1. Respond to an integrated attack on the environment.
2. Basic Action.
3. Contact the big guys.4. Specific contact information.
5. Estate Planning and the Charles River White Geese.
6. Part of the problem.
A. Charles River, Abridged.
B. Destruction of the core Alewife reservation has been achieved. Total destruction is likely without major changes..C. The magnificent grove which constituted the entrance to the Cambridge Common was destroyed in April 2015.
D. Honorably retired Cambridge City Manager condemned by the courts for destroying a black, Cape Verdean, woman’s life in retaliation for her filing a civil rights action.
E. And this is, by far, not the only environmental destruction.
7. Summary.
INTRO.
If you can only do one thing, contact the governor.
Governor Charles Baker 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/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office/
888-870-7770 / 617-725-4005.
1. Respond to an integrated attack on the environment.
It would be foolhardy to think that this problem is limited to the Charles River.
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the City of Cambridge are destroying both the Charles River and virgin wild areas in the western part of Cambridge.
Cambridge has destroyed the excellent grove which constitutes the entrance to the Cambridge Common with state moneys.
We will proceed with what you can do and complete in the following sections with preliminary comments in sections 1, 2 and 3,
• in Section 4, with specific bullets to raise.
• in Section 5, with specific contact information of people to contact
• in Section 6, with more formal assistance possible.
• in Section 7, with a brief summary of the problems.
2. Basic Action.
First of all, please friend the Charles River White Geese on facebook.
Secondly, this blog has a link by which you can make a contribution to Friends of the White Geese through Paypal which accepts all major credit cards. Money is crucial to publicize the escalating outrage.
By snail mail, please send contributions to:
Friends of the White Geese
Post Office Box 391412
Cambridge, MA 02139.
Fliers are minimal. Print advertisements are ideal. Mass mailings are a dream which might come true with your help.
These contributions are NOT tax deductible.
Workers, telephoning / writing and money are key.
We need leafleters, especially at the BU Bridge, but also at key meetings. Please contact Bob at 617-283-7649 or at boblat@yahoo.com.
3. Contact the big guys.
The really destructive people on the first ten miles of Charles River and in the most important part of Alewife are the governments, especially the state and Cambridge.
They have a very major weakness. They run around pretty much nonstop proclaiming they are environmental saints, and they have massive organizations repeating these silly claims.
The Cambridge City Government is particularly sensitive because they certainly look like they are in contact with pretty much everybody.
At the state level, the bureaucrats are beneath consideration. The responsible person is the governor. And the worst of the destruction is on state property.
The governor is very likely the one person most likely to behave responsibly. He had nothing to do with the allocation of funds for destruction of all those trees and animal habitat. The key legislation is Chapter 286, Acts of 2014, “Historic Parkways”. $20 million is specified.
The governor is in office as a Republican smart management type. This expenditure is anything but.
The City of Cambridge is very much a part of the destruction. Moneys come from the Cambridge City Council. The Cambridge City Council routinely tells everybody how to save the world.
The Cambridge City Council brags of environmental initiatives. They vote the bad stuff fast, occasionally by suspending rules to keep things as secret as possible. They then brag about “initiatives” which are next too meaningless. The Cambridge City Council is fully within its powers and its duties to end these outrages.
Communication is crucial, individual and, if possible, on a large scale.
4. Specific Bullets to Raise.
• Give back to the state the $20 million in Chapter 286 of the Acts of 2014 for “Historic Parkways” massive irresponsible destruction on Memorial Drive. Kill the new highway behind the swimming pool and on Magazine Beach hill.
• Kill plans to destroy the lovely parking lot at the foot of Magazine Street which is needed for the Magazine Beach picnic area.
• Make the bike highway plans responsible. No Mass. Pike off ramp from the Mass. Pike over the Grand Junction bridge, now or in phases. No massive tree destruction. Connect Grand Junction bike highway to Memorial Drive by Vassar Street.
• Stop tossing on poisons to keep alive the invasive introduced grass. Seed the responsible grass they destroyed. No silly drainage. Kill proposed expansion to the top of the hill and behind the swimming pool. Return responsible grass.
• Chop down the bizarre wall of introduced bushes which blocks off the Charles River from the playing fields. Chop it down like all other bordering vegetation is on the Charles River. Twice a year. Restore clear lines of access for the Charles River White Geese to return to their food and home of most of the last 34 years, the responsible grasses of the playing fields.
• End DCR’s killing and driving away of resident animals. Cherish the treasure of the Charles River White Geese.
5. Specific contact information.
Contact Information for people to contact:
A long shot, if these people are still trying to stick in Obama moneys is President Barack Obama. Millions of Obama stimulus dollars were 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. That money could be once again requested. It is normal to find out about dirty tricks after the fact.
President Obama’s email contact form is: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. His telephone number is: 202-456-6213.
Much more important right now is Governor Charles Baker.
Governor Charles Baker is at the heart of this situation on the state side. Governor Baker’s contact information is:
Email form: http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office/
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 won that $8.3M legal payment against the City Manager for his retaliation against her when he found her civil rights complaint displeasing. As I mentioned above, Cambridge lost the case and the Cambridge City Council has it in its power to fire the City Manager because of the court decisions.)
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. 2011 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)
Dennis A Benzan,
mailto:dbenzan@cambridgema.gov
617-800-7301 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)
Dennis J. Carlone,
mailto:dcarlone@cambridgema.gov
617-494-9559 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)
Leland Cheung,
mailto:LCheung@cambridgema.gov
617-491-2692 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)
Craig A. Kelley
mailto:ckelley@cambridgema.gov
617-354-8353 (H), 617-349-4280 (W)
Nadeem A. Mazen,
mailto:nmazen@cambridgema.gov
617-825-4638S (H), 617-349-4280 (W)
Marc C. McGovern,
mailto:mmcgovern@cambridgema.gov
617-945-1866 (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)
State Representatives:
Marjorie Decker
marjorie.decker@mahouse.gov
617-722-2450, State House Room 136
Jonathan Hecht
jonathan.hecht@mahouse.gov
617-722-2140, State House Room 22
Jay Livingstone
jay.livingstone@mahouse.gov
617-722-2011, State House Room 136
David Rogers
dave.rogers@mahouse.gov
617-722-2460, State House Room 472
Timothy Toomey (above) serves both as Cambridge City Councilor and State Representative
State Senators:
Sal DiDomenico
Sal.DiDomenico@masenate.gov
617-722-1650, State House Room 208
Patricia Jehlen
patricia.jehlen@masenate.gov
617-722-1578, State House Room 424
Anthony Petrucelli
Anthony.Petruccelli@masenate
617-722-1634, State House Room 109D
It is our opinion that, in order to end the attacks on the Charles River, and possibly Alewife as well, the Cambridge City Manager must be fired, along with 10 out of 9 Cambridge City Councilors.. Minka vanBeuzecom is the tenth. She was on the prior City Council. As of this writing, she seems to be a candidate to return to the Cambridge City Council. She shares guilt for outrages on the Charles River, Alewife and Cambridge Common. It is silly not to include her as guilty.
6. Estate Planning and the Charles River White Geese.
A very major defect in Massachusetts law has existed concerning binding transfers for the benefit of animals.
The state legislature and the governor have recently added Chapter 203, section 3C to the General Laws.
Under this wording, trust conveyances can be made for the care of animals alive during the donor’s lifetime. The money cannot be retained beyond the death of the last surviving animal alive during the donor’s lifetime (legally important words). I have recently had a report by a caregiver of White Chinas living into their 30's.
Almost all of the Charles River White Geese have the appearance of White China Geese or of Emden Geese or of their progeny.
The trust can be created during the donor’s lifetime or by will at the time of death.
For the specific language of the change, please see: http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2010/Chapter430.
7. Part of the problem.
A. Charles River, Abridged.
Massive destruction has been done at the Magazine Beach playing fields on the Charles River in Cambridge, just west of the BU Bridge. Heartless starvation is being imposed on the Charles River White Geese as part of a public policy of killing off all animals on the Charles River Basin with hypocritical lies whitewashing things. Poisons are being dumped on the banks of the Charles River to keep alive introduced invasive grasses which replace seven acres of healthy grass that survived without poisons for the better part of a Century. The Magazine Beach playing fields have been walled off from the Charles River with a bizarre wall of introduced invasive bushes. This bizarre wall is the only vegetation bordering the Charles River Basis which is NOT destroyed twice a year. The manager brags that it starves the Charles River White Geese.
The local fake group is fighting for all destruction planned by Cambridge and its friends by telling people not to look at it. In particular, they are fighting to keep and expand the invasive plantings to the top on the hill west of the playing fields and to the area behind the swimming pool. They would put in a bike highway which is related to massive destruction supported between the BU and Longfellow Bridges. They ae fighting to destroy the little guys parking lot. All of this is in coordination with the Department of Conservation and Recreation working with Cambridge.
Pretty much all ground vegetation was destroyed between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse to the east except for vegetation near planned construction work on the BU Bridge. This is the area to which the Charles River White Geese have been confined since the destruction at Magazine Beach. Their habitat for most of the time since 1981 has been a mile long stretch centered on the BU Bridge. The destruction of ground vegetation has been done since anoter fake protective group which lies in its name that it is a “conservancy” started destroying the environment for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Massive and very much worse tree destruction is planned. Hundreds of trees are targeted, along with wildlife habitat, between Magazine Beach and the Longfellow Bridge in one of many projects. In 2014, by Chapter 286, of the Acts of 2014, “Historic Parkways”, the State House allocated $20 Million for the destruction of hundreds of trees and of animal habitat on the Charles River’s Cambridge side between the BU and Longfellow Bridge.
The DCR brags, translating the fine print, of intent to kill off all resident animals in the Charles River Basin.
B. Destruction of the core Alewife reservation has been achieved. Total destruction is likely without major changes..
The Alewife reservation was an essentially virgin and massive woods just west of the subway Red Line’s terminus, Alewife station.
This vile behavior is playing out at Alewife where 3.4 plus acres of virgin woodlands were destroyed by Cambridge and the DCR with state and local moneys, commencing in October 2011. The big difference at Alewife is that the local fake group, after years of telling people concerned about Alewife to look at everything except the most important pending destruction planned by their friends, has gone public, through their leader and creator, admitting 19 years of con games to be flat out lies by praising the environmental destruction in the Cambridge Chronicle on September 16, 2011, and in a publication on line. She followed up by bragging to a fake “environmental” discussion group.
The massive destruction at Alewife is claimed to be for flood storage to protect against two year floods, directly across the street from a massive parking lot which readily could be used for a very large multiple of the flood storage possible through their silly and very very destructive project.
The extreme irresponsibility of the Alewife situation may be seen on Google Maps. Go to maps.google.com, select satellite view, and go to 100 Cambridge Park Drive, Cambridge, MA. Directly above the street used to be an excellent, virgin wood lands with thousands of excellent animals. There is now a scar in the middle of this formerly virgin woods. Cambridge brags of this destruction and mass animal killing on its website.
Badly needed is a taking of underground property in new construction for flood storage as joint projects between Cambridge and local developers. This type of storage is in place in properties south of Cambridge Park Drive at a scale appropriate for the projects. Much larger scale is needed to undo failure to replace previously destroyed wetlands.
C. The magnificent grove which constituted the entrance to the Cambridge Common was destroyed in April 2015.
D. Honorably retired Cambridge City Manager condemned by the courts for destroying a black, Cape Verdean, woman’s life in retaliation for her filing a civil rights action.
One key person, now honorably retired Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy, has indulged in behavior called “reprehensible” by the superior court (http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/judge-issues-decision-denying.html) with the appeals court agreeing, finding “ample evidence [of] outrageous conduct.” (http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/appeals-court-decision-in-monteiro.html)
This Cambridge City Manager has, civilly, been found guilty of destroying the life of Malvina Monteiro, a black, Cape Verdean department head, by firing her in retaliation for her filing a civil right complaint. Cambridge has paid her $8.3 million in response to the court decisions, including $3.5 million penal damage awarded by the jury. The City of Cambridge paid $14,569,558 in five related cases which include Monteiro.
These combined decisions gave the self declared environmental and civil rights saints on the Cambridge City Council power to fire the Cambridge City Manager for malfeasance in office without his golden parachute and, possibly, without pension.
The Court condemned City Manager, Robert Healy, was allowed to retire with honor and with the Cambridge Police Station named after him.
This situation, in addition to the true vileness involved, sent a message to folks expecting responsible behavior from the City of Cambridge, whether those folks are employed by the City of Cambridge or otherwise.
That message was that, even with extreme condemnation, the Cambridge City Council does not give a whoot about what responsible people, even the Courts, think about punishment meted out by the Cambridge City Manager to people standing in his way.
E. And this is, by far, not the only environmental destruction.
It is not too late.
8. Summary.
Thank you in advance for whatever you can do.
This report was initially posted October 10, 2008
This report was updated most recently on April 28, 2015.
In recent years, we have posted a lot of supporting photographs. This summary is extremely long as it is. The photographs are not provided because this summary is extremely long as it is.
