Originated February 28, 2006 as part of one entry with the report on the Urban Ring hearing vote, modified March 4, 2006 to add Laura Blacklow's comments, further modified March 5 and March 6 to follow up on an organization mentioned by Laura. I may split out the discussion concerning the Association of Cambrige Neighborhoods because this entry is so large now and the ACN analysis is really quite different from the City Manager analysis.
As of this presentation, the ACN analyses have been broken out into a separate report because of the size of the analysis.
Cambridge City Manager rehired.
1. Bob's Analysis, February 28, 2006.
A. General.
B. Environmental Destruction.
(1) General.
(2) Alewife.
(3) Charles River, General.
(4) Charles River, Magazine Beach.
C. Starvation Attacks on the Charles River White Geese.
D. Cambridge City Manager Unfit.
2. Laura Blacklow's Analysis, March 4, 2006.
Cambridge City Manager rehired.
1. Bob's Analysis, February 28, 2006.
A. General.
Last night, February 27, 2006, the Cambridge, MA City Council rehired Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy for an additional three years. The vote was 8-0-1 with newly elected Councilor Craig Kelley voting present.
B. Environmental Destruction.
(1) General.
Healy has a strikingly bad environmental record. When he does work on parks, the first thing he does is destroy trees and the good trees destroyed outnumber the bad trees.
The most wild parts of the city, Alewife and the Charles River are the most under attack.
(2) Alewife.
The manager is planning major destruction at Alewife, burying a massive tank for flood control in this rather untouched area when the flood control project could be placed under a parking lot a few hundred feet away.
(3) Charles River, General.
On the Charles River, all animal habit and all wetlands are being destroyed. Between the Longfellow Bridge and Magazine Beach more than 449 to 660 trees are being destroyed as part of a road straightening and upgrading which would fit in with relocation of traffic from Storrow Drive on the opposite side of the Charles River and with taking traffic from the Mass. Turnpike (I-90) on a new exit crossing the Charles under the BU Bridge.
(4) Charles River, Magazine Beach.
At Magazine Beach, five trees were destroyed creating a silly puddle feet away from the Charles River with a new bridge across the puddle which in turn has a design dangerous for bicyclists.
At Magazine Beach the animal area shared by humans and animals for more than 50 years has been destroyed. It wetlands have been filled in. Its native vegetation is being replaced with silly introduced bushes which have no business on the Charles River. Magazine Beach is being walled off from the Charles River.
C. Starvation Attacks on the Charles River White Geese.
Truly heartless has been the City Manager’s treatment of the Charles River White Geese.
These beautiful animals are 25 year residents of the Charles River in Cambridge in the area half a mile east and west of the BU Bridge.
The City Manager for the last 18 months has blocked access of the Charles River White Geese to their entire feeding grounds of the last 25 years.
The western part of the feeding grounds, across from the Hyatt Hotel was the site of a sewerage project which ended in September 2004. The Manager left this entire part of the feeding area walled off from the Charles by an unbroken plastic wall, denying the Charles River White Geese their food there of 25 years.
The eastern part of the feeding grounds is the location of the bizarre project at Magazine Beach. Access has been walled off staring in September 2004 by a number of techniques. At one point, there were three walls blocking the White Geese from their food. Multiple walls of one form or another have continued for the past 18 months with only very tiny deviations.
D. Cambridge City Manager Unfit.
The heartlessness of the behavior of the Cambridge City Manager is such that he is unfit to associate with most humans, let alone govern the City of Cambridge, but he was rehired.
2. Laura Blacklow's Analysis, March 4, 2006.
For those of you who have problems with the pro-development stance of Robert Healy, he was voted to stay on as city manager with a 3-year contract, a salary paid by you and me that is higher (according to the Cambridge Chronicle) than the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, the mayor of Boston and the vice president of the United States, and a tax-payer funded car.
You might remember that Healy is the guy who would not appoint a civilian review panel for the police and would not appoint the people necessary for a city human rights commission. He is also the one who appoints the members of the zoning board. A member of NABS (Neighbors and Abutters of the Blessed Sacrament condo
development project, ) has a petition to change the city's rules so that developments cannot have balconies looming over neighbors. In addition, those balconies appear not to be counted in the square footage of the condos if they are above the 4th floor.
Healy also appointed the members of the planning board. Some NABS members, including myself, are suing the Board for disregarding their own rules when a developer like Paul O. & the Blessed Sacrament financial backers, with a lawyer like James Rafferty,who used to be on the city council, goes in front of them.
Last, the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods might add to my observation that, by not allowing any rebuttal to the developer when the Planning Board is about to decide on either approving or turning down a development, the Board also is really
undemocratic. I understand that Boston's planning board does NOT have similar rules.
By voting "present" [ed: original says “not present”], Craig Kelley was the only councillor not to outright approve Healy's contract.
CAVEAT: The hosts of this blog, Bob and Marilyn strongly disagree with Laura's favorable reference to the Association of Cambrige Neighborhoods.
Our response was so long, however, that it was quite out of scale in this report. I have split it out into a separate report.
