2. Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
a. Harvard’s Created Housing Area - The location of the meeting.
b. Meeting report.
3. Boston Sierra Club.
1. Cambridge City Council.
A few weeks ago, I filed photos of excellent trees on the Cambridge Common slated for destruction, many because they block the view.
All five continuing Cambridge City Councilors voted to destroy. All four new Cambridge City Councilors seemed “neutral.”
I have kept an eye of the City Clerk’s report on the City Council meetings and agendas since then.
I have seen no signs of environmental decency from any of them on this outrage.
And remember (see point 3) the Boston Sierra Club has repeatedly endorsed incumbents / candidates for Cambridge City Council.
The key to the endorsements, however, is the very visible presence in the Boston Sierra Club was unapologetic members of the reprehensible Cambridge Machine.
2. Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
Last Wednesday, MassDOT conducted the third meeting of its advisory committee on the major work proposed for Interstate 90 (Mass. Pike) near the Charles River.
a. Harvard’s Created Housing Area - The location of the meeting.
The address of the meeting was new to me.
It turned out to be the former location of the larger portion of the neighborhood Shopping Center on Western Avenue in Allston. This is the shopping center Harvard destroyed by refusing to rent the stores in what is now the former location.
The tactic was blatant hostage taking targeted at the Charlesview affordable housing at Western Avenue and North Harvard Street which Harvard wanted to turn into part of its empire.
Harvard succeeded in the hostage taking and the owners of Charlesview “voluntarily” agreed to sell Charlesview and to move the facility to the location of the former stores.
I drove past the mostly abandoned Charlesview housing on the way to the meeting. It was very depressing.
I lived almost in view of the project when it was constructed.
The meeting was in the middle of the replacement housing area, the destroyed shopping center, in a large meeting room.
I have driven past the facility many times but have never had an opportunity to use it.
The worst thing I can say about this created neighborhood is that it gives the impression of being distressingly successful except it seems to be short of parking, and it is easily twice the density of Charlesview. The comparison is between
(1) a 70's brutalistic project surrounded by parking and not overly dense, and
(2) Boston’s Beacon Hill or Boston’s South End newly created, although perhaps denser than the South End.
It looks great, but it is dense.
And it overwhelms its area.
b. Meeting report.
The presentation team gave its first package ideas for rebuilding the Mass. Pike viaduct.
This rearrangement seems to be the key behind perhaps all the destruction on the Charles River itself and on the Cambridge side. Since we are dealing with secretive, dishonest people, it is impossible to fully state the situation.
Dealing with MassDOT is strikingly different from dealing with the rotters with whom I am constantly exposed in Cambridge and its state friends.
MassDOT seems to be decent human beings who are not perfect, a striking improvement over the stench coming from Cambridge and its accomplices.
The Mass. Pike viaduct currently holds the Mass. Pike and has room for very little else. The rotters seem to be trying to overload the Mass. Pike viaduct to prevent responsible use of the area, and to maximize the benefits to them of environmental destruction.
The proposal did not please a lot of people who spoke.
To understand the proposal, I am inserting a copy of my proposal from a Green Line A spur between the current viaduct and Boston University.
The Mass. Pike in this area is eight lanes, four lanes in either direction. The team proposed to tear down and rebuild the facility in place plus new construction to the north of the existing highway. It is the opinion of MassDOT that the Mass. Pike needs to be widened to bring it up to something vaguely approaching current standards.
The team proposed to build two lanes to the north of the existing highway in an elevated structure, then tear down the two lanes next to the new lanes, then rebuild in that place, repeating the process until completed.
That would allow Green Line A. That strikes me as a very major positive.
A number of folks objected to the harm to property owned by the reprehensible Department of Conservation and Recreation supposedly for open space. I am not positive about the nature of the area impacted. The area I am aware of is the area fronting on the Charles River, which is very tight between the Soldiers Field Road parkway and the Charles River. This area clearly has been used by waterfowl which have been harmed by maneuverings of the bureaucrats and their environmental destroyers, destruction which always seems to be of no importance to the types who were doing the objecting.
A lot of neighborhood people asked to concentrate on the plans for the new street network to be built near Allston’s Cambridge Street in place of the existing Mass. Pike exits there.
I think that will be discussed at the next meeting, on the 25th. At the same time, the planners promised to work further on options.
3. Boston Sierra Club.
I have objected to the endorsements of environmentally destructive Cambridge pols as environmental saints, with the assistance of the Cambridge Machine. I have commented that this situation has turned the Boston Sierra Club into just another of the Cambridge Machine’s fake groups.
The following is an exchange from facebook, presented to give a new approach to the Sierra Club. I am deficient in my understanding of things because my world is a truly rotten situation in Cambridge, MA, and the truly rotten situation constantly praises the Sierra Club.
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Robert J. La Trémouille shared The Rainforest Site's photo.
June 7 at 11:45am
Where I come from, the killers of our Earth are endorsed by the local Sierra Club as environmental saints.
Bruce Stegiel
Where I come from the Sierra Club is paid to do so.
Robert J. La Trémouille
That is interesting. It sounds like you are saying this problem is endemic.
Bruce Stegiel
Yes. Follow the money. Ego plus money equals public policy stands.
Robert J. La Trémouille
I have just finished a very extended post on the Charles River White Geese Blog for today.
I do not know if this exchange is usable, but I presume it is ok with you to use it.
Bruce Stegiel
Sure.
The final comment is dated June 8 at 3:32 pm
