2. Contacts, Miscellaneous.
Threatened grove by the Longfellow Bridge.
Before.
Without the first two trees.
1. Analysis.
In addition to the ongoing outrage at Longfellow / Kendall near the Charles River, Government Patrick proposed a bond bill for massive tree destruction on the Charles River, the wanton destruction of hundreds of trees between the Longfellow Bridge and the BU Bridge. This is by the governor of Massachusetts, without mentioning the environmental destruction, of course.
I had hoped that this outrage did not appear in subsequent versions of the budget, but a recent document by the falsely named Charles River “Conservancy” indicates otherwise.
The lie that the Cambridge Machine and this fake “conservancy” group used was bridge “underpasses” on bridges further west on the Charles River. The publicly mentioned “underpasses” proposal was so irresponsible that it was strongly rejected by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
The fine print in the Governor’s Budget called for $2 million bond authorization for the underpasses, and $24 million for the associated “pathway.” That associated pathway would destroy hundreds of trees between the BU Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation previously sought moneys for this destruction in an Obama counter Great Recession proposal. They lied that all the trees were sick, a lie proven by their filing with the City of Cambridge’s Conservation Commission.
The reprehensible front organization of the Cambridge Machine which claims to represent the Cambridgeport Neighborhood created a group supposedly concerned about Magazine Beach. Using tactics being used by a comparable group fighting for the destruction of the Alewife Reservation, they have told people they love Magazine Beach, just ignore ALL of the problems there, massive environmental destruction and heartless animal abuse, and look at a historical building which had been closed to the public for 80 years.
The core of this group attempted to get authorization by its neighborhood for approval for a tiny portion of the tree destruction outrage, without mentioning the tree destruction, and without mentioning the massive extension of the existing problems they have been keeping secret which were being much more explicitly approved..
This fake group could not do an approval of this outrage after devoting their entire January 2013 meeting on the issue, so they delayed the action to the February 2013 meeting. They then held in the February 2013 meeting on April 23 to drive away the interested folks. They then conducted discussion of a very complicated proposal in the last ten minutes of the meeting. They handed out the very complicated proposal at the beginning of that last ten ten minutes “discussion.”
So a meeting consisting of robots and of folks totally uninterested in the Charles River participated in a “vote” of support without ever being told about the fine print in the fine print and with the interested people driven away.
The same corrupt group is fighting for destruction of the excellent grove on the on ramp from Memorial Drive to the Boston bound side of the Longfellow Bridge by telling people to look at objections to signs on buildings.
The fake “conservancy” has reported that they are still fighting the fight, not mentioning all the destruction, of course.
It is highly likely that the Transportation Bill now being considered by the legislature includes destruction of hundreds of trees between the Longfellow and BU Bridges in the name of a path associated with bridge “underpasses” further down the Charles River.
This is in addition to the outrage which has been started on the ramp from Memorial Drive to the Longfellow Bridge inbound.
2. Contacts, Miscellaneous.
Massachusetts Governor’s Office email form: http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituentservices/contact/.
State environmental people, DES Hotline: ESF.Hotline@state.ma.us.
MassDOT Accelerated Bridges Program: 857-368-8904 or Stephanie.Boundy@state.ma.us
All Massachusetts Legislators’ emails: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/emails-for-all-massachusetts.html.
Cambridge, MA, USA city councilors: Council@cambridgema.gov.
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For people listening to Boston Sierra Club endorsements of environmentally destructive members of the Cambridge City Council, you should be aware that
(1) using the world’s definition of “environmentalism,” there are no environmentally responsible members of the Cambridge City Council, and
(2) there are Cambridge Machine activists very visible and apparently very active in the Boston Sierra Club.
If you are talking to a person associated with the Boston Sierra Club, do a credibility check. Ask if they are familiar with the “Urban Ring” rapid transit proposal. This is a subway proposal designed to link the existing subway spokes. I have been working on it since 1985. Cambridge raised the project in a comment to an environmental Impact Statement in the last month or so.
If the Boston Sierra Club “expert” answers “yes,” that he / she is familiar with the Urban Ring rapid transit proposal, ask how many rail options there are. If the answer is “one,” you are getting the flat out lie put out by the City of Cambridge.
Cambridge’s flat out lie is that, of the TWO rail options, the only one that exists is the environmentally destructive streetcar option which the City of Cambridge supports. This option would be highly destructive to the environment near the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.
The reality is that THE STATE LEGISLATURE HAS SUBSIDIZED THE OTHER OPTION, the responsible Orange Line / heavy rail option, the Kenmore crossing. The state legislature has subsidized the expansion of Yawkey Station as part of the massive Fenway Park area project which has gotten recent press.
Cambridge’s nonsensical proposal would move Yawkey Station three blocks. The Cambridge proposal would not work without moving Yawkey Station. The Kenmore Crossing uses the now subsidized and being expanded Yawkey Station as part of a brilliant megastation.
You should immediately respond to such nonsense from a Sierra Club “expert” by having nothing more to do with this person. Whether the person is stupid or venal is irrelevant, the person has no credibility and is not worthy of your time.
It is frequently difficult to pin these irresponsible people down in general. The deviant behavior in my test is extreme. They are pious in their demands that, if you are politically correct and pro environment, you have to rubber stamp them. Please do not waste your time arguing about destruction they can wiggle around.
Turn your back on them and walk away fast.
