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.”