2. General.
A. Introductory.
B. RETAIL, RETAIL, RETAIL, and ignore the environmental outrages.
C. MassDOT Meetings.
D. Speaker with bad record?.
3. “Incidental” Victories for Destroyers, and so much more buried in secret fine print, supported by the usual con games and selective silence.
A. Harvard’s Purchase.
B. Charles River White Geese: Enemies of the “People.”
C. Starvation and abuse in direct violation of promises.
D. Massive tree destruction.
E. Massive Tree Destruction 2.
F. Irresponsible “bike activists” to be stabbed in the back.
4. MassDOT knows the con artists.
1. Responsible transportation alternative being fought against by the Cambridge Machine.
The green line. Harvard’s Medical School is slated for the FORMER rail yard on the left. Responsible development would put a street car spur on air rights (green line) between the Mass. Pike (grey lines) and Boston University. It would have switches at the Green Line B tracks on Commonwealth Avenue and travel up the Green Line B to Kenmore Square, plus perhaps beyond.
As transportation goes, very inexpensive, but the Mass. Pike is on stilts in this location. It is being torn down and rebuilt. There is enough room for both NOW, but putting in enough, especially that destructive off ramp, would prevent the street car alternative.
[map with green line]
Harvard wants a horribly expensive deep bore heavy rail subway spur which would involve destroying the core of the Red Line Harvard Station and having another horribly expensive connection to a “bus tunnel” near the Red Line C and D branches. I provided photos of the current very feasible route at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-green-line-streetcar-light-rail.html.
MassDOT should receive my letter going into the aspects of the connections of both routes at the southern end on Monday, May 12 or the next day. I will pass on that input, probably, in my next report.
CAVEAT: On “fought against” in the title: The situation in Cambridge is one of a massive machine delivering.
It is not at all unusual when the real objective is exactly the opposite of what the workers are told they are fighting for. That is irrelevant. The workers are well trained. The workers think what they are told they think, and they go to their controllers to find out what they think.
It is impossible to tell the difference between the knaves and the fools. It is also irrelevant.
2. General.
A. Introductory.
I am not going to fight the many fights again.
The most basic principal when dealing with the Cambridge Machine is: believe nothing. They do very terrible things both by preventing needed action and by affirmatively doing terrible things.
They confuse, confuse and juggle. Meaningless matters will be beaten to death. The corrupt vote of April 23, 2013 is very much the norm. If they are going to lose and the fraud will not work, they just steal a “victory.” Meaningful issues are irrelevant. Ethics is irrelevant. Reality is irrelevant. All that is relevant is to deliver what they are told to deliver.
They will beat meaningless stuff to death and ram through the meaningful stuff as fast as possible. And they will aggressively prevent action on the important stuff which really addresses the issues they lie that they are concerned about.
There is a very real reason why I call the Cambridge Machine group in Cambridgeport a fake neighborhood association. Real neighborhood associations do not behave like this. Real organizations do not behave like the Cambridge Machine “protective” organizations.
Just a few highlights.
B. RETAIL, RETAIL, RETAIL, and ignore the environmental outrages.
For the last several years, the Cambridge Machine has, with great Politically Correctness declared that, if you love the Charles River you have to ignore the Charles River and look at a building which has not been used in 80 years that they want to covert to a store. They want to convert it to a store because the Charles River is unblemished. It is open space. It needs retail! So the retail conversion is going in in the middle of open space they lie that they love.
It is no coincidence that one common love of too many environmental and development outrages associated with the Cambridge Machine is RETAIL, RETAIL, RETAIL. The Cambridge Machine loves RETAIL. So does the Cambridge City Manager. Not at all likely to be a coincidence.
So do not look at all the environmental outrages, RETAIL, RETAIL, RETAIL. Does not that prove they love the environment?
The outrageous con has exemptions to the extent they are trying to destroy yet more stuff.
There are many environmental outrages on the Charles River in the area of the BU Bridge. All were created by the government official the Cambridge Machine cheerleads for. The April 23, 2013 corrupt vote came to double the area of outrages, plus bless part of the destruction of hundreds of trees including in House Bill H3332, plus destroy the parking lot needed for the little guys’ picnic surrounding their beloved unused building.
So, naturally, when there is destruction to support from entities friendly to the Machine, the Cambridge Machine has announced a meeting on the subject. This is the Mass. Pike (I90) project near the Charles River.
Interestingly, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has refused to give the Cambridge Machine a vote on the consultation committee because their project is doing nothing with regard to Cambridge.
I have major problems with the Cambridge Machine’s con because their initiative is the usual Cambridge Machine destructiveness in Cambridge. I have further problems with their con because it has sunk in that the harm to Cambridge is targeted at costing the State and Feds major big bucks in transportation to Harvard University’s future relocation of its Medical School. The game is that there is only so much room in the area of the Massachusetts Turnpike (I90) near the Charles River. If the Cambridge Machine can overload that narrow area, the responsible transportation to the Harvard Medical School would have no place to go, and Harvard’s horribly expensive project would be built way underground, not needing the area they are overloading.
To no great surprise, folks fighting for environmental destruction on the Cambridge side of the Charles River are yelling “environmentalism” with regard to the Mass. Pike project and various games they are fighting for to overload the narrow area near the Charles River.
B. MassDOT Meetings.
MassDot has conducted two public meetings on the project, April 10, 2014 in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, and May 1, in Cambridge. Neither meeting was attended by visible leaders of the fake neighborhood association.
That fits their holier than thou con: if you love the Charles River, you should ignore the Charles River except for what we tell you that you consider important, unless we order otherwise.
The fake neighborhood association’s con game is getting longer and longer to express, since the exceptions are getting longer and longer as they fight for more destruction.
The coming “neighborhood association” meeting gets more interesting, recalling the audience in the second meeting. I have provided MassDOT with three letters printed here on the matter with one to come.
The third letter went into the record of the holy sounding folks “from Cambridge.” I pointed out that the “bicycle activists” regularly meet on the campus of one of Cambridge’s largest developers, and the so called “Livable Streets Alliance” had its office on the campus of that developer. Checking the latter on Google, the most recent I can find is 2011 with that campus office location.
After I commented on the real situation, NONE of the Cambridge campus related “ACTIVISTS” showed up for the second meeting.
Even the falsely named and provably irresponsible Charles River “Conservancy” showed up.
C. Speaker with bad record?
The fake neighborhood association has announced that one of the folks who showed up for the first meeting and hid their faces in the second will make a presentation. The “neighborhood association”’s description very sweetly describes him as a neighborhood resident. The creator of his group was promoted to full time staff on the Cambridge Development Department after running the group from an office on the campus of one of Cambridge's largest developers. They seem to still have that office, looking at their webpage right now.
3. “Incidental” Victories for Destroyers, and so much more buried in secret fine print, supported by the usual con games and selective silence.
A. Harvard’s Purchase.
Harvard bought the area of its future Harvard Medical School within weeks after the local transit agency proved it could put an off ramp from the Mass. Pike to Cambridge over the rail bridge which abuts the Destroyed Nesting Area to which the Charles River White Geese have been confined.
[ ]
This is a shot of the Boston end of the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge. The green sign straight ahead is over the Mass. Pike.
B. Charles River White Geese: Enemies of the “People.”
The most consistent lie coming out of the Cambridge Machine is the sanctity of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which is the owner of the northern, Cambridge, side of the Charles River.
One of the holiest documents of the DCR is its Charles River Master Plan.
The Charles River Master Plan calls for the killing off or driving away of all resident animals in this part of the Charles. It is no coincidence that pretty much all of the initiatives in the area make living that much impossible for resident animals.
The Charles River White Geese are the most visible victims.
[ photo of parents and babies ]
This family is resting in an area which was densely vegetated until the falsely named Charles River “Conservancy” started destroying the environment for the DCR.
The destruction was made that much worse by irresponsible railroad workers with the very clear blessing of the DCR.
The Charles River White Geese are not the only victims of the DCR’s pogrom on resident animals. They are the most visible and beloved.
C. Starvation and abuse in direct violation of promises.
Starting with their attacks in 2000, the DCR management consistently lied that they had “no intent” to harm the Charles River White Geese.
The sanctified Charles River Master Plan called for a lawn to the river at Magazine Beach, the home and food of the Charles River White Geese for most of the last 33 years.
Here is what the DCR put in: This bizarre wall is about 12 feet high and only has one break. That break is backed up by multiple other bushes which are never trimmed.
Here is a cross section.
[ ]
Here is a view taken May 11, 2014. That is an adult woman standing in the only break.
[ ]
The key manager has publicly bragged that this bizarre wall keeps them from their food of most of the last 33 years.
Poisons are being dumped to keep alive sickly grasses which replaced healthy grass that had survived in an environmentally responsible manner for half a Century or more. Playing fields were destroyed
The fake neighborhood association explains the wall as incompetence. Everywhere else on the Charles they know how to chop down bushes. Only at Magazine Beach are they “incompetent.”
The falsely named Charles River “Conservancy” did a swim in to brag about the Magazine Beach project. Somehow, in their substitute for reality, walling off Magazine Beach and dumping poisons makes swimming more possible.
The fake neighborhood association, on April 23, 2013, after years of outrageous explanations, conducted a corrupt “vote” to support doubling the size of the outrage at the Magazine Beach playing fields.
D. Massive tree destruction.
Buried in the fine print of the corrupt vote was support for part of a new bike highway which appears in Governor Patrick’s request for bonding authority, house bill H3332, this supposed bike highway would destroy hundreds of trees between the BU Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge. The euphemism is “historical parkways.”
[tree photo]
This grove is at the Memorial Drive split, about half a mile toward the Longfellow Bridge from the BU Bridge. H3332 would destroy more than 80 of the greater than 100 trees in this excellent grove. These trees are smaller than many if not most of the other trees being destroyed. This blog has printed the destruction plans.
When this bill was filed, the falsely named Charles River “Conservancy”, using the usual misleading language, bragged of this destruction ($24 million) as “incidental” to underpasses under the next three bridges to the west ($4 million).
In this sick world, $24 million of destruction is “incidental” to $4 million of destruction. The CRC went around getting signatures for the “underpasses”. They lied by omission about the “incidental” $24 million of destruction.
The reality of this destruction is that it is for straightening out Memorial Drive to take the traffic from the off ramp coming over the Grand Junction railroad bridge.
The goose family in the above photo is resting in a location below and west of the proposed off ramp.
That off ramp, if installed, would preempt space needed by the responsible public transportation to an from Harvard’s Medical School.
So the state would have “no choice” but to build Harvard’s horribly expensive deep bore Red Line spur tunnel.
E. Massive Tree Destruction 2.
Maps of the highway over the rail bridge have shown it destroying the thick woods between the railroad and the BU Boathouse, the opposite side from the main goose area, but they have been forced in there with the destructive of ground vegetation.
F. Irresponsible “bike activists” to be stabbed in the back.
Very visible is a bunch of “bike activists” who meet on the campus of one of Cambridge’s biggest developers.
They claim they are fighting for a bike highway. Crucial in the off ramp plans is the adding of a lane to the railroad bridge and the widening of an underpass under Memorial Drive. It is no coincidence that these changes would be necessary for Harvard’s off ramp.
The stalking horse for these activities is readily available for stabbing in the back.
Further north on the railroad, beyond Memorial Drive, the railroad approaches Vassar Street by the width of one narrow commercial lot.
A responsible city government would be running the bike path through the parking lot for the structure on the lot, much faster to get to Memorial Drive, no environmental damage, and no need for wild promises to irresponsible people.
Here are photos of the lot from Vassar Street, a small block from Memorial Drive, and from the railroad.
4. MassDOT knows the con artists.
These irresponsible people in the less secret parts of H3332 are fighting for an environmentally destructive project they call “underpasses.” Love those emphemisms.
MassDOT is responsible for those bridges. MassDOT condemns the project as environmentally irresponsible.
The people from MassDOT also know the Cambridge Machine from the Cambridge Machine’s fight for passenger trains on the railroad where the off ramp is going.
Usual con game: They “opposed” with the usual argument: Compromise, Compromise, Compromise. You can’t win, but have I got a deal for you.
MassDOT shot down their beloved “underpasses.” So the less irresponsible part of H3332.
MassDOT shot down their beloved passenger trains and their fake “compromises.” The compromise con is a running lie. The Cambridge Machine’s company unions control well meaning people with the lie of being on the side of well meaning people. The kicker is the fake compromise.
So the same people are running around crying “environmentalism” in areas which could cause the Mass. Pike reconstruction to be placed in such a manner as to prevent responsible public transportation.
MassDOT is normal human beings. MassDOT is not the City of Cambridge. MassDOT is not the DCR.
MassDOT is not fools.
MassDOT is familiar with the outrages.
MassDOT has refused to give the fake Cambridge “activists” a vote on their consultation committee.
