1. Introduction.
2. The Inner Belt.
3. Company Union response.
4. The Inner Belt returned, for the benefit of Harvard, MIT, and . . .
5. Summary. Now versus the 70s.
6. Links.
7. Contacts, Miscellaneous.
1. Introduction.
People do all sorts of things. The most rotten people involved on the Charles River hate the environment and hate animals. They destroy, loudly proclaiming they are “improving” things.
The real problem is Harvard University.
Harvard acts behind the scenes and only announces their presence after all the work has been done.
Harvard is creating a new empire in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, just across the Charles River from Cambridge. They made massive purchases in secret and only announced their power when they had achieved what they were looking to do.
Harvard is the real game, the real destroyer, and Harvard has put together a very large coalition, all of whom see some sort of advantage in environmental destruction.
2. The Inner Belt.
Major parts of the Boston area were destroyed because of earlier destructive dreamers.
They had a dream for their own great highways, and like so many destructive people nowadays, they did not give a damn about what they destroyed.
Cambridge beat them. Not the fake groups with their subtle connections to the City of Cambridge and its pols, Cambridge beat them.
The biggest victory of responsible people occurred in 1972.
3. Company Union response.
James Leo Sullivan returned to office as Cambridge City Manager in 1974. He has remained in office through related individuals to the current day.
James Leo’s people made no secret that they wanted to create a system of “neighborhood associations.”
They then proceeded to recognize as “neighborhood associations” only groups which were not dangerous to the goals of the City of Cambridge.
Groups which were not considered “responsible” were not “recognized.”
At least one group which was recognized and which deviated from the City Manager’s definition of responsibility suddenly had problems with funding.
In my opinion, this influence even stretched into Rent Control. A key group got money for an advocacy organization. That key group then proceeded to block organizing on tenant issues. They turned affordable housing advocates into self serving individuals because they prevented expansion of advocacy beyond what was in place. The stench of self serving did not help during the statewide vote which killed rent control.
The recognized groups have behaved altogether too often, on matters that count to the City Manager’s people, in the manner of company unions.
Company unions step into a situation which cries for organization and fill that void to prevent organizing.
The Alewife Reservation is being destroyed by a company union which lies that it is defending Alewife. It loudly proclaims that it is the be all and end all. It tells people only to look at the private developers. It tells people to ignore the very real and already started destruction of the core Alewife reservation by their friends in city government.
There are many, many real problems on the Charles River. The local company union lies that it is a neighborhood association. It lies that it loves the Charles River. Just ignore all the very real problems. Look at a bathhouse which has not been used for 80 years and NOTHING ELSE. Ignore the real problems. The destructive bureaucrats wanted to expand the real problems including destruction of hundreds of trees and animal habit. The machine could not get the vote it wanted. So it resorted to blatantly corrupt tactics, as fast as possible to hide its corruption.
That group supported the Alewife destroyers until destruction got blatant. They did not object to the destruction. They simply suddenly declared Alewife not part of its neighborhood, as it was not part of their neighborhood when the destruction was not yet visible.
Key members of “recognized” groups have been very visible in citywide zoning initiatives which sounded lovely but which, in reality, destroyed meaningful protections. A similar group is very visible in the Boston Sierra Club which endorses environmentally destructive Cambridge City Councilors for reelection. The “recognized” groups routinely scratch each others’ backs, particularly including the fight to destroy Alewife.
Related people commonly create lovely sounding organizations which sound so great and altogether too often have achievements exactly the opposite of their stated goals, if you understand what is going on. If you listen to the con artists, black is white and white is black.
4. The Inner Belt returned, for the benefit of Harvard, MIT, and . . .
In this areal photo from a state filing in 2006, at left is a rail yard which is in the process of being moved to Worcester, MA. Above that rail yard is the Allston - Cambridge exit from I90, the Massachusetts Turnpike. The wide line parallel to the Charles River in the lower middle of the photo is the Massachusetts Turnpike. To the right is the BU Bridge and under it the Grand Junction railroad bridge which connects that rail yard to another rail yard several miles to the northeast.
In 2003 or so, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority did a study on the Grand Junction railroad bridge and determined that it could physically be expanded and converted to an off ramp from the Massachusetts Turnpike to Cambridge.
Several months later, Harvard University bought the rail yard and Massachusetts Turnpike exit to Allston / Cambridge. Their subsequent activities are consistent with a relocation of the Harvard Medical School to this location.
A whole bunch of destructive “improvements” have occurred.
The Grand Junction railroad extends in a straight line from the bridge to the upper left. Cambridge constructed a new roadway system in the area to the left of the grand junction, ostensibly to support massive construction with heavy MIT involvement. The new roadway system is in the undeveloped area to the left of the Grand Junction almost at the top of the photo.
The plans showed a whole bunch of trees being planted. There was a major gap in planned tree planting next to the Grand Junction in the exact location where connections to an exit / entrance highway from the Mass. Pike could be placed.
The MBTA plan showed widening of the Grand Junction railroad bridge to contain one lane off the Mass. Pike, one lane onto the Mass. Pike, and a railroad track, in place of the current structure designed to hold two railroad tracks.
Various plans have showed highway construction up the Grand Junction to Kendall Square in the name of “busways”.
Cambridge is fighting for bike highways along the Grand Junction. To no surprise, their bike highway proposal calls for widening the rail underpass under Memorial Drive.
The MBTA off ramps from the Mass. Pike would not work without widening the rail underpass to hold two traffic lanes and one railroad track.
The Cambridge bike highway plan is typically stupid. Very careful inspection of the aerial photo shows an L shaped street, Vassar Street, to the right of the Grand Junction and slightly below the connecting area. The Bike Highway makes sense cutting to Vassar Street to Memorial Drive. Going through the destroyed nesting area is much longer and much more expensive, but the route gives the off ramps the opening needed under Memorial Drive. When reality occurs, the Bike highway can be moved to Vassar Street and reality.
A gentleman I showed this map to yesterday immediately commented “urban ring.”
5. Summary. Now versus the 70s.
The big difference between now and when the Inner Belt was killed before? A massive system of very powerful Company Unions.
6. Links.
Relevant on the ground photos on the bike highway have been posted at:
http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/destroyed-nesting-area-north-south.html
These photos are directly relevant to the Inner Belt revival as well.
7. 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.
