Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Environmental response to objection to Cambridge, MA, USA corruption

In the November 15, 2012 Cambridge Chronicle, they printed a letter from Roy Bercaw praising the outgoing editor for standing up to the corruption in Cambridge. It is not published on line and I have not been able to get a URL if Roy put it on his Blog.

I have submitted the following suggested response.

*************

Roy Bercaw’s analysis of Cambridge as a corrupt community was astute.

An excellent example of corruption on the environment is the public meeting conducted by The Machine on 11/17/12.

The Machine claims that Cambridge is “Pro Environment.” It yells about matters in which Cambridge is not being destructive. The Machine suppresses Cambridge’s inexcusable environmental destruction.

On 11/17/2012, a city councilor bragged about Cambridge’s holiness at Alewife. The Machine has been fighting for destruction of the Alewife reservation for more than 14 years. It cried about this irreplaceable virgin woodland. It yelled at private developers. It told people not to look at public destructiveness.

Last October - November, Cambridge destroyed acres of irreplaceable woodlands and killed hundreds of resident animals. The Machine bragged about the destruction in the pages of the Chronicle. So now, The Machine yells about protecting air quality and forgets its inexcusable woodland destruction and the massive increase in destruction it works for.

At the meeting, the councilor mentioned two pending developments on opposite sides of CambridgePark Drive. The parcel on the north side directly abuts the area where Cambridge ruthlessly destroyed acres of irreplaceable woodland and killed its animals. The southern development is in the middle of a massive parking lot which should be used for the flood storage which Cambridge claims it is providing.

Cambridge is protecting against the worst storm in an average two year period. Alewife has seen two fifty year storms in the last twenty years. Protection should be provided against 100 year storms.

The building on the south side of CambridgePark Drive is providing flood protection underground for its building.

All Cambridge has to do to expand that buildings protections deeper and put the protection under the two developments and under the parking lot.

But the Machine tells responsible people to yell at the developers and tells folks to keep away from telling the City Council that Cambridge should be doing its job. Then, when it is “too late”, Cambridge will perhaps destroy all of Alewife.

The councilor responded to my question about her destructiveness by bragging about another part of town. When I tried to get her back to her claims of “environmentalism” at Alewife, I was shut up by the chair.

This is one example of endemic corruption in Cambridge. Dishonesty in environmentalism is the norm. Pious mouthings and misleading directions are the tactic to hide reality.

Thank you, Roy.