1. Communication.
2. Complaint to the governor.
3. Contacts, Miscellaneous.
1. Communication.
The situation on the Cambridge End of the Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River is getting more and more irresponsible.
The state has wastefully destroyed an excellent grove of trees at the Cambridge end of the bridge above the Red Line subway.
The state has moved the first tree of the excellent grove on the ramp from Memorial Drive to the Longfellow Bridge toward Boston.
The state has announced its first public meeting in Cambridge on the project for July 10, 2013, mentioning none of the destruction in the announcement.
We have exchanged emails with the key planner. The key planner tells us that she has given public notice and that her destructiveness is the responsibility of the public. The public should have kept her from doing this.
So she has proven her lovely words to be so much nonsense by scheduling the first Cambridge meeting on the project for after the completion, it would appear, of the total destruction.
This is a brief summary of many reports on this blog.
2. Complaint to the governor.
July 4, 2013 at 4:25 pm, I left the following message on the governor’s email form.
RE: Longfellow Bridge: Irresponsible Destruction, Silly Excuses.
Governor Patrick:
Your Longfellow Bridge project is strikingly destructive of the environment while rather strongly playing irresponsible games.
The plan needlessly targets for destruction two excellent groves of trees at the Cambridge end of the Longfellow Bridge.
An excellent example of your administrations irresponsible handling of this outrage is the latest announcement for a “public meeting” on the matter, posted at http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/InformationCenter/WeeklyNewsletters/RoadtoReformNewsletter06282013.aspx.
Under this announcement, you are conducting your first “public meeting” in Cambridge, in which both of the irresponsible destruction of groves of trees is occurring. The announcement specifies exactly ZERO instances of tree destruction.
To make things worse, you have already accomplished the wasteful destruction of the excellent grove of trees above the red line subway at the Kendall end of the bridge. But you are only scheduling your first public meeting now for July 10, long after the destruction, destruction which is not mentioned in your announcement of the meeting.
This destruction is totally unnecessary. You can easily cross the median to change Boston bound traffic from the Boston bound direction to the Cambridge bound direction without destruction. You can rearrangement traffic by detours. Instead, you have destroyed irreplaceable trees.
I have reported the destruction at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/first-kendall-square-destruction.html.
You are targeting the magnificent grove of trees on the ramp from Memorial Drive to the Longfellow Bridge heading toward Boston. You already started destruction, as reported by me at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/kendall-longfellow-cambridge-ma-usa.html.
This was a silly transplantation. We have been informed that real destruction will start on July 8. Your FIRST “public hearing” in Cambridge is scheduled for July 10, probably after you have done all the destruction.
You are destroying this excellent, mature grove for a of silly project which seems more amenable to welfare for contractors than for any public need. It is outrageous.
The overwhelming explanation of your organizer for your irresponsible destruction is that somewhere buried in fine print, the public has been informed. Translation: How dare you fail to keep me from doing this terrible thing.
But, as I said, the notice for the way to late FIRST Cambridge “public hearing” makes no mention of either of these totally unnecessary outrages.
And notice does not change irresponsible, wasteful destruction to anything other than irresponsible wasteful destruction.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is dealing with very irresponsible people, the City of Cambridge. You are developing the stench of these people.
Shame on your irresponsible destruction. Shame on your irresponsible explanations.
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.
Plus the links provided in the above email.
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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.
