Bob La Trémouille reports:
An arm of The Cambridge Machine which calls itself some sort of streets coalition had a letter to the editor in the April 22, 2010 Cambridge Chronicle and in the on line edition. I have submitted the following in response.
Of possible interest is that the founder of this Streets Coalition is now officially employed by the City of Cambridge and that their office is located on the street front of an MIT dorm.
Editor
Cambridge Chronicle
The letter objecting to MassDOT’s River Street and Western Avenue bridge repairs suffers from major omissions.
First, MassDOT is obeying the law governing the Accelerated Bridge Repair Program by restricting its planning to the bridges it is repairing.
Secondly, the writers and their friends are fighting for massive environmental destruction on the Charles River. Their demands are not restricted to these bridges and are not just for supposed traffic benefits in this area.
MassDOT is a breath of fresh air. I like seeing laws obeyed and the environment respected.
In the BU Bridge repairs, Cambridge’s destructive machine was very happy to see the Department of Conservation and Recreation violating the same laws the writers now want violated.
DCR, helped by silence of consent, kept the BU Bridge repairs and its needless environment destruction and animal abuse as secret as possible. They did this by conducting “public meetings” in Boston and in Kendall Square.
The destruction and violations of law include needless drainage construction in the animal habitat east of the BU Bridge and a needless doubling of area destroyed there. They would not provide amelioration for animals affected.
The machine was happy to have that behavior kept secret when the state was working for environmental destruction. Now a responsible agency is behaving well. The machine is distressed.
The real demands are for a small vehicle highway in Cambridge duplicating the small vehicle highway on the Boston side. The demands are environmentally destructive and dangerous to public safety.
The machine does not want to know about signs closing the Boston side at night because of muggings and rapes.
The machine supports destruction of hundreds of trees and animal habitat between the BU and Longfellow Bridges as part of highway construction. An excellent and large grove just reaching maturity at the western end of the Memorial Drive split is directly threatened.
Essentially virgin animal habitat at the MWRA plant is directly threatened. The animal habitat under and east of the BU Bridge would be further destroyed. The environmental outrage at Magazine Beach would be made worse.
Miles of placid riverfront throughout Cambridge would be savaged.
These unstated matters are yet another example of the reality hidden by pretty much non stop con games in Cambridge. The machine keeps telling Cantabridgians to fight for fancy buildings and ignore the destruction of water, river, trees and animal habitat.
MassDOT is a pleasant relief.
