Response to support for state and Cambridge Charles River planners

Bob La Trémouille reports:

Last Thursday, March 25, 2010, The Cambridge Chronicle printed an op ed from the head of an entity called the “Charles River Conservancy” praising planners for their magnificent achievements on the Charles River. It was earlier published on line.

I submitted the following response. It was published on line today, March 31, 2010 and published in hard copy in the edition of April 1, 2010. Paragraphing was edited.

Letter: Response to support for state and Cambridge Charles River planners

Editor
Cambridge Chronicle

I disagree with the Charles River Conservancy’s praise for state and Cambridge Charles River “planning”.

The omissions were more important than what was said.

The CRC is active in ongoing destruction of the environment of the Charles River. It has widely poisoned the eggs of migratory waterfowl. It twice yearly destroys native protective vegetation on the banks of the Charles River.

I have seen members of the Boston Conservation Commission shocked at its destruction.

One key CRC member repeatedly used a chain saw on valuable riverfront trees until the Boston Conservation Commission stopped him.

The writer supports environmental destructiveness on the Charles River.

She gushes at plans to destroy hundreds of healthy trees and animal habitat between the BU and Longfellow Bridges.

She conducted a “swim in” bragging about the destruction at Magazine Beach. She supported destroying the Magazine Beach wetlands and installing a wall of introduced bushes which block access between the river and Magazine Beach. She supports the ongoing dumping of poisons at Magazine Beach. The poisons keep alive sickly grass introduced after the destruction of healthy, native grass which survived the better part of a century. She is on the side of the ongoing, heartless animal abuse being inflicted on the beautiful, valuable Charles River White Geese.

She supports the construction of a small vehicle highway on the Cambridge side of the Charles which would duplicate an existing one on the Boston side. She has no problem with the massive environmental destruction of such a highway. The signs on the Boston side closing their version of that highway at night because of muggings and rapes do not deter her support.

She had no problems with the BU Bridge repair meetings being held in Boston and Kendall Square to keep the needless environmental damage and animal abuse in Cambridge secret from affected Cantabridgians.

She inflicts light pollution at the base of Charles River bridges at night.

She praises Cambridge and state “planners”. She praises 19th Century planners.

I support the environment. I oppose the planned destruction of all animal life visiting or living on the first ten miles of the Charles. I think these “planners” should be fired because of their flat out contempt for the natural environment which they are so determined to destroy.

I do not think Cambridge and the state should once again be proving the folly of environmental destruction which is destroying our world.

Con Game on the Cambridge Common

1. Introductory.
A. Invitation.
B. Reality.
2. The Cambridge Common, Sunday, March 28, 2009.
A. General.
B. Close Encounter with a Destructive Pol.

Bob La Trémouille reports.

1. Introductory.

A. Invitation.

An individual with a record of fake environmental initiatives as part of The Cambridge Machine put out the following invitation:

******

Join the Leadership Campaign’s
Rally & Sleep-Out
Sunday, March 28th
Cambridge Common, Cambridge, MA

March to the State House
Call for 100% Clean Electricity in Massachusetts by 2020!
Monday morning, March 29th

All are invited to join any or all portions of this event

******

B. Reality.

The Cambridge Machine does a decidedly spectacular job using the standard techniques of Company Union organizations.

Company unions are created by management to give the impression of being unions while, in reality, suppressing the union movement.

They suppress the union movement by creating organizations that look like unions, getting people to join, and then using their fake union to suppress real union activity and, if possible, achieving anti-union goals.

When it comes to the environment in Cambridge, The Cambridge Machine aggressively creates these fake groups. They run around loudly protecting everything and everything EXCEPT the environment that The Cambridge Machine is destroying.

The destruction is aimed at destruction of the Charles River, destruction of Fresh Pond, destruction of Alewife, destruction of large numbers of trees, heartless animal abuse, and a lot of other really bad stuff.

But they love to talk about fancy buildings.

Essentially, they are keeping “trouble makers” contained and aiming followers away from anything and everything that could respond to the environmental destruction being achieved by The Cambridge Machine.

To the extent that well meaning individuals can be conned into assisting environmental destroyers at the State House or on the Cambridge City Council (eight proven, one too soon to tell), that much the better from their point of view.

The announcement of this gathering was the first I had heard of “The Leadership Campaign.” Typical, lovely name. The Cambridge Machine does a great job on lovely names.

2. The Cambridge Common, Sunday, March 28, 2009.

A. General.

The key time was 4 pm, a rally with speakers.

I showed up at about 3:40 pm and got a spot with an excellent view.

There were perhaps 15 expensive looking tents well aligned in rows on the Cambridge Common near Garden Street and Mass. Ave. There are three Common paths converging at that intersection. The tents and their occupants were located between the two paths nearest Garden Street.

The occupants were chit chatting among the tents.

I leafleted from 3:45 pm to 4:05 pm at the convergence of the two paths. I stopped at 4:05 pm because there was not enough action to justify continuing.

I would be happy to provide a copy of the flier. Please email at boblat@yahoo.com. This was the standard flier of Friends of the White Geese. One side addresses the destruction targeted at the Charles River; the other side addresses the ongoing destruction of the environment throughout Cambridge.

A number of people talked with me. The area most definitely was not quiet. It was just that by about 4:05 pm, it just did not seem to make sense to stay.

To the extent anybody I encountered asked particulars, I went into details as to my attempts to protect the Charles River and the City of Cambridge from The Cambridge Pols. I described the standard con from the Cambridge Machine.

The “demonstration” on the Cambridge Common most definitely looked like a part of the standard con. I went into details as to the techniques and about the ongoing environmental destruction.

As I left, a man came out of the group of tent dwellers carrying one of my leaflets. He strongly thanked me for the warning.

B. Close Encounter with a Destructive Pol.

As I left, I also noticed, illegally parked on Garden Street near Mass. Ave., Cambridge City Councilor (and most recent prior Mayor) Denise Simmons.

Denise Simmons is running for State Senate. She is clearly an environmental destroyer, and belligerently a heartless animal abuser on the Charles River.

I may have missed someone but I saw no other major political types.

That could explain who was behind this con game.

Passing of Daejanna Wormwood-Malone

Bob La Trémouille reports:

I was informed this morning, March 25, that Daejanna Wormwood-Malone passed yesterday of cardiac arrest. One of her neighbors called.

Daejanna was a good friend of the Charles River White Geese, especially during the early years of this millennium, right after Cambridge and the state started their attacks.

She was a member of our Core Group.

She helped feed them during difficult times and, as I recall, she was quite helpful to Marilyn after an attack on the Charles River White Geese.

Daejanna waxed poetic about her relationship with “Lothario,” a gander who would talk with her when she visited the Destroyed Nesting Area.

Daejanna would sit at the hill which is now part of the needless destruction and chat with Lothario for hours.

It developed that Lothario was the mate of a Toulouse Goose who, with her sister, had been left at the goose meadow in fall 2000. She would stay with her mate during nesting season and with her sister during off season. Finally, she and her mate created a brood. She stayed with her family from then on, as did Lothario. Daejanna lost her friend.

Daejanna was a good person. I will miss her.


CAVEAT: I checked the report by calling my phone number for Daejanna. I had a bad connection, but I spoke with a male voice who kept asking me questions. I could not get through to him, but that was clearly different from what I would expect.

Cambridgeport going from 3 to zero Grammar Schools to justify environmental destruction at Magazine Beach?

Bob La Trémouille reports.

1. Introductory.
2. Closing of the Webster School / Graham and Parks School / closed school on Upton Street.
3. Cambridgeport School.
4. Morse School under attack? — The Con.
5. Morse School under attack? — The, as usual, nasty reality.
6. Aerial View.


1. Introductory.

Things are starting to fall into place in Cambridgeport and it is looking like very nasty treatment of the neighborhood.

What it looks like is that the neighborhood, which formerly had three grammar schools may be slated to have none, and the latest move could be a con game to justify destroying the environment at Magazine Beach.

I have not paid full attention to the games played with the schools, and I welcome correction.

2. Closing of the Webster School / Graham and Parks School / closed school on Upton Street.

A few years back, using a really cynical con game, the Graham and Parks School, formerly the Webster School, on Upton Street was closed. The Machine closed the school but claimed they “did not close the school.” This bizarre claim was accomplished by moving the name to a school adjacent to a major quadrangle of the former Radcliffe College in West Cambridge.

So Graham and Parks School, formerly Webster School, on Upton Street was taken from the Cambridgeport neighborhood, but the city claims it is still on the books, always neglecting to mention that the supposedly continued school is now several miles away in a totally different part of the city on the far side of Harvard Square, one of the two major dividing points of the city.

3. Cambridgeport School.

I think that this is the name that was applied to the former Blessed Sacrament School located between Magazine and Pearl Streets facing Dana Park when that school was reused.

Blessed Sacrament School was closed as part of the Catholic Archdiocese reorganization. It was located about three blocks from the Webster School / Graham and Parks School / closed school on Upton Street.

The facility was taken over and run under the name Cambridgeport School.

It could have been part of the public school system, just an experimental part.

As part of the conversion of the school to housing, the private / experimental school itself, with its name was moved to a city owned and now closed school on Elm Street between Broadway and Cambridge Street on the opposite side of Central Square. This is a moving of perhaps eight blocks.

I see its website seeming to describe it as part of the Cambridge Public School system.

A cynical aspect of the problem is emphasized by the fact that this school is in the historical Cambridgeport neighborhood in a portion of the historical Cambridgeport neighorhood which is no longer recognize by the city as part of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is formally given a number and informally known by The Machine as the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood.

The Machine would not dream of using the name assigned to the area by the long term residents. This name is “The Port” as opposed to “The Coast” where the Webster School / Graham and Parks School / closed school on Upton Street is located.

And another Cambridgeport school was “not closed.” The name of another school was changed to the name of the school in the Cambridgeport neighborhood.

4. Morse School under attack? — The Con.

The city / The Machine has been talking about reorganizing to create a Middle School, 6, 7 and 8 grades, I think, with school closing as part of the proposal deliberately vague.

The Machine has been apparently neutral while mentioning the proposal, always discouraging talk of where it would go.

I have been on a very nasty receiving end of a communication from a woman who could be a very typical victim of a con. The scam artists can get people really involved to the extent that it becomes offensive to the victim to realize that the victim has been conned.

The sales pitch is: isn’t this a lovely idea.

The sales pitch is: it would be unreasonable to create a new school for this purpose.

The sales pitch is: how dare you consider what school we would close for this lovely idea.

So the mark does not want to lose their only remaining of three neighborhood schools and gets sold on the concept while being told it is unfair to consider the fact that the mark is stabbing the mark in the back.

This particular person does not want to lose the Morse School, the last remaining neighborhood school of three schools in Cambridgeport.

But the person was quite horrified at the possible use of the Webster School / the Graham and Parks School / the closed school on Upton Street for the purpose, and apparently the official talk about possible facilities does not even mention the Webster School / the Graham and Parks School / the closed school on Upton Street.

5. Morse School under attack? — The, as usual, nasty reality.

Cambridge has a truly outrageous situation on the Charles River at Magazine Beach.

Cambridge a very massive machine in place which is proven to do really bad things. This is The Machine.

The Morse School is within sight of Magazine Beach. Magazine Beach is on the south side of Memorial Drive. The Morse School is on the north side of Memorial Drive.

They are connected by an overpass above Memorial Drive which, surprise, surprise, is being rebuilt by the state.

Could the creation of a middle school in place of the Morse School be a game to justify the irresponsible destruction at Magazine Beach? Could Cambridgeport be going from three grammar schools to none as part of the irresponsible destruction at Magazine Beach?

The entire situation is sufficiently rotten to be exactly in character with the City of Cambridge and The Cambridge Machine.

6. Aerial View.














Above is an aerial view, probably from the state, of Cambridgeport and the Charles River.

The bridge in the bottom middle is the BU Bridge. The green area with two patches of brown (one now destroyed) is Magazine Beach. Directly north of Magazine Beach is Memorial Drive. Then you see the Morse School.

MassDOT Meeting, March 9, on the River St. and Western Ave. Bridges, Morse School, Cambridge

1. Bob La Trémouille reports.
2. Marilyn Wellons reports:
Part I.

1. Bob La Trémouille reports.

I had to leave fairly early during the public comments.

MassDOT presented their plans to a meeting at the Morse School near Magazine Beach in Cambridge.

The presentation was not changed from that made to the Allston meeting.

The attendance was perhaps double that in the Allston meeting. The Allston meeting filled that conference room. The Morse School Cafeteria is quite a bit larger than the conference room in the Honan Allston Library.

Representatives Walz and Wolf took credit for getting MassDOT to make a presentation in Cambridge.

I spoke on a number of issues.

I commented that the River Street / Western Avenue project is a responsible project on the state side. By contrast, the DCR’s BU Bridge project is very much environmentally destructive. Silence on the meetings on the BU Bridge project being conducted in Boston and Kendall Square allowed the DCR to keep that environmental destruction secret from the Cambridge residents most affected.

I commented that plans being proposed by friends of the State Reps for a small vehicle highway under the bridges with Memorial Drive access would be environmentally destructive and would duplicate an existing small vehicle highway on the Boston side. That small vehicle highway is a haven for muggers and rapists, and has signs warning people not to use it at night.

I objected to related plans for lighting at night at the water level. These would be historically destructive, environmentally destructive and harmful to animals feeding.

My initial comments were on the highway markings on the River Street Bridge. I was the second member of the public to speak. I followed a resident at 808 Memorial Drive, at the Cambridge end of the bridge, who objected that existing signage is dangerous. I followed up repeating my Allston comments, that people are making left turns from the middle lane onto Memorial Drive because signage at the Boston end violates signage manual requirements that one way streets be marked to tell people on one way streets that they are on one way streets. People are driving in the middle lane and turning left off it because they think they are on two way streets.

Councilor Davis left after I spoke without speaking. She gave me a dirty look, perhaps she also wanted to take credit for the Cambridge meeting.

2. Marilyn Wellons reports:

Part I.

In addition to the elected officials Bob has named, City Councillors Seidel and Cheung arrived after he left.

Councillor Wolf led off the question and answer period. She asked about improvements for pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the river around the bridges. She also asked whether DOT work would affect vegetation there.

DOT pointed out that the Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP) under which the work is funded defines the scope of the work as the footprint of the bridge. (The footprint is the dimensions of the existing structure.) Possible changes to the "multipurpose path" beyond the bridges themselves and their intersections are therefore limited. As for trees, DOT said they aim for as little destruction as possible, but need staging areas. They identify trees that must be removed during design of the repairs.

In response to this question and others about the "multipurpose path," in particular about tunnels for it through the bridges' abutments that had been proposed at the Allston meeting, DOT said they were studying the question. Whether tunnels prove to be feasible or not in the work now, they would aim at a design that would not foreclose that option in the future.

Many people cited safety problems for peds, bikes, and motor vehicles at the complicated intersections on both ends of the two bridges, and especially for River Street, where traffic from Soldiers Field Road and the Turnpike continues at high speed. And on Western Avenue, traffic backs up to Central Square and along Putnam Avenue.

Part II to follow.

The Charles River, East Cambridge, Mid-Cambridge, “Climate Change” and The Cambridge Machine

Bob La Trémouille reports:

The following letter from me was printed in the March 12, 2010 edition of the Cambridge Chronicle. Initial capitalization was removed from “The Machine.”

Editor
Cambridge Chronicle

I read with interest your report about a “neighborhood group’s” planning for Lechmere Station, especially in context of the city wide con game concerning climate control.

The Lechmere group has key people involved in the city wide con game which, in turn, looks like a collection of related groups with very much a common pattern. The pattern is lovely words with the opposite behavior in reality because of secret omissions or secret fine print.

Some people involved in the Lechmere initiative, when pushed, express shock about the plans of a state agency for Lechmere Station. They are shocked that the state agency wants to put in a park in the place of Lechmere Station.

So we hear these lovely words about a plaza with minimal comment of a large building.

Their plans are not for a plaza with large construction. Their proposal is for large construction with a plaza.

In place of a very large park with trees. In place of a very large park with grass.

And key people are involved in the city wide con game.

The climate control congress brags of lovely buildings.

Somehow the group does not mention needless and massive city and state destruction of excellent trees and animal habitat in many parts of Cambridge. Somehow not mentioned are poisons being dumped on the banks of the Charles to keep alive sickly grass replacing healthy grass which survived the better part of a century. Somehow not mentioned is a bizarre wall of introduced bushes walling off Magazine Beach and its food from the Charles and its native animals. Somehow not mentioned is heartless animal abuse.

A related letter spouted pious about the climate control congress and neglected to mention the writer’s environmental achievements. The writer brags about the grassy Lorentz Park at Ellery and Broadway. The writer never mentions the 20 to 30 hundred year old trees he and the city destroyed in the process.

These related entities have commonly gotten together with zoning “improvements” in which the fine print too often puts the lie to lovely claims.

Cambridge has an organized group doing a lot of harm to the environment in Cambridge. This Cambridge Machine fits a very distressing pattern.

I think the related outrages and con games are the climate control problem in Cambridge.

I think the repeated con games are just the hypocritical way The Machine hides reality from a concerned electorate.