Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Visibility 369, "World Saving Environmental Organization" to Ignore Cambridge Environment, as usual?

Bob La Trémouille reports:

On Monday, October 27, 2008, Marilyn and I saw a lot of very friendly people in the latest visibility at the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese. That includes some rather extended discussions.

************

At the same time, I see yet another "World Saving Environmental Organization" being created in the City of Cambridge.

Looks like, although, as usual, certainly it is impossible to prove, just another con from nine fake environmentalists on the Cambridge City Council.

Let us save the world, but how dare you look at the outrageous environmental destruction being inflicted by nine Cambridge City Councillors and their friends in Cambridge, MA, and on the Charles River.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Visibility 368, October 23, 2008

Bob La Trémouille reports:

Both Marilyn and I worked the Nesting Area during rush hour. Response was good.

A caveat on these visibility reports. This blog is the decendant of a very large email mailing report which started by reports on daily visibilities back when these reprehensible people started their attacks on the Charles River environment.

We are doing a lot more than just visibilities at the nesting area, but the tradition has been to report, and we have a lot of history, so the reports are coming.

In the past, because of the major effort in putting out mailings which got to be in excess of 1300 recipients, the reports were frequently quite large including a lot of specific items.

With the convenience of blog reports, massive visibility reports are no longer necessary.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Governor Patrick’s response concerning the flat out liars he has working on BU Bridge reconstruction.

Bob La Trémouille reports.

1. Communication to Governor Patrick.
2. The Governor responds concerning the flat out liars he has working on the BU Bridge Reconstruction.
3. Summary.

1. Communication to Governor Patrick.

On October 18, 2008, I left the following email for Governor Patrick on his website using the form for email contact, Email form: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us


RE: The DCR's Outrageous "Explanation" for Environmental Destruction: BU Bridge

Governor Patrick

I attended a DCR meeting in Boston concerning environmental destruction as part of the BU Bridge reconstruction.

Contracting types were rather clearly invited by the DCR and it was kept secret from and made as inconvenient as possible for decent human beings.

Flat out lies, as is the custom with the DCR, were the norm on the key environmental issues.

My analyses of the proposal and the flat out lies may be read at:

http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/let-them-move-and-come-back.html.

And at:

http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-details-on-dcrs-outrageous.html.

I have previously suggested you fire at least two of the most irresponsible of the DCR people. The people spouting these latest flat out lies should join them.

Thank you.

2. The Governor responds concerning the flat out liars he has working on the BU Bridge Reconstruction.

On October 20, 2008, I received the following response:

******

FROM: "Governor Patrick's Office"

RE: Your email to Governor Patrick

DATE: Monday, October 20, 2008 10:36 AM

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with Governor Patrick. The Governor values your opinions and enjoys hearing from people across the Commonwealth. Please know that your views are always welcome in this administration.The Governor and his staff strive to review every piece of correspondence in a timely manner. If appropriate, we will forward your message to the appropriate staff member, department or the state agency that can best address your concerns.If you need an immediate response, please call the Governor’s Office at 617-725-4005 to speak with a Constituent Services Aide. Again, thank you for taking the time to share your ideas with Governor Patrick. Stay involved and engaged...this is your government!

3. Summary.

My evaluation of Governor Patrick is that it is impossible to distinguish between him and the DCR Bureaucrats and the Cambridge Pols.

I see no reason to change that opinion.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

More details on the DCR’s outrageous “explanation” for environmental destruction in the BU Bridge Reconstruction.

Bob La Trémouille reports:

1. Introduction.
2. My letter.
a. Introductory
b. Objections to farcical scheduling.
c. Project must be considered as part of massive environmental destruction ongoing by DCR.
d. Starving the Charles River White Geese, Destroying green maintenance at Magazine Beach, creation of mudpit, poisoning feeding birds with chemicals.
e. Destruction of ground vegetation between BU Bridge and BU Boathouse.
f. Combination is extreme and deliberate cruelty.
g. Achieved through flat out lies.
h. What should be done.
i. Objection to front organization for Cambridge City Manager being treated as anything other than a front organization for the Cambridge City Manager.
3. DCR’s Response, the usual flat out lies.
a. Let them move and come back.
b. We have to destroy the nesting area for staging. There is more room there than under Memorial Drive.

1. Introduction.

The DCR conducted its “public meeting” on Cambridge damage in Boston on the Boston University campus on October 16, 2008.

The DCR publicized the meeting to developer types and introduced the meeting with a total development mentality with environmental considerations solely related to the project’s water gathering abilities.

2. My letter.

I submitted the following letter. I have added subdivisions to comport to blog format.

a. Introductory

October 16, 2008

Department of Conservation and Recreation
251 Causeway Street, Suite 600
Boston, MA 02114-2104

RE: BU Bridge Reconstruction Project

Gentlemen/Ladies:

This evening you are conducting a “public hearing” IN BOSTON to respond to a suggestion by the CAMBRIDGE Conservation Commission that you conduct a public hearing concerning the very major environmental destruction you propose IN CAMBRIDGE as part of the project.

b. Objections to farcical scheduling.

Please be advised that conducting a public hearing concerning CAMBRIDGE destructiveness in BOSTON is nothing less than outrageous. As such, it fits the long record of bad behavior by the DCR on Charles River matters affecting Cambridge during the past nine years.

c. Project must be considered as part of massive environmental destruction ongoing by DCR.

This project is most definitely NOT free standing but is carefully coordinated to fit in with directly related environmental destruction efforts by the DCR. The coordination should be modified to minimize environmental destruction. Currently, the coordination maximizes environmental destruction.

The DCR is in the process of destroying all living beings on the Charles River, either directly or indirectly through destroying their ecosystem. The goal is to replace a viable and mixed ecosystem with a dead ecosystem. A balance of nature is being replaced with a suburban lawn. And a lot of lying has been and continues to be used in that regard. The important lie in this project is the claim that the project is independent of the DCR’s many other environmental outrages in the area.

Key in this project’s link to environmental destruction is deliberate and cumulative harm to the local animal and vegetation population.

d. Starving the Charles River White Geese, Destroying green maintenance at Magazine Beach, creation of mudpit, poisoning feeding birds with chemicals.

In 2004-2005, the DCR took their food away from the Charles River White Geese by destroying the wetlands at Magazine Beach and replacing that wetlands with an introduced wall of bushes blocking access from the Charles River to most of Magazine Beach.

The DCR and Cambridge have just expanded on that destruction by digging up all the grass at Magazine Beach, the 25 year food and habitat of the Charles River White Geese. The grass has been replaced with a mudpit. It is the intention of the DCR and Cambridge to poison that grass with chemicals.

In September 2004, the DCR and Cambridge simultaneously walled off the Charles River White Geese from all of their food. The DCR did that at Magazine Beach with the construction zone followed by the bizarre wall of introduced vegetation. Cambridge did that east of the BU Boathouse and across from the Hyatt Regency by installing a wall of plastic.

e. Destruction of ground vegetation between BU Bridge and BU Boathouse.

In the past five years, the DCR through its agents has destroyed every piece of ground vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse except for the vegetation in the core nesting area just east of the BU Bridge which this project proposes to destroy.

f. Combination is extreme and deliberate cruelty.

So all of the world of the Charles River White Geese was simultaneously destroyed to them, and they would be confined to an artificially created (by the DCR) mudpit in one quarter of their nesting area in place of the mile long habitat centered on the BU Bridge where they lived until September 2004.

This extreme and deliberate cruelty is inexcusable.

g. Achieved through flat out lies.

Its importance is emphasized by the flat out lie that the DCR put out about the Charles River White Geese starting in 2000, repeatedly stated and continuing even after the DCR and its agents / associates imposed starvation and deprival of habitat in 2004:

The promise that the DCR would do no harm to the Charles River White Geese.

The heartlessness of this latest attack is compounded by the simultaneous and totally needless conversion of Magazine Beach, their primary habitat, into a mudpit.

The combination of the two projects destroys the little that was not destroyed in September 2004, AND prevents immediate conversion of Magazine Beach to use Magazine Beach as the nine month home of the Charles River White Geese, which is the proper nine month residence of the Charles River white Geese anyway.

h. What should be done.

The DCR’s priorities in the BU Bridge area should be reversed.

Use of and destruction of the nesting area for staging should be prohibited. Staging under Memorial Drive is good for the sidewalk project. It should be good for the Memorial Bridge project.

If use of the staging area under Memorial Drive delays the project, that is the fault of the DCR.

Instead of timing the project to maximize animal harm, it should be timed to minimize animal harm. The totally unnecessary destruction of Magazine Beach to replace green maintenance with chemical should be stopped in its tracks. GREEN seeding of grass should be resumed. The bizarre massive athletic complex should be killed and fields with athletics on top of it should resume.

Instead of the DCR’s current semi-annual destruction of valuable native ground vegetation twice a year everywhere on the Charles below the Watertown dam, the protective vegetation should be allowed to resume.

The bizarre INTRODUCED wall of vegetation walling off Magazine Beach should be chopped to the ground and removed instead of the semi-annual destruction of useful vegetation.

The total destruction of ground vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse should be reversed by normal seeding. The tiny portion that has not been destroyed should not be destroyed except for that area next to the BU Bridge needed for the BU Bridge project.

Once Magazine Beach once again becomes fit to use and the destroyed vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse is returned to normal, the Charles River White Geese should be allowed to resume their migratory lifestyle within their mile long habitat centered on the BU Bridge, spending most of their life at Magazine Beach in A HEALTHY GREEN environment, with nesting at the destroyed nesting area only interrupted insofar as necessary to do the work on the BU Bridge within 25 feet of the BU Bridge for the most part, less near the water.

To the extent the current irresponsible timing is impacted by responsible behavior, that is the fault of the DCR for proposing irresponsible timing.

Sincerely,



Robert J. La Trémouille

i. Objection to front organization for Cambridge City Manager being treated as anything other than a front organization for the Cambridge City Manager.

ADDENDUM:

It is my understanding that a purported citizens group created by an employee of the Cambridge City Manager will be approaching the board claiming some sort of independent existence and not informing the board of its connection to the Cambridge City Manager.

Please note my objections to the claimed independent status of this group and to its very destructive goals.

This is a highway organization. It is fighting for a new highway which would destroy approximately 83 out of the 110 trees located between the Hyatt and the Memorial Drive split. It is also supporting destruction of the Nesting Area for a similar highway connecting to the railroad bridge.

I condemn these outrageous proposals and I condemn the tactics behind these proposals.

The Cambridge City Manager is a co-conspirator with the DCR in the destruction of the environment of the Charles River. The Cambridge City Manager’s supposed independent organization is fighting for his very destructive cause.

The Cambridge City Council will hopefully fire the Cambridge City Manager because of a jury verdict finding heartless behavior in a civil rights matter, $1 + million damages, $3.5 million punitive damages.

If the Cambridge City Council behaves in a responsible manner, perhaps we will see fewer of these supposed citizen’s groups with undisclosed connections to the Cambridge City Manager.

3. DCR’s Response, the usual flat out lies.

Two of the usual flat out lies. I responded simply by calling them nonsense. I had been maneuvered away from the microphone and was not in a position to directly respond.

a. Let them move and come back.

This flat out lie was presented by a self-described animal expert.

I have responded to that in a letter to the Daily Free Press printed below at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/let-them-move-and-come-back.html.

b. We have to destroy the nesting area for staging. There is more room there than under Memorial Drive.

Interestingly, the DCR waived an argument they had previously used. They previously claimed they could not put staging under Memorial Drive because it would be used by the contractor repairing BU Bridge sidewalks.

First of all, there is plenty of additional room there for a second contractor.

Secondly, the BU Bridge project is now being staged so that it will not be done simultaneously with the sidewalk project.

The staging would destroy EXACTLY an area south of the Memorial Drive on ramp which the sidewalk project had previously promised to destroy.

Apparently, the DCR has decided the sidewalk project is inadequate excuse for destroying that area and is using this excuse.

Eyeballing the two sites on Google Maps provides the rapid analysis that the level of this flat out lie is simply incredible. Eyeballing the two sites indicates that the space under Memorial Drive is something like four to eight times as large as the area they propose to destroy in the nesting area.

Flat out lies, business as usual from the DCR.

Friday, October 17, 2008

"Let them move and come back"

Bob La Trémouille reports:

I have just sent the following letter to the Boston University Daily Free Press. I will follow with more on the DCR meeting last night:

*********

Following up on my discussion with your reporter last night responding to the flat out lie from the DCR: Let the Charles River White Geese move and come back.

Very clearly the pattern of the DCR is killing any and all living beings on the Charles River INSOFAR AS THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT and flat out lying pretty much nonstop all the way.

First of all, if the Charles River White Geese move to "some other place," the obvious result will be that the DCR will kill them because they will not be wanted where they move to.

Second of all, this is not the first time these heartless animal abusers have destroyed the habitat of the Charles River White Geese. THEY HAVE BEEN STARVING THEM since September 2004 when 90% of the habitat and pretty much 100% of their food was taken from them.

They stayed in what was not destroyed of their home. AND THEIR WORLD HAS STAYED DESTROYED.

These reprehensible bastards should do nothing until they they have restored Magazine Beach to the Charles River White Geese.

The bizarre wall of introduced vegetation should come down. The mudpit which was just created should be returned to normal GREEN state, not bizarre chemicals coming from the usual bunch of flat out liars who claim to be green.

The casual, heartless ongoing destruction of the Charles River White Geese is an excellent example of man destroying our world.

"Where did all the animals of our world go? All we did was destroy everywhere they could live!!! We didn't harm them. We just destroyed their world!"

Key in that destruction is holier than thou hypocrite Boston University. Key in that destruction is nine holier than thou hypocrites from the Cambridge City Council. Key in that destruction is holier than thou hypocrite Representative Walz. Key in that destruction is holier than thou hypocrite Representative Wolf. Key in that destruction is holier than thou hypocrite Governor Patrick. Key in that destruction is former City Councilor (who voted for this outrage) holier than thou hypocrite Senator Anthony Galluccio. Key in that destruction is another former Cambridge City Councilor who voted for this outrage and is now a holier than thou hypocrite anchoring on NECN.

What is being heartlessly done to the animals of the Charles River is an excellent example of man destroying our world.

What advantage?

The walling off of their food at Magazine Beach was done for a bizarre wall of bushes that nobody can see any advantage in and which directly violates the supposed Charles River Master Plan which calls for a lawn to the Charles at Magazine Beach. The killing of the rest of their food in 2004 was casually done by building a plastic wall across from the Hyatt blocking access to that grass from the Charles River with no meaningful benefit.

The DCR claims to want water related uses on the Charles River. The DCR and the Cambridge hypocrites loudly proclaim the flat out lie that they are GREEN. That mudpit just created at Magazine Beach has no value except to destroy GREEN maintenance.

And the heartless hypocrites who call themselves our leaders and our servants destroy our world piece by piece spouting out non stop lies as they go.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Well Deserved Firings, A Letter to an Environmentally Destructive Governor

Bob La Trémouille reports:

I just left the following message for Governor Patrick at http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us. Given Governor Patrick's record of environmental destruction on the Charles River, it probably likely that this suggestion will not be implemented.

*********

Your announcement of budget cuts should be an opportunity to rid the DCR of people who are not fit to manage the environment and who have a record of flat out lying to achieve their goals.

The heartless attacks on animals on Charles River include four years plus of promises of "do not intend to harm."

Corsi explained how this promise fits his heartless starving of the Charles River White Geese as part of the strikingly bizarre and ongoing destruction of the environment in the area of the BU Bridge: Corsi said IN PUBLIC that starving the Charles River White Geese does not harm them.

Julia O'Brien, the woman who headed "planning" for the DCR flatly and simply has contempt for the natural environment. She simply has no business in a planning capacity.

Any and all people associated in any way with the ongoing destruction of protective vegetation on the banks of the Charles River are unfit for their jobs, particularly the Charles River Conservancy which is happily destroying and destroying, but also who ever is doing the current work east of the BU Bridge in Boston. Casual and bizarre destruction of protective vegetation to the ground.

Chop down the bizarre wall of vegetation installed at Magazine Beach.

Your people explained walling off Magazine Beach from providing animal feed and for swimming as helping swimming. The usual flat out lie. Native vegetation protecting migrating birds is routinely destroyed. The native protective vegetation should be protected.
This bizarre stuff should be dumped.

The outrage ongoing at Magazine Beach should be ended. Grass should be sown. POISONS should be barred.

Plans should be ended to destroy what little vegetation has not been destroyed between the BU Boathouse and the BU Bridge as part of needless destruction in the BU Bridge work. The place should be reseeded to neutralize five years of destruction, not further destroyed.

Staging for BU Bridge reconstruction should be under Memorial Drive AS IS BEING DONE WITH THE SIDEWALK WORK.

The beautiful animals which your government has heartlessly starved should be protected in the BU Bridge project, not shoved into the ground as your plans call for.

You are currently timing your projects to do maximum environmental harm.

The plans should be phased to do exactly the opposite.

After firing a bunch of people who are unfit to manage the environment.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Visibility 367, October 15, 2008, Nice People, Distinction among baddies

Bob La Trémouille reports:

1. Magazine Beach Hill.
2. Visibility.
3. Distinction among the bad guys.

1. Magazine Beach Hill.

On the way to the Destroyed Nesting Area, I stopped off at the hill above Magazine Beach and gave leaflets to people there.

One gentleman who was playing with a dog read the leaflet and simply started loudly exclaiming negatively.

2. Visibility.

In the visibility, people were as nice as ever. One lady stood out there as well. She was a Jewish woman who explained that she could not take the flier because of the High Holy Days, but asked me where she could find us on the web.

It is very much normal for people to be shocked to learn that the bizarre wall of vegetation blocking off Magazine Beach from the Charles River was PAID to be installed.

3. Distinction among the bad guys.

Both our flier and the link toward the top of this blog provide the same names to contact and the same contact information, with one exception.

I have just added Governor Patrick to the top of the list on this site and hope that we will add him to the fliers.

The reality is that, as reprehensible as the Cambridge Pols UNIFORMLY are, Governor Patrick is responsible and his organization is even worse than the Cambridge Pols.

The outrages are occurring on state land. Governor Patrick handled Cambridge's money. Governor Patrick employs the reprehensible bureaucrats at the Department of Conservation and Recreation who are ongoing in their destruction of the environment and of our world's living beings. We have repeatedly objected about this outrage to Governor Patrick. We have been ignored.

Massive cuts are going on. Gross irresponsibility in environmental destruction is accelerating under Governor Patrick's "leadership." BU Bridge reconstruction is structured to destroy living beings as much as they can get away with and destroys what little ground vegetation the DCR has not destroyed between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse. The massiveness of the destruction is very much needless and simply piles irresponsibility upon irresponsibility.

Nine heartless Cambridge City Councilors are listed because of their shared guilt. Even if they did not participate in the actual vote, they have been on the council long enough ignoring our objections that they clearly share the guilt.

The newest member, Samuel Seidel, voted for this outrage as a member of the Cambridge Conservation Commission. A link can also be found on this blog to his public comments in which he brags that the heartless environmental destruction in which the Cambridge Pols are guilty is a new form of environmentalism.

Two names, however, should have flags: School Committee Member Marc McGovern and State Representative Walz.

McGovern has twice written letters to the Cambridge Chronicle bragging about this outrage. The second time, he was joined by Walz. The nine city councilors are vile and lying about how vile they are. Walz and McGovern have bragged about their reprehensible acts.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Visibility 366, Real People Are Shocked at the Hypocrisy of the Fake Green Activists

Bob La Trémouille reports

Nine hypocrites on the Cambridge City Council spend a lot of time lying that they are pro-environment. Their organizations and the City Manager's organization reinforces this outrageous lie.

During visibility 366, it was nice, as usual, to be talking with decent people who are shocked by the perfidy of these reprehensible people.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Visibility 365, October 9, 2008

Bob leafletted late afternoon with good response.

Marily leafletted during the evening rush. Her response was so good she ran out of fliers.

What You Can Do

This report was updated on December 21, 2010.

Workers, telephoning / writing and money are key.

We need leafleters, especially at the BU Bridge, but also at key meetings. Please contact Bob at 617-491-7181 or at boblat@yahoo.com.

Money for the fliers is crucial. We do not need much, but we do need a few hundred dollars for materials and other organizing costs. Please send contributions to:

Friends of the White Geese
Post Office Box 391412
Cambridge, MA 02139.

Our Financial Director is Ellen Schloss, 978-362-8786, birdimom@comcast.net.

These contributions are NOT tax deductible.

Contact Information for people to contact:

President Barack Obama needs to be contacted because millions of Obama stimulus dollars are being requested for destruction of hundreds of healthy trees between the BU Boathouse and the Longfellow Bridge, PLUS being used for destruction of even more goose food across from the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

His email contact form is: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. His telephone number is: 202-456-6213.

Governor Deval Patrick is at the heart of this situation on the state side. His managers do not merit attention. His own contact information is:
Email form: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us
888-870-7770 / 617-725-4005.

It is pointless to contact the Cambridge City Manager. It may be useful to contact the Cambridge Conservation Commission although its members are the Manager's appointees. (One former appointee in a different city agency has won a $4.5M judgment against the City Manager for his retaliation against her when he found her work displeasing. The judge in that case, Monteiro v. City of Cambridge, referred to the Manager's acts as "reprehensible." Cambridge has filed a Notice of Appeal.)

The Cambridge Conservation Commission may be reached by e-mail:
Director Jennifer Wright, jwright@CambridgeMA.GOV; telephone: 617-349-4680.

The Cambridge City Council and other city officials and their supporters dismiss concerns about these environmental outrages to the extent they comment at all. 2009 is, however, an election year and voters need to know where the candidates stand.

Incumbent City Councillors are:

Mayor David P. Maher
mailto:dmaher@cambridgema.gov
617-547-7219 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

Vice Mayor Henrietta Davis
mailto:hdavis@cambridgema.gov
617-547-0877 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

Leland Cheung,
mailto:LCheung@cambridgema.gov
617-491-2692 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

Marjorie C. Decker
mailto:mdecker@cambridgema.gov
617-349-4280 (W)

Craig A. Kelley
mailto:ckelley@cambridgema.gov
617-354-8353 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

Kenneth E. Reeves
mailto:kreeves@cambridgema.gov
617-661-1635 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

Samuel Seidel
mailto:sseidel@cambridgema.gov
617-547-1067 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)

E. Denise Simmons
mailto:dsimmons@cambridgema.gov
617-491-7435 (H), 617-349-4321 (W)

Timothy J. Toomey, Jr.
Also State Representative
mailto:TimToomey@aol.com
617-576-6483 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)


Cambridge School Committee incumbent:

Marc McGovern
617-945-1866 (H)

State Representatives:

Martha M. Walz
Rep.MartyWalz@Hou.State.MA.US
617-722-2460

Alice K. Wolf
Rep.AliceWolf@Hou.State.MA.US
617-722-2460

State Senators:

Sal N. DiDomenico
Sal.DiDomenico@state.ma.us
617-722-1650

Anthony Petruccelli
mailto:Anthony.Petruccelli@state.ma.us
617-722-1634

Rationale behind this list may be found at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/visibility-367-october-15-2008-nice.html in section 3, Distinction among the bad guys.

It is our opinion that, in order to end the attacks on the Charles River, the Cambridge City Manager must be fired. The Cambridge City Council has a very strong court opinion calling the City Manager “reprehensible” for civil rights violations. We have posted that opinion at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/judge-issues-decision-denying.html, and have a YouTube analysis at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGQtlFSg7k.

Thank you in advance for whatever you can do.

Archie Mazmanian on the Geese and the Urban Ring

Archie Mazmanian left us the following comment which led to the report after it.

I put up two more comments (7 and 8) on the current Urban Ring installment at www.onbrookline.com that should be of interest, especially #8 final paragraph on your subject.

From http://www.onbrookline.com/on-brookline-previous-columns/the-urban-ring-facing-darker-days/, comment 8:


Archie Mazmanian on October 9th, 2008 at 2:20 pm:

ACADEMIC HONKING ON THE BOSTON SIDE OF THE CHARLES?

While a small gaggle of White Geese being deprived of their habitat on the Cambridge side of the Charles River at the BU Bridge are honking to get the attention of residents interested in preserving what little fauna and flora remain in this urban area, a battle is going on for what I term the “Boston Bank of the Charles River Beanpot Tourney” featuring Harvard University and Boston University that may at some point break out into a hockey game without ice (unless the Charles is frozen over). While Harvard has long been ensconced on the Boston side with its Business School, this was far enough away from the BU Bridge and the BU campus as to be tolerable to the latter. But then Harvard trumped even BU institutional blockbusting of past years with its “Harvard’s Got A Secret” acquisition of many acres in Allston, with plans to expand its campus there.

This was bad enough, especially since the Harvard elephant’s trunk got under the Urban Ring Phase 2 tent and has overwhelmed and complicated Phase 2 routes in the area of the BU Bridge and Commonwealth Avenue that would provide connections to the Harvard affiliated LMA.

For years, BU has envisioned expanding its campus westerly to and including portions of the Beacon Yards when available for development. But BU never closed the deal with CSX, assuming it tried and had the financial wherewithal. So in came Harvard and acquired the underlying land of the Beacon Yards, subject of course to CSX easements for rail, and perhaps other, transportation. As noted in an earlier comment on this installment of the Urban Ring series, the Commonwealth and CSX have been negotiating some sort of a deal. Harvard’s involvement in such negotiations has not been disclosed. It is doubtful that BU would have standing to participate in them. So it would appear that BU further westward expansion (assuming it had the funds) would require the largess of Harvard. There is so much acreage potential involved that Harvard could probably accommodate BU with a few acres, with an appropriate quid pro quo, of course. (Business is business, even – especially – in academia.)

As time goes on, we’ll learn more about the CSX negotiations as well as Harvard’s plans for its Allston campus and the potential development of the Beacon Yards, perhaps comparable to the Prudential Center as suggested in an earlier comment. Meantime, BU may be between the rock (BU Bridge) and the hard place (Beacon Yards) as the Phase 2 route to accommodate Harvard may disrupt BU’s West campus.

For the time being, BU seems to be quiet but if events develop to accommodate Harvard, then the honking on the Boston side of the Charles may overwhelm that of the White Geese on the Cambridge side.

By the way, drivers on Memorial Drive should proceed with care in the area of the BU Bridge to protect and accommodate the White Geese crossing between their habitat and new feeding grounds forced upon them by the Commonwealth and Cambridge. In fact, give a couple of honks of your horns in support of the White Geese of Cambridge; I’ll be listening here in Brookline just across the Charles. Also, the Cambridge Conservation Commission has rescheduled a hearing relative to the BU Bridge that should address White Geese issues on November 17th. Maybe we can start up a fund for “Make Way for Goslings.”

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Visibility 364. Destruction of Magazine Beach: Reports by Bob La Tremouille and Marilyn Wellons

1. Visibility.
2. White Geese cross the street.
3. Marilyn Wellons on her discussion with Councillor Kelley.

Bob La Trémouille reports about leafleting at the BU Bridge against Cambridge's destruction of Magazine Beach, now underway. Marilyn Wellons reports about her conversation with Councillor Craig Kelley on the same topic.

Bob La Tremouille:

1. Visibility.

I did a visibility at the Destroyed Nesting Area for an hour or two this afternoon.

People were very concerned and very interested. They would drive by with their hands out of their windows for fliers.

A couple of people who took fliers yesterday stopped by for further questions.

Clearly, a lot of support.

2. White Geese cross the street.

A little later than half way through the visibility, I looked back and saw a large number of geese crossing the ramp to Memorial Drive from grass under Memorial Drive to the Destroyed Nesting Area.

The state bureacrats and nine heartless Cambridge City Councilors have taken almost all their food away from them. So they brave crossing an on ramp to Memorial Drive to get to luscious grass under Memorial Drive.

They are excellently responsible pedestrians. They will stand on the side of the road and stand on the side of the road until they think it is safe to cross. Trouble is that when they cross, they walk like geese. This time, there were quite a few of them. So I wandered behind them, on the grass under Memorial Drive, and sushed them to move them faster. One straggler got separated. I sushed him, and he half flew.

And through all this, the drivers patiently waited because they love the Charles River White Geese. The drivers are normal people. They have no resemblance to the heartless people who constitute the Cambridge pols.

3. Marilyn Wellons on her discussion with Councillor Kelley.


When I spoke with Councillor Kelley Tuesday evening about Cambridge's destruction, he emphasized that he and other Councillors need to hear directly from people other than those of us who have been very vocal.

Whatever inclination Councillors may have to stop this crime against the environment—and it’s my sense that there is more than one with such an inclination—it’s a fact of politics that they can do nothing without a public outcry, communicated directly to them. They need our help to do the right thing.

So now is the time for all of us to let the Council know directly that the project must stop immediately:

It is a crime against the environment that destroys wetlands and will undo $60 million spent so far to clean up the Charles River.

It squanders Cambridge taxpayers’ money that should put playing fields for Cambridge schools and youth groups in their own neighborhoods rather than across a 4-lane highway.

It destroys the habitat of migrating as well as resident waterfowl, including the Charles River White Geese.

Please contact the Cambridge City Council to register your strong objection to this project:

Mayor E. Denise Simmons mailto:dsimmons@cambridgema.gov
491-7435 (H) 349-4321 (W)

Vice Mayor Brian Murphy mailto:bmurphy@cambridgema.gov
492-7426 (H) 349-4280 (W)

Henrietta Davis mailto:hdavis@cambridgema.gov
(617) 547-0877 (H) (617) 349-4280 (W)

Marjorie C. Decker mailto:mdecker@cambridgema.gov
(617) 349-4280 (W)

Craig A. Kelley mailto:ckelley@cambridgema.gov
(617) 354-8353 (H) (617) 349-4280 (W)

David P. Maher mailto:dmaher@cambridgema.gov%29
547-7219 (H) 617-349-4280 (W)

Kenneth E. Reeves mailto:kreeves@cambridgema.gov
(617) 661-1635 (H) (617) 349-4280 (W)

Sam Seidel mailto:sseidel@cambridgema.gov
617-547-1067 (home) 617-349-4280 (work)

Timothy J. Toomey, Jr. mailto:TimToomey@aol.com
(617) 576-6483 (H) (617) 349-4280 (W)

Marilyn Wellons

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

October 7, 2008: Visibility No. 363

Bob La Tremouille and Marilyn Wellons carried signs and distributed several hundred leaflets at the BU Bridge about Cambridge's destruction of Magazine Beach. The flyers indicate responsibility for the project lies with the Cambridge City Council and ask people to contact the Councillors.

This was Visibility No. 363 since the 1999 start of Cambridge's and the DCR's joint campaign to destroy the Charles River environment. As usual, passing drivers honked to support the visibility and pedestrians and cyclists stopped to learn more.

Cambridge's contractor began removing the grass and dirt from Magazine Beach at the start of October. Migrating waterfowl have continued to feed on the remaining grass as it disappears.

Cambridge intends to replace what is simultaneously wildlife habitat, passive open space, and playing fields for everyone, with commercial sod, an irrigation system, and fences for professional-level organized sports fields. The project will destroy passive green space, wildlife habitat on the Atlantic flyway, and general use of the fields for a wide variety of casual and organized sports.

Cambridge is converting state parkland to the privileged use of Cambridge schools and youth groups because it is too cheap to buy land for these purposes in underserved neighborhoods, where there is a crying need for them.

*********

Bob La Trémouille:

The above report is from Marilyn. I thank her for the excellent report.

These blog reports were preceded by an email newsletter which ran from March 2000 to 2005 and, at its peak, distribution reached 1300 recipients. They were, during most of their run, matched to visibilities at the destroyed nesting area of the Charles River White Geese.

For technical reasons, it was only possible for one person to publish the newsletter. This blog relieves me of the need to be the only person, but requires a correction to the number of visibilities. They are much greater than 363, I think. I did multiple series of reports of visibilities related to various purposes. The general series totals 363. All brought together greatly exceed 363.

We must talk and agree on correct language.

********

Marilyn has reported to me a conversation with Cambridge City Councilor Craig Kelley that evening.

He preached process.

There was no process. Public complaints and public input have been flatly and simply ignored including complaints to the Cambridge City Council to Kelley's face.

They took their vote in December 1999 and did not want to know nothing in spite of constant and repeated objections.

The years of silence of a varying but always united crew of nine includes silence that encouraged the rape and murder of a young woman in fall 2001. In 2001, nine city councilors blessed the woman's killer's repeated killings of nesting geese with the praise of silence.

The killer graduated, exactly as we predicted.

By the current outrageous behavior at Magazine Beach, nine heartless hypocrites have graduated as well.

Even if the strikingly irresponsible bureaucrats for the City of Cambridge and the state had gone through some sort of meaningful process, which they did not, Cambridge has nine city councilors who have the nerve to call themselves environmentalists.

Kelley's response is the typical response of a fake Cambridge liberal: How dare YOU NOT KEEP ME from doing this terrible thing.

Claims of environmentalism by the any of the nine are flat out nonsense.

The nine repeatedly demonstrate their contempt for the environment where it counts, in their back yard, as is demonstrated by the outrageous environmental destruction they are responsible for or planning on the Charles River, at Fresh Pond, at Alewife, and almost in all other open space projects.

Fancy buildings are no excuse for cavalier destruction of the land and the vegetation and animals on it.

Holier than thou hypocrisy. Really, really heartless people.

Press Release: Cambridge City Council and DCR Destroy Magazine Beach

Bob La Trémouille reports:

I have just released the following press release:

PRESS RELEASE, October 7, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Bob La Trémouille, 617-283-7649, Marilyn Wellons 617-354-3858, charlesriverwhitegeese@yahoo.com

RE: Cambridge City Council and DCR Destroy Magazine Beach

On Monday, October 6, the peace at Magazine Beach on the Charles River in Cambridge was once again disrupted by massive earth moving equipment.

The earth that water fowl have fed on for more than 50 years was dug up and placed in piles.

This is the latest step in the destruction of living beings on the Charles River by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and nine Cambridge City Councilors.

This particular action is intended to replace green maintenance of Magazine Beach with chemical maintenance. The nine city councilors have never specifically justified the destruction at Magazine Beach. According to activists, it is part of a pattern which includes an ongoing project at Fresh Pond which is apparently destroying thousands of healthy trees and a project at Alewife which would destroy the Alewife reservation for flood storage which should go under a parking lot 500 feet to the south.

The project at Magazine Beach will destroy seven acres of perfectly good dirt and grass and replace the seven acres of dirt and grass with seven acres of dirt, grass, and chemicals. The chemicals will poison the eggs of water fowl feeding at Magazine Beach and poison kids rolling around in the poison.

The last such project by the DCR was at Ebersol Fields on the Charles near Mass. General. At Ebersol Fields, their beloved chemicals did not work, so the DCR added Tartan in spite of prohibitions near water. The next day the Charles River was dead from the harbor to the Mass. Ave. Bridge with annually recurring algae.

A bizarre wall of vegetation was installed at Magazine Beach, blocking access to the Charles River. It was installed by the two groups in 2004-2005. The DCR’s agents bragged that this solid wall would help swimming. The DCR explained their taking their food, the grass at Magazine Beach, from the Charles River White Geese after four years of DCR promises that the Charles River White Geese would not be harmed: The DCR explained that starving the Charles River White Geese is not harming them.

For five years the DCR’s agents have been destroying vegetation protecting migrating birds throughout the Charles River below the Watertown dam.

For five years, the DCR’s agents have been poisoning as many eggs of waterfowl as they can get away with in the same part of the Charles River.

During the past five years, the DCR’s agents have destroyed the vast majority of ground vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse,. This is the ghetto where the DCR and Cambridge have consigned the Charles River White Geese. Useful vegetation is massively destroyed. The bizarre wall at Magazine Beach keeps growing.

Soon to come BU Bridge reconstruction is planned to destroy what little ground vegetation has not been destroyed between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse. The project as announced is planned with maximum and unnecessary cruelty to resident animals, following upon eight years of vile behavior toward resident animals.

One Cambridge city councilor, Samuel Seidel has publicly bragged that environmental destruction shows Cambridge’s enlightened version of environmentalism. That analysis may be viewed at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2007_05_29_archive.html.

A public hearing on the BU Bridge project has been announced by the DCR for Thursday, October 16, at 6 to 8 pm, at 871 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 129, in Boston. A public hearing was requested by the Cambridge Conservation Commission at its discussion of the project in early September. The DCR apparently is responding to the Cambridge request with a Boston hearing.

The Cambridge Conservation Commission may formally consider the BU Bridge proposal at their October 20, meeting at 7 pm on the fourth floor of the Cambridge City Hall Annex, Broadway and Inman Streets in Cambridge.

Prepared by Robert J. La Trémouille