1. I have 40 years of environmental and transportation experience in and near Cambridge, MA.
2. Rent Control.
3. Friends of Alewife Reservation.
a. Introduction.
b. Response 1.
c. Response 2.
4. My record.
1. I have 40 years of environmental and transportation experience in and near Cambridge, MA.
The big problem from the beginning has been the Cambridge Machine.
The entity is a massive company union which functions to prevent organizing against the will of the government.
It acts through multiple front organizations, all of which claim to be protective, but which, altogether too often, function to prevent action when action is most appropriate.
The fight to destroy the Charles River has been aggressively led by two company unions, both of which lie about their basis.
The fake neighborhood association is the most important because it is strongly blocking any and all protective action by lying to people that it is anti Charles River to defend the Charles River.
If you love the Charles River, according to their con, it is your duty to ignore the problems of the Charles River except as we order you to do differently.
So they tell folks to look only at the retail conversion of one building and at nothing else.
The reality is that this fake group is thus fighting for all those things it tells folks to ignore.
The most recent outrageous comparison is a fake group which calls itself friends of Alewife and which, using comparable tactics has achieved the destruction of acres of the reservation it lies that it is defending with much more to come.
The guilty are always a tiny number of people who use advanced techniques to control a much larger number of people and to prevent them from acting.
The outrage has even been extended to the Rent Control movement.
I have given you one example of a 40 year fighter for rent control who got conned into exactly one stupid position and who has, ever since, aggressively fought against rent control because he insists on including that one destructive position in any group which claims to be pro rent control. His position, by decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the mid 70s, is exactly the position which the SJC said would void any rent control ordinance.
Clearly somebody, not this 40 year activist / victim is pulling the strings.
But he is in the middle of everything, aggressively fighting for the wrong side and blocking all action unless it includes the provision which destroys his cause.
3. Friends of Alewife Reservation.
a. Introduction.
The reality can be that, as with Rent Control, nobody in the group really controls the group. But the group is controlled nevertheless.
My gut feel is that Ellen Mass, the apparent leader of the fake Alewife protective group is just as much a victim as the many people she has led to chase their tails and to fight for the destruction of the cause she seems to be fighting for.
But she is there and her many victims are there, fighting against their own cause because the “right people” have told them that the “right people” are their friends, and have they got a deal for you.
I am writing because I got a facebook communication from a friend who brought me into the right for the Charles River. He is now extolling the virtues of that company union.
Here are my responses:
b. Response 1.
[He made a nice general comment about the holiness of his fake group.]
Acres of Alewife have been destroyed by Cambridge and the DCR with the blessings of Ellen Mass [ed: the organization's visible creator].
The important part of this photo is the absence of mention of the acres of destruction which WILL result in total destruction of Alewife if its "friends" keep playing the See No Evil game.
Ben, do not look at the developers obeying zoning. Look at the government writing the zoning and destroying, destroying, destroying.
That outrage included an animal pogrom of long time residents which will be repeated with massive destruction. With friends like this, Alewife has no need for enemies.
c. Response 2.
[He got indignant. He has been told what he believes. It sounds so good, so reasonable He believes it.]
The standard game of the Cambridge Machine is to get folks looking at everything except the important stuff. Company union. Keep people out of trouble.
You keep on yelling at the developers without yelling at the pols who wrote and can rewrite the zoning, and you are fighting for destruction.
You keep on ignoring the very clear intent of Cambridge and the DCR to destroy the irreplaceable woodlands they own, and you are ignoring the key issues, to the benefit of environmental and animal destruction.
Alewife has massive flooding problems.
The flooding problems can only be solved in either of two ways, by destroying the irreplaceable reservation or by putting in massive storage tanks under new buildings, or under public streets.
The acres of destruction which Ellen Mass bragged about in the Cambridge Chronicle will protect against the worst possible storm in a two year period.
Hundred years is needed.
As long as the bad guys have the good guys chasing their tails, the bad guys win.
The fake, controlled defenders group at Alewife with its terrible record is one of my best examples of how irresponsible the Cambridge Machine is.
PS: There has been exactly one environmental victory at Alewife. It is mine and Sheila Cook's: the downzoning of the parking lot between the station and Route 2. With the return of that parking lot to the environment.
Naturally the machine ignores the real heroes and takes personal credit for a victory it savaged as much as it can get away with.
You keep on praising fraud and ignoring real solutions to real problems, and you have been severely conned into fighting against your own cause.
The Cambridge pols with their lies of environmentalism are highly vulnerable to responsible attack.
Keep the good guys chasing their tails, and the bad guys can keep on lying about which side they are on.
4. My record.
I have mentioned one item, the return of the parking lot at Alewife to the environment.
I could go on and on and on.
The most spectacular part of my résumé is the downzoning of Cambridge’s main street, Massachusetts Avenue on both side of Harvard University to make new construction more residential and more friendly to the environment.
My first victory was the downzoning of the first two blocks north of Harvard Law School to keep them residential at reasonable densities with compatible retail and as much ground open space as possible.
I have three other major victories. I have downzoned about 85% of Massachusetts Avenue, plus side streets, between Harvard’s University’s main library building and Cambridge’s City Hall.
The same objectives were achieved.
The most visible example of my success is the building at the eastern end of Harvard Square between Massachusetts Avenue and Harvard Street. This building, until recently, was called the Inn at Harvard and functioned as a hotel.
Harvard wanted it 72% larger and built to the sidewalk. The Cambridge City Council with 8 favorable votes (1 in the hospital and not able to vote) out of 9 members forced this building on Harvard. It fits in beautifully with its residential neighbors. It is clearly the most favored of the newer buildings in Harvard Square.
The Cambridge Machine is in the process of fighting to trash the zoning ordinance. My victories on Massachusetts Avenue are clear targets.
