1. Report.
2. Disclosures.
1. Report.
WBZ Radio, Boston, AM 1030 runs news radio 15 hours most days with talk the rest of the time. Last I heard, it has the largest audience of any radio station in New England.
WBZ regularly runs station advertising minutes which present brief repeats of key recent reports. One very prominent repeat being presented now is a clip from evening talk anchor Dan Rea.
Rea's clip mocks the “Safe Street Alliance” for the entity's opposition to bike helmets. According to Rea, the group opposes mandatory bike helmets because the requirement reduces the number of people who would use bikes. Rea responds that he thinks that, if he is in a bike accident, he would like to be wearing a helmet.
“Safe Street Alliance” is a typical, destructive Cambridge Machine organization. They fight for implementation of the more destructive and bizarre transportation policies of the staff of the City of Cambridge.
The man who created the group worked for a year or so on the creation and then was promoted by the City of Cambridge from his “independent” status. He is now a full time paid staffer of the City of Cambridge.
This front organization has fought for massive destruction on the Charles River through a bike highway proposal which would destroy hundreds of trees. They fight for confining bicycles to sidewalks for "safety."
They fight for destruction of hundreds of trees and massive animal habitat harm on Memorial Drive as part of an east west bike highway. They fight for a bizarre north south highway which needlessly destroys in the Destroyed Nesting Area with a bizarre long ending. I recently did a detailed photo report on this outrage and on the responsible alternative. The east west bike highway is stage two in effectively converting miles of Memorial Drive in Cambridge into the private domain of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their office is on the MIT campus.
They pander to the “all rights, no responsibilities” anthem of today's very destructive organized bicycle lobby.
2. Disclosures.
I went to Law School with Dan Rea. I have not spoken with him for years, but it is nice to see he is successful on WBZ Radio.
I have done very long bicycle commuting a number of times during my life. I am a law abiding bicyclist. I have strongly opposed the environmental and bicycle destructive policies of this Cambridge Machine group and of the destructive government it fronts for.
I strongly support bicycling becoming a meaningful and responsible part of an integrated transportation system.
Between my second and third years of law school, I interned in the Governor’s Office in the Massachusetts State House. Toward the end of the summer, my boss showed off their computer system and asked if I wanted information on a bill. I asked about a particularly bizarre bike bill that that year’s bicycle lobby was telling its mailing list about. It turned out that the bill had passed both houses of the legislature with no negative comment, not even negative comment from the people who had been publicizing its odd problems. My boss told me it was a terrible bill. He said that the governor only supported it because a friend sponsored it.
I figured the bill was no big thing, but if the governor opposed the bill and it certainly was stupid, I might as well do something. So I gave the bicycle people the right contacts and provided advice to help them organize. I made no secret of my activities in the office because I would not have been fighting the bill without the strong comments of my boss.
Within a week, without my ever making any form of public appearance, my people had forced a veto of this bill, after it had passed both houses of the legislature without negative comment. The Boston Globe editorialized about all the buzz generated within one week. The sponsor requested the veto.
The Governor's Office had no doubt that I was personally responsible for the defeat.
The Governor was highly displeased with me. My boss was the nice guy type who could never say a negative word. He underestimated me.
