Saturday, March 15, 2014

Trader Joe’s: Friends of the Charles River White Geese

Trader Joe’s Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, has a mural extending above the coolers in the back of the store. It runs almost from one end of the store to the other.

It is a mural of the Charles River viewed from the Cambridge side. It runs, from left to right, from the BU Bridge to the River Street Bridge, the next bridge to the west.

Standing in the foreground, dominating his portion of the mural, is a beautiful Emden White Goose.

That White Goose and the rest of his gaggle have lived and fed at this location, Magazine Beach, for most of the last 33 years. They have been heartlessly barred from their food and their home by the City of Cambridge, MA, and the bureaucrats of the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Trader Joe’s, God bless them, is proudly proclaiming on that mural the great value of the Charles River White Geese, and exactly where the Charles River White Geese should be.


The bureaucrats have stated, in their Charles River Master Plan, their goal of killing off or driving away as many resident animals as they can get away with. They very formally are the destructive enemies of all resident animals who live on the Charles River Basin.

The bureaucrats’ public explanation for starving and heartlessly abusing the Charles River White Geese?

The key manager has loudly and repeatedly proclaimed his intent to do “no harm” to the Charles River White Geese. Even during the most heartless and outrageous of the attacks, he has restated this blatant lie. And clearly this outrage, along with many others, was done without public warning or approval.


Trader Joe’s Memorial Drive is the first or second Trader Joe’s store on the East Coast (perhaps after Coolidge Corner, Brookline). Trader Joe’s Memorial Drive was founded in about 1996, and they have been good friends of the Charles River White Geese.

I understand, talking with the manager this afternoon, that this mural was hand painted across nearly the entire back wall of the store about two years ago. It is beautiful and its very accurate glorifying of these beautiful beings is the sort of feeling that decent human beings have.

They are good people, and most people in Cambridge and the surrounding area are good people.

Then you have the Cambridge Machine which indulges in very much non stop lies about themselves. Those lies are necessary to fool decent people about where the Cambridge Machine and their destructive friends are really coming from.

Letter: Trains use the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge

1. Introduction.
2. Question.
3. Response.













1. Introduction.

We have done several reports on the ongoing attempts to run exit traffic from I 90 (Mass. Pike) to Cambridge by way of the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.

I got the following email in response to the second of the two reports. Links are provided in my response. I have slightly edited my response without changing its substance.

One explanation may be of value. In both of my photo reports, I point out a highway sign. In the first report, that highway sign is directly ahead if you simply follow the train tracks. In the second report, emphasizing the view from Boston, the sign is quite visible and I point out the connection to the Grand Junction Bridge in that background. The below response includes comment on what is on that highway sign.

I am attaching the usual satellite / areal map of the area from a government environmental report in 2006. I will not bother you with yet another detailed explanation of the photo. Either you do not need it, or, hopefully, the markings on the photo which I put there will be adequate.

The BU Bridge is identified to the right in the photo. The railroad bridge in question is visible running under it.

If that does not work, my explanation in the links, hopefully, will be adequate.

I appreciate a good question.

2. Question.

Isn't it true that the BU railroad bridge (a double set of tracks bridge with tracks only on side) is used daily to move train sections between North and South stations for the commuter rail?

And that this is the only connection between the two without going all the way out to 495?

3. Response.

That is the reason the MBTA study called for widening it by placing a third pathway to the east of the bridge. I believe it was proposed as sort of a cantilever arrangement.

The need for the third pathway is the reason why the machine is conning the bike highway lobby to widen the underpass under Memorial Drive, under the lie that it is for a bike highway.

It will be for a bike highway until Harvard needs its off ramp. Harvard purchased the future Harvard Medical School area several months after the report was published. Also occurring shortly after the report was the approval of a U Turn (which is reflected on that highway sign). The U-Turn makes the Grand Junction conversion viable for both directions rather than just to / from the west, which was the MBTA proposal, until the MBTA "suddenly" discovered that the cost of the project far outweighed the value of a Newton - Cambridge direct bus line. Strange, that limitation was obvious from the beginning.

When Harvard gets its off ramp, the bike highway will be rerouted where it should, responsibly, be put in the first place, to connect to Vassar Street at the point where Vassar Street right turns a few feet from the railroad tracks, and then to Memorial Drive by a much shorter route. I provided photos of the turn / connection in the pair of photo analyses, both from the road and the railroad side. Please check the blog,

The more recent of the pair of reports is at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-reality-of-harvard-universitys.html.

The earlier is at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/photos-harvards-targeted-off-ramp.html.

Also of interest is the immediately prior report, presenting the MassDOT / DCR "connectivity" report, at
http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/charles-river-conductivity-study.html. During the initial presentations of this study, the engineers expressed scorn for the lie that is at the basis of the highway lobby's "bike" highway to connect to Boston. They call the connection impossible.