2. Overview: The environmentally destructive City of Cambridge, MA, USA
3. Contacts, Miscellaneous.
1. Photo report, July 18, 2013
Mishka provides the following photos.
This is getting to him and to us.
The two remaining trees of those marked for destruction.
Two killed on July 18, 2013.
Overview after the outrage on July 18, 2013.
The situation from before the outrage, June 27, 2013.
2. Overview: The environmentally destructive City of Cambridge, MA, USA
Cambridge, MA, USA, by all rights is an environmental pariah.
The biggest trouble with Cambridge’s destructiveness is that they do a lot of lying and that they have a massive organization which repeats their lies.
Additionally, the massive organization runs around passing on the lies to a lot of other groups.
So an environmental pariah, through a series of lies and repeats of lies is presented to the world, falsely, as an environmental saint.
And Cambridge corrupts state agencies with whom it works.
Cambridge is in the process of destroying the Alewife reservation. It has already destroyed acres there.
Cambridge has inflicted years of increasing destruction on its Fresh Pond Reservation.
Cambridge is preparing to destroy 22 excellent trees on the magnificent Cambridge Common, most because they are “blocking” the view.
Cambridge is in the process of massive destruction on the Charles River.
It has inflicted an environmental outrage on the Magazine Beach playing fields. Its plans called for a “lawn to the river,” so it walled off the lawn from the river with a massive wall of introduced bushes. It destroyed responsible grass which survived the better part of a century and replaced it with sickly stuff that requires poisons to survive. To keep the poisons out of the Charles, they destroyed part of the playing fields for drainage, drainage duplicated in the Longfellow Bridge outrage. The built part of a bike highway slated to destroy hundred of trees.
They have been deliberately starving the 32 year resident beautiful Charles River White Geese. They have increasingly destroyed the environment in the ghetto to which they have confined these beautiful animals, and Cambridge has a plan to increase the damage and to build a fence to separate it off from the adjacent formerly natural hillside. As much ground vegetation as they can get away with has been destroyed from the BU Bridge through the ghetto, through that hillside, to the BU Boat House.
Through blatantly corrupt tactics their agents obtained a fake vote to expand the destruction to the hill to the west of the playing fields and ti the wetlands beyond the hill, behind the swimming pool. Their agents are fighting to destroy the little guy’s parking lot needed for picnicking on that hill, picnicking which the agents glorify.
Working through agents, Cambridge has a bond authorization request in the Governor’s transportation budget to destroy hundreds of trees between the BU Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge on the Charles River.
Cambridge’s agent, the Charles River “Conservancy” ran around getting support for the destruction of those hundreds of trees lying that it was seeking support for “underpasses” under the next three bridges over the Charles River to the west. MassDOT opposed the “underpasses” as environmentally and historically destructive. And there was no mention to the “supporters” of the massive tree destruction.
The governor included $2 to $4 million in his bond authorization request for the “underpasses” and $24 million for associated “paths” bicycle highways which would destroy those hundreds of trees. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation previously sought Obama anti recession funding to destroy the trees, lying that they were all diseased. They filed papers with the Cambridge Conservation Commission providing the lie.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is inflicting outrageous destruction as part of the Longfellow Bridge renovation project. MassDOT destroyed an excellent grove of trees on the Cambridge end of the Longfellow Bridge above the Red Line rapid transit tunnel. The lie to explain this was that destruction was necessary as part of the project, to reroute inbound traffic to the outbound side of the river. But all the destruction did was allow a straight line between the sides. Responsible construction would have created a turn in the road without destroying these excellent trees.
The above report is on the MassDOT / Cambridge (they are always consulted) destruction of an excellent grove of trees abutting the Longfellow Bridge on the west side in Cambridge next to the ramp from Memorial Drive to the Boston Side of the bridge.
The first explanation of the destruction was that it was necessary to handle rainwater from the bridge. MassDOT does not like connecting to the street drainage system in place.
Then MassDot explained that the destruction was necessary for handicapped access. They are building a handicapped overpass in Boston and moving Cambridge trees to beautify Boston. Then MassDOT blamed the destruction on those objecting. We had a duty to keep them from this outrage.
MassDOT has been corrupted by a reprehensible City of Cambridge, and the outrage has extended to Governor Patrick. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is a long standing destructive bedfellow of the City of Cambridge.
3. 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; Cambridge’s definition is that environmentalists protect that which Cambridge does not feel like destroying; the Cambridge pols are oh, so pious using their secret, fraudulent definition; 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 try to wiggle around.
Turn your back on them and walk away fast.
