2. The Cambridge Conservation Commission meeting, February 13, 2012.
3. Summary.
1. Richie McKinnon — a good record.
In my last post, I said that the new owner / developer of the massive parking lot where the Alewife flood storage should be is a good guy.
His name is Richard McKinnon. He was a key assistant to the late Cambridge Mayor / City Councilor Al Vellucci. I posted a glowing praise of Al a couple of months back, contrasting him to the outrage which is the very destructive Cambridge Pols. Al would be proud of what Richie has done at Alewife.
Richie is now developing property both north and south of the Alewife reservation, and judging by the looks on folks faces when I went over the destruction of the Alewife reservation being accomplished by the City of Cambridge, I would say he has been believing the con games from the Cambridge Machine that the private developers are the big threat at Alewife, not Cambridge.
I am spreading among this report photos of the parking lot he returned to the Alewife Reservation and of the massive parking lot he is committed to develop. The first two are the parking lot he returned to nature.
The third is the parking lot he is developing and which should hold the flood storage. His ownings stretch far to the left behind the building.
The fourth photo is a VERY dated view of the Alewife destruction from his property. The access road on the right and the small vehicle highway on the left used to be part of the virgin forest and the destruction is a lot worse now. The small vehicle highway has been relocated from the destroyed virgin woodland which last I saw was a open surface mine.
I know what Richie did with that parking lot between his existing project and Alewife Station. He implemented the zoning change in the Sheila Cook zoning petition which I wrote and for which the Cambridge Machine treated Sheila like crap.
Richie sounded very responsible in other environmental aspects of his existing development especially those facing the area Cambridge and the Cambridge Pols seem to be determined to destroy as they do their non stop con game telling people to look everyplace else.
2. The Cambridge Conservation Commission meeting, February 13, 2012.
Richie has replaced the developer who got environmental approvals in 2008.
Richie presented his plans to the Cambridge Conservation Commission last night and hopes to present it to the Cambridge Planning Board on March 20.
Richie presented a package showing his proposal.
At the very beginning of the proposal package is a site plan / satellite photo which would be an excellent before picture for Cambridge’s outrage at Alewife.
It shows the Alewife reservation in the excellence which Cambridge and its fake groups destroyed.
As near as I can gather, it would appear that he owns the big parking lot which is directly across the street from the destroyed Alewife reservation and that he owns the rest of the series of parking lots which run from there along the commuter rail to Alewife Brook Parkway.
I started off my comments by pointing out to them that their site plan / satellite photo is out of date because Cambridge has destroyed a fast amount of the reservation shown on the site plan / satellite photo.
I continued to explain that the Alewife area needs flood protection from the 50 year floods which have occurred twice in the last 20 years.
I pointed out that, as massive as the destruction has been, it only protects against 2 year floods, i.e. rather than protecting against the worst possible flood in a 50 year period, it protects against the worst possible flood in a two year period.
Once the first really bad rain occurs, folks are going to find out they have been lied to.
Then the real destruction occurs. The flood protection can only be provided by further massive and perhaps total destruction of the Alewife reservation or by creating underground flood storage under all of Richie’s property, preferably coordinated with his project.
McKinnon’s plans call for at grade parking throughout the project area, exactly the area which would be hurt worst by Cambridge’s lies that Cambridge is meaningfully protecting against flooding.
I asked Richie if Cambridge has ever contacted him about use of his property for the flood storage which Alewife needs, coordinating with his project.
He said he has not been contacted.
3. Summary.
Cambridge’s con game continues.
McKinnon, the true environmentalist, North Cambridge, Arlington and Belmont are being severely hurt by the non stop smoke screen tactics what have gotten this outrage this far.
