The April 13, 2012 issue of the Cambridge Chronicle had an interesting letter dominating its letters page.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be published on line.
The authors of the letter were Ellen Mass, the leader of the falsely named “Friends” of the Alewife Reservation and two others. She was key in the destruction of acres of irreplaceable forest at Alewife for flood protection against 10 year storms in an area which has seen two fifty year storms in the past twenty years. She has bragged in the Cambridge Chronicle about the destruction.
I have done many posts on this situation. The most recent was in part of yesterday’s post, and this letter to the editor exactly fits my comments.
What they are doing now exactly fits the standard operating procedure of the Cambridge Pols, yell at everything, except for yelling that can accomplish something meaningful.
That said, my proposed response is pretty self-explanatory.
Editor
Cambridge Chronicle
Congratulations to the “Friends “ of the Alewife Reservation.
They have suddenly discovered that the massive parking lot south of CambridgePark Drive is where the flood protection belongs to defend against major flooding in the Alewife area.
In the meantime, they have destroyed acres of irreplaceable woodland for “flood protection” their destruction will not provide.
They achieved this inexcusable destruction by telling people to look at everything except for Cambridge and the DCR’s irresponsible project. They have bragged in the pages of the Chronicle of this destruction.
Now that they have noticed the massive parking lot where the flood storage should go, they are embarking on yet another con game.
They are yelling at the developers on CambridgePark Drive. And they will keep on yelling at the developers as long as their con games protect the guilty, the City of Cambridge, its city manager and its city councilors.
If Cambridge had a responsible city government, Cambridge would take by eminent domain the massive parking lot stretching from 160 CambridgePark Drive to the train tracks to Alewife Brook Parkway. Cambridge would build underground the needed flood protection and combine that flood protection with the proposed condo building.
Dodge Chemical is now in play. Take that property underground and build under it as well.
The combination of underground storage will provide the needed protection against 100 year floods which the destruction of the Alewife reservation next to these properties cannot do even though flood protection was promised. The construction technique needed is exactly the technique being used for less flood storage in the 160 CambridgePark Drive condo project.
We will, however, continue to hear these people yelling at the wrong parties until they have kept people busy so long that Cambridge’s irresponsible city government can no longer do the obvious.
I think it would be nice if these “activists” bothered themselves with reality and get the needed flood storage by eminent domain.
Once that is done, the totally unnecessary destruction the “activists” have inflicted on the Alewife reservation should be abandoned as an example of the destruction done to our world by an irresponsible government and its friendly “activists.” Let nature heal itself. What these people did in a month could be repaired by nature in a century.
But the “activists” will keep on yelling at the wrong guy until it is “too late.” And then work for the reelection of the guilty.
