1. Chronicle Reports.
2. Letter of Praise.
Bob Reports:
1. Chronicle Reports.
In the April 30, 2009, Cambridge Chronicle, the Chronicle had the Monteiro case as its lead headline.
The Chronicle wrote a very specific and quite good editorial on the matter.
The Chronicle editorial may be read at: http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/opinions/x303487854/Editorial-Gambling-with-our-money.
It leads with:
“Gambling with taxpayer money. That’s essentially what Cambridge City Manager Bob Healy has done in a case that has lasted 11 years, embarrassed City Hall and cost taxpayers a whopping $6 million, if you include the more than $1 million in legal fees.”
Another juicy comment:
“The image of an unelected public official proposing fee hikes while pursuing his own expensive personal legal battle that so far seems unconquerable doesn’t sit well with us.”
The latest, May 7, 2009, Cambridge Chronicle, featured a guest editorial by an East Cambridge activist. It went into specific examples of outrageous behavior by the city.
This letter, by Mark Jaiquith, may be read at: http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/opinions/x342382829/Guest-commentary-The-Bob-Healy-conundrum.
It leads with: “Has Cambridge had enough of Bob Healy?”
And comments later:
“It would be easier to deal with good old-fashioned graft, but we have something else, in my judgment no less corrupt. It’s a culture within government that what matters is the city’s bond rating, doing what He wants.”
2. Letter of Praise.
I sent the following letter on May 7, after reviewing the paper:
Editor
Cambridge Chronicle
You are to be commended for your editorial and for the guest editorial on the Monteiro case.
I particularly appreciated the examples given in the guest editorial.
Cambridge has a dishonest government. Cambridge keeps the voters in control through intermediaries who do not identify themselves as intermediaries and who commonly use secret definitions and who use other improper techniques.
A government which does what was done to Ms. Monteiro is not "pro-civil rights." Seven continuing city councilors rehired the City Manager.
A government which tries to keep a handicapped elder from using her guide dog is not "pro-civil rights." All eight continuing city councilors are on the wrong side.
A city government which routinely and needlessly destroys many healthy trees, but which runs around calling itself "pro-environment" is not "pro-environment." A city government which destroys green maintenance at Magazine Beach and walls off Magazine Beach from the Charles River is not "pro-environment." A city government which heartlessly abuses beautiful valuable animals is not "pro-environment." All eight continuing city councilors are on the wrong side.
A city government which destroys zoning protections while claiming to be doing the opposite is not honest. All eight continuing city councilors are on the wrong side.
I can see unidentified representatives running around calling it "politically correct" to defend reprehensible government behavior.
I can see unidentified representatives running around repeating Cambridge’s civil rights nonsense, the civil rights nonsense which was discredited by the well thought out opinion of the Monteiro judge.
I can see unidentified representatives calling it AGAINST "political correctness" TO BE IN SUPPORT of the civil rights of this BLACK WOMAN.
"Political correctness" is other than what somebody’s handler calls "politically correct" this week, especially when the record in reality is so bad and so contrary to "political correctness."
Too many voters of Cambridge have too long been kept away from the reality that we have at least eight really bad city councilors who are responsible for the current really bad city government.
I can see too many voters being told by unidentified representatives that Cambridge has a decent government. I can see too many unidentified representatives running around who do not want to know that Cambridge’s government has been found reprehensible by verdict of judge and jury.
Your editorials are an excellent first step toward responsibility in Cambridge government.
We need to go beyond the first step. Cambridge needs a government which is not reprehensible.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Cambridge Pols to Council: Save the world. Indifferent to city destruction of city.
Bob Reports:
1. Introductory.
2. Response sent to City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve.
3. Call to action?
1. Introductory.
Below are an email announcing a city council vote sent over the City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve and my response. My response has not yet been sent out.
Of interest is the naming of yet another “green” organization which somehow just does not want to know about ongoing environmental destruction by the City of Cambridge.
The “environmental” group sounds a lot like eight plus “environmental” city councilors and the Cambridge city manager.
Their definition of “environmental” is dramatically demonstrated by the ongoing destruction. You may also read the definition of “environmental” by the Cambridge Pols organization at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2007_05_29_archive.html.
The opinion of judge and jury on the Cambridge City Government, “reprehensible,” may be read at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/judge-issues-decision-denying.html.
2. Response sent to City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve.
Sent Saturday, 5/9/09
If the councilors were serious about the world's climate and its environment, they have no further to go than their own behavior on the Charles River, at Fresh Pond, at Alewife and in the needless destruction of so many healthy mature trees in their various projects.
3. Call to action?
--- On Fri, 5/8/09, ___________ wrote:
Date: Friday, May 8, 2009, 8:51 PM
There is a policy order on the Cambridge City Council agenda this Monday evening (May 11) recognizing that there is a climate emergency and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency and consistent with the city's own Climate Protection goals for 2010 and beyond." The full text is at http://www.cambridg ema.gov/cityCler k/PolicyOrder. cfm?item_ id=25054 Three Councillors have signed on - Marjorie Decker, Timm Toomey, and Henrietta Davis.
This comes out of a Green Decade/Cambridge initiative to ask the Council to recognize the climate emergency and mobilize the city to take appropriate action. It could be a huge opportunity - not only for a new level of action in Cambridge, but to have a much broader impact. We need to get the word out everywhere - to the public and to policy makers - that the climate crisis is now a global emergency and that we have a rapidly narrowing window in which to act if we are to have any chance of averting a runaway catastrophe.
We need as many people as possible to come to the Council meeting Monday evening to show that there is popular support for this resolution. Also, we want to get the Council to call a citywide hearing and not just pass this without meaningful follow-up. Please come if you can! Public comment starts a little after 5:30. If you want to get on the list to speak, you can call the City Council office Monday between 10 and 3 at 617-349-4280. Or you can sign up to speak when you get there. Or you can just come and not speak but show support by being there and by applauding the people who do speak.
Or if you can't come, you can email the entire Council on any item by using Council@Cambridgema .gov and the City Manager at healy@Cambridgema. gov.
1. Introductory.
2. Response sent to City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve.
3. Call to action?
1. Introductory.
Below are an email announcing a city council vote sent over the City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve and my response. My response has not yet been sent out.
Of interest is the naming of yet another “green” organization which somehow just does not want to know about ongoing environmental destruction by the City of Cambridge.
The “environmental” group sounds a lot like eight plus “environmental” city councilors and the Cambridge city manager.
Their definition of “environmental” is dramatically demonstrated by the ongoing destruction. You may also read the definition of “environmental” by the Cambridge Pols organization at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2007_05_29_archive.html.
The opinion of judge and jury on the Cambridge City Government, “reprehensible,” may be read at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/judge-issues-decision-denying.html.
2. Response sent to City Manager’s Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserve.
Sent Saturday, 5/9/09
If the councilors were serious about the world's climate and its environment, they have no further to go than their own behavior on the Charles River, at Fresh Pond, at Alewife and in the needless destruction of so many healthy mature trees in their various projects.
3. Call to action?
--- On Fri, 5/8/09, ___________ wrote:
Date: Friday, May 8, 2009, 8:51 PM
There is a policy order on the Cambridge City Council agenda this Monday evening (May 11) recognizing that there is a climate emergency and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency and consistent with the city's own Climate Protection goals for 2010 and beyond." The full text is at http://www.cambridg ema.gov/cityCler k/PolicyOrder. cfm?item_ id=25054 Three Councillors have signed on - Marjorie Decker, Timm Toomey, and Henrietta Davis.
This comes out of a Green Decade/Cambridge initiative to ask the Council to recognize the climate emergency and mobilize the city to take appropriate action. It could be a huge opportunity - not only for a new level of action in Cambridge, but to have a much broader impact. We need to get the word out everywhere - to the public and to policy makers - that the climate crisis is now a global emergency and that we have a rapidly narrowing window in which to act if we are to have any chance of averting a runaway catastrophe.
We need as many people as possible to come to the Council meeting Monday evening to show that there is popular support for this resolution. Also, we want to get the Council to call a citywide hearing and not just pass this without meaningful follow-up. Please come if you can! Public comment starts a little after 5:30. If you want to get on the list to speak, you can call the City Council office Monday between 10 and 3 at 617-349-4280. Or you can sign up to speak when you get there. Or you can just come and not speak but show support by being there and by applauding the people who do speak.
Or if you can't come, you can email the entire Council on any item by using Council@Cambridgema .gov and the City Manager at healy@Cambridgema. gov.
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