAL LOVELY CLAIMS FROM WHOMEVER CONCERNING THE CHARLES, ITS WATER, ITS VEGETATION AND ITS ANIMALS.

My first report is posted at:  https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mit-destroying-historical-storage.html.  

My “preliminary” follow up with damning photos is at https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mits-renovation-of-historical-warehouse.html.

The problem is that the “preliminary” follow up does a pretty good job of reporting the outrage.  I could go further, but going further would be massive work in processing a LOT OF PHOTOS, and could also evolve into ongoing reports, and that definitely is not the purpose of this blog.


2. MIT’s “Explanation.

I have promised to provide MIT’s “explanation.”  So here it is, first with a screen shot, then with the gory details.  Note the image credits at the end apply as well to the MIT photos in the “preliminary” report.  My credit has been to MIT.  MIT's credit is more accurate.  Both photos are provided, fair use like this report, in my “preliminary” report.

* * * *

Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, Building 

W41

MIT is renovating the Metropolitan Warehouse to create a vibrant interdisciplinary hub for design and education and to house the School of Architecture and Planning, a new makerspace for Project Manus, and the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design.


STATUS

In constructionr

COMPLETION DATE

2025

THEMES AND PRIORITIES

Innovation and collaboration

Renovation and renewal

Enhancement of life and learning

Designed by Frederic Pope (first section) and Peabody & Stearns (subsequent additions), the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse — one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood — was originally constructed in 1895. The building is listed on the State Register of Historic Places and has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. With its square brick tower and crenellated corbelled cornice, it resembles a medieval castle on a city street corner.

MIT’s adaptive reuse of the Metropolitan Warehouse building will redevelop it as a center of interdisciplinary design research and education, providing a new home for the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). The building will also house the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design, which aims to foster collaboration and innovation on campus, encouraging design work to grow across disciplines. In addition, the building's flagship Project Manus makerspace will serve as a substantial addition to the MIT Makersystem and will expand the design and fabrication facilities available to the campus. As a whole, the reimagined Met Warehouse will include new classrooms, design studio space that will significantly increase MIT’s capacity for arts and design programming, new faculty offices, and areas for meetings and collaborative activities.

The adaptive reuse of the structure will endeavor to preserve the building’s historic character while leveraging and valorizing its existing spaces and infrastructure to serve the needs of current and future programming. A critical design element is the introduction of new floor “platforms” to provide necessary high-bay program space and to allow natural light to penetrate core building areas. The strategic integration of old and new will enhance interdisciplinary interactions between SA+P and other schools at MIT while providing space for an auditorium and other possible ground-floor amenities.

“The renovation of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is intended to generate new opportunities for research, teaching, and innovation at the Institute,” says Provost Martin A. Schmidt. “I look forward to seeing faculty and students, across many disciplines, use the new space to push their fields into the future.”

IMAGE CREDITS

Melody Craven and Monica Lee

3. Cambridge’s Most Recent “Explanation” Compared to Reality.

The original publication of this post was October 22, 2023, a week ago.

In working on the condensed version of this report for publication on Face book and Email Publication, I have obtained the Cambridge Development Department PROMISE of what is being done to this building in relation to the lovely “Grand Junction Path” promises.

Here is the presentation at their June 22, 2022 meeting, taken from the Cambridge, MA on line presentation.


Cropped to the "protected" historical building.




In this picture, the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese is, for all practical purposes, straight ahead.

Here is our photo from a week ago.


As usual in Cambridge, a dramatic difference between what was promised and this reality a week ago.

WITH MORE TO COME.

Monday, October 16, 2023

MIT’s “renovation” of Historical Warehouse

This is a preliminary report.

The collection of photos I created yesterday, October 15, 2023, is massive.  It will take quite a bit of time to process them.  However, as I have started this project, it is clear that some major issues are blatant.  So here goes.

Years ago, as part of its empire building, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology purchased a historical warehouse on the South Side of Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, between Vassar Street and the Grand Junction Railroad.  We have reported on a “multi-use” path going by it.  The warehouse has featured prominently in the publicity for this nonsensical highway.

MIT has constantly promised to preserve this historical building.  We have made copies of those promises from MIT’s website.  Those details will be provided when I can process the massive number of photos I took.

MIT has started bringing reality to the warehouse and to the “usual types” who run around Cambridge bragging about reality being somewhere close to the nonsense commonly splattered about development in Cambridge.

Here are the ONLY photos on the website which we have found.  The description of MIT will be provided verbatim in our coming report.

Here is the Vassar Street side:




Here is the Massachusetts Avenue Side:


This photo is taken from my October 15, 2023 photos.  This is the Grand Junction side viewed from Mass. Ave.

Not at all surprising when you are dealing the fraud in the communication of development in the City of Cambridge, MIT keeps secret its side facing the Grand Junction.  Because of the DELIBERATE secrecy, we are forced to improvise.  The Grand Junction side was close to identical to the Vassar Street side.

Here is ONE of our many photographs of the Grand Junction side on Sunday, October 15, 2023:


Note the PARTIAL MESSAGE SHOWING.  The full message remains on the Vassar Street side, above.

MIT claims to be renovating.

This photo was taken from Massachusetts Avenue on the Grand Junction side of the building.

Running from the left, first is shown a partial view of the REMAINING Mass. Ave. Frontage.  Then you have the undestroyed portion of the Grand Junction frontage.  The next “building” facing the Grand Junction railroad has the remnant of the sign which is still whole on the Vassar Street side.  

Look to the left of the frontage.  There you will see an interior wall of this created subbuilding.  Look a little bit to the left and you will see THE INNER PART OF A FALSE FRONT remaining facing Vassar Street.  The other side of the false front fits MIT’s rendition of the Building it is “saving.”

Here is a view of Mass. Ave. front taken from the opposite side of Mass. Ave. on October 15, 2023:

NOTE THE HOLE AT THE TOP OF THE FRONTAGE.  That is the destruction facing Mass. Ave. as of October 15, 2023.  On the right, you can see the Grand Junction and the Grand Junction frontage.

Here are one true gem in Harvard Square of which Cambridge environmentally reprehensible City Council voted to encourage destruction.  The Cambridge City Council has a 200 page guidebook to the politically correct way to destroy Harvard Square.  Any and all planned destruction will be decided by a body selected with major input by the bureaucrats.  This is the same bureaucracy which from 1991 or 1992 to 2012, AT MINIMUM LIED that an alternate route to putting the “Inner Belt” subway through the Wild Area and up the Grand Junction next to this building DID NOT EXIST.


The kind of people who get appointed by that bureaucracy tend to look at this excellence, SNIFF and say “next case.”

A key part of the LIE that Kenmore Crossing did not exist in “inner belt” plans was the need to move  Landsdowne Station on the Commuter Rail line from near Fenway Park to one block from the core of the Boston University campus, at Mountfort and St. Mary’s.  The core part of Boston University is on the opposite end of the BU Bridge from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese.


Landsdowne Station survives as part of a four building complex across from Fenway Park (2 up, 2 approved).  The developer was decidedly shocked when I told the developer of Cambridge’s plans.  Very quickly, as these things go, the state rebuilt Landsdowne Station to full station standard.  Now it is under this massive new building which is very visible from Fenway Park.  Lies are normal in Cambridge, MA.  Boston University has major holdings beyond the Beacon Street Bridge, in the distance.  The station is under the building to the left.  This station is not going anywhere.

But Cambridge, MA, has a terrible City Council which is doing all it can to create outrages.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

MIT Destroying historical storage building which it promised to save.

Report from Robert J. La Trémouille

IN PROCESS NOW.

The historical WAREHOUSE storage building now owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and located on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge between Vassar Street and the Grand Junction Railroad Tracts WHICH HAS BEEN PROMISED TO BE SAVED BY MIT is in the process of demolition.

This was observed by me about 1:30 pm, October 12, 2023 from the #1 bus traveling toward Boston.

Demolition is ongoing on the top floors facing the Grand Junction railroad.

SUPPLEMENT:   This post is getting a lot of hits.  The follow up post with photos is getting less.  Please see https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mits-renovation-of-historical-warehouse.html for gory details.  I have a lot of photos, but it is also a lot of work.  This may wind up as the DEFINITIVE post.


Sunday, October 08, 2023

Charles River White Geese: Fire next door to the Destroyed Nesting Area

 Charles River White Geese:  Fire next door to the Destroyed Nesting Area

Here is a photo taken from the website of WBZ TV Boston.  WBZ TV was reporting a fire on the opposite side of the BU Bridge from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.

The report is that of a fire reported to be in a homeless encampment.  The situation, obviously, is yet another result of the extreme lack of fitness of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to be charged with the maintenance of properties on the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge.

The view is from a point a little bit north of the Cambridge city line on the BU Bridge.

The building at the right is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology building which is separated from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese by Memorial Drive and the on ramp to Memorial Drive from the BU Bridge.  The DNA is approximately to the right of the car which is visible.

The thick smoke is obviously from a landscaped strip managed by the DCR located between the BU Bridge and the sensitively designed pollution control plant of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.  The row of trees on the left abut the plant.

I walked around this area on Thursday. The area I saw, consistent with the belligerent incompetence of the DCR, was a mess.  A fire is not at all surprising.  Not that long ago, a contractor working for the DCR created a public health emergency in the Charles River by rerouting poisons dumped on Magazine Beach by the DCR and Cambridge into the Charles River, creating an algae infestation.  The DCR has inflicted decades of heartless abuse of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese.  The DCR with Cambridge assistance has destroyed more than 150 commonly excellent trees between the BU Bridge and Longfellow Bridge on the Charles River.  The DCR  and Cambridge are in the middle of destroying another 60 commonly excellent  trees at Magazine Beach.

The DCR is belligerently unfit to be charged with state properties on the Charles River.  I have recently gone into detail of its record (including a predecessor entity).  That analysis may be seen in Cambridge, MA records at:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713.  It can be difficult to wander through the Cambridge records.  At the request of Governor Healey’s Assistant Secretary for the Environment, I have recently provided the off line masters for this document to an official at the DCR.  I would be pleased to provide the off line files to people so requesting at boblat@yahoo.com.  There are an extremely large number of graphics in this report.  I have subdivided the files into workable size.  It is feasible to transmit them at your request.

The Charles River White Geese should be safe from this outrage.  The unfit DCR, however, keeps on creating outrages.

My solution of the DCR problem is to replace the DCR on the Charles River with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation which also is responsible on the Charles River but has different responsibilities.  MassDOT is not perfect, but on shared responsibilities, MassDOT looks like the adult in the room with the DCR and Cambridge.

I encourage anybody who is concerned with the environment to communicate to Governor Healey.  It is a waste of time to attempt to deal with the belligerently destructive Cambridge City Council.  However nominal communications could be of value.  The Cambridge City Manager is relatively new and could be of help.  City Council candidates other than two with records on the Charles River are also possible people to communicate with.  Among other problems, one of the new candidates did the poisoning of the Charles as documented in our DCR report.


Friday, October 06, 2023

More destruction DECEPTIVELY proposed for the Charles River.

 More destruction DECEPTIVELY proposed for the Charles River.


1. General.

2. Plans.

A, General.

B. Governing plans.

C. DCR regeneration.

D. MIT Lecturer.

3. Reality.



1. General.


Another fake protective group has reared it misleading head.

An entity which claimed to be the “BU Bridge Safety Alliance” held a presentation on Thursday, October 5, 2023, announcing ideas which would be “better for all.”

It turned out to be an Massachusetts Institute of Technology lecturer indulging in a teaching session with his class with glorification galore, and minimal understanding of local history and lack of concern about environmental impacts.

I saw one student express concern about harm to existing trees.  He was sloughed off.  At another point, I raised plans IN THE IMPLEMENTATION STAGE  to make the situation worse from what passes for planners in Cambridge.  The instructor was uninterested.

Included in the group was a Cambridge City Council staffer who has conveyed the City Council’s destructive ideas to the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation.  The City Council ideas communicated distress that the DCR had apparently backed off from the most irresponsible plans of the DCR.  The City Council’s destructive ideas comported with one truly irresponsible idea of the MIT lecturer.  The City Council  euphemism is “sidewalk improvements” although the lecturer hid this destructive part of his proposal as much as possible while claiming to be communicating it.  

The staffer is running for City Council.  A more destructive “activist” is among his opposition among City Council candidates.  She created an algae blight which poisoned the Charles River AS PAID CONTRACTOR FOR THE DCR.  That does not make either one of them less of a problem than the City Council and its bureaucrats.


2. Plans.


A, General.

Below is the DCR’s plans for the most irresponsible part of the MIT lecturer’s ideas.  Of importance, MIT supported the January 2016 destruction.  From MIT’s point of view, it “benefitted” from that outrage.  

This part of the plans was not implemented in the 2016 outrage.  In the 2016 outrage the DCR with Cambridge assistance destroyed more than 150 trees near the Charles River between the BU and Longfellow Bridges, including too many truly excellent trees.  Our video on that package may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.  

The instructor’s ideas, obscured as much as possible, and shared by Cambridge’s environmentally destructive City Council, were rejected in 2016.  They resurfaced through fraud in the latest round of plans, and apparently were given up on in favor of less destructive ideas.  BUT THE CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL IS TRYING.

From Cambridge records, here is my recent summary of the continuing outrages most visibly by the DCR, with have included Cambridge bureaucracy and City Council support, with Cambridge’s usual fake protective groups assisting:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713.  This analysis goes back more than twenty years, although the Charles River White Geese have had their habitat on the Charles River in this area for more than 42 years.  

I, at the direction of the governor’s people, have passed master computer files for that document to an office of the DCR.  I would be pleased to pass these master files on to you as well.  Please contact me at boblat@yahoo.com.  I had to split files without deletion of component parts to make the file size of the master files accepted by the state’s computer.


B. Governing plans.


Here are the plans apparently being resurrected by the MIT lecturer which the DCR gave up on in January 2016 and which the Cambridge City Council seems to be trying to revive, along with this MIT lecturer.  The key part of the plans are difficult to read.  I have tried to make them less hidden through lighting modifications.  It is extremely difficult to use the plans.


The actual plans were drawn by a predecessor organization which the legislature tried to destroy to protect the world from its destructiveness.  The “planners” moved to the DCR and have proceeded with the outrages.  I will not waste people’s times by making what, in reality, HAS BEEN MADE a silly distinction between the two entities.

Memorial Drive, the boulevard on the Cambridge side of the Charles River runs right to left starting at the upper left and curving to the upper right.

Below it is the area in very destructive play, the on ramp from the BU Bridge to Memorial Drive.  Running at a slight angle from bottom to top in the middle of the plan is the Grand Junction Railroad.  To its left below the ramp is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  To the right is the Wild Area, the last remaining animal populated woods in this part of the Charles River.  

The DCR demonstrates the vileness of the entire batch of plans by the circle numbered “535” toward the lower right.  This is the ONE tree the batch of destroyers do not seem to be fighting to destroy.  To the left of the Grand Junction are other trees targeted.  The blackened one, marked “541" is the gem of the BU Bridge Rotary in this area, and the gem of this part of the Destroyed Nesting Area.  It would be casually destroyed AS SECRETLY AS POSSIBLE 

The latest round of attacks was delayed by the COVID nightmare.  The DCR lied that its plans ended at the BU Bridge.  


C. DCR regeneration.

Here is one of several essentially duplicate slides from the DCR presentation of the earliest version of its current proposal.


The key lie at that time was that the DCR said its plans eastern boundary was the BU Bridge.  Crossing this plan is Memorial Drive.  Running below Memorial Drive is the BU Bridge, the supposed eastern end.  The lie is demonstrated by the fact that the plans go beyond the BU Bridge to the right.  The area to the right is the area that the DCR did not destroy in January 2016, and which the Cambridge City Council through that staffer, and this MIT lecturer are currently attacking.

The DCR has backed off on this part of their plans, ending the current offensive at the next bridge to the west, the River Street Bridge.  The Cambridge City Council, through that staffer has implored the DCR to do “sidewalk improvements” east of the BU Bridge.  The “sidewalk improvements” are the stuff shown in the above plan, with the MIT lecturer including as misleadingly as possible in his presentation.


D. MIT Lecturer.

The MIT Lecturer had two handouts in his show and tell, one for the Cambridge Side of the BU Bridge, the other (mismarked “Cambridge”) for the Boston Side.

Here is a blow up of the relevant part of the MIT lecturer’s plans.  Dominating the photo from bottom to top, is the BU Bridge.  To the right is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  



At the top is Memorial Drive, below it on the right is the on ramp from the BU Bridge to Memorial Drive, the northern edge of the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  The edge to the right IS NOT EDITED BY ME.  THIS IS AS FAR AS HE WENT TO THE RIGHT.  

The number 3 gives the impression that it indicates the totality of his plans.  His comments extended the plans, if you listened close enough, to the outrage continually showing up from the DCR and the Cambridge City Council in spite of lovely and, in that key DCR announcement, FRAUDULENT comments to the contrary.


3. Reality.

Here is the wild area which would be destroyed.  To its left is the Grand Junction Railroad, and a tiny part of the DNA.  The building to the right is a boathouse owned by Boston University.


DCR work projects commonly have  harm to the Charles River White Geese.  The DCR has explained its continuing outrages by saying it only has a duty to refrain from harming animals on a Federal protected list.

And here is tree 541, NEVER MENTIONED, BUT ALWAYS TARGETED along with a lot of other destruction in the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  Photo was taken from the DNA.

It is now much larger.  In the background is Memorial Drive and a building currently owned by MIT, the employer of the lecturer who is the creator of these latest plans.