2. Street Car Spur continues to be possible.
3. Assistance for Highway over Grand Junction Rejected.
4. Cambridge Common Destruction.
5. Summary.
1. Introduction.
Last night, September 18, 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation conducted another public presentation in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. They were updating folks on the progress of planning for the rebuilding of the Massachusetts Turnpike (I90) which looms over the Charles River on the south, Boston side.
The state will be rebuilding the elevated portion of the highway which passes through a rather narrow band west of the BU Bridge.
From my point of view, there were two key aspects.
2. Street Car Spur continues to be possible.
First, although the existing highway structure is being torn down and rebuilt, the new structure will be no closer to Boston University’s buildings which neighbor the highway to the south.
What this does is continue to leave room for a streetcar spur to be constructed between the two groups of structures. That possible spur could provide public transportation from Commonwealth Avenue west of the BU Bridge to Harvard’s new complex and then to Harvard Square.
The Commonwealth Avenue end could connect to the existing streetcar line by way of low technology switches. The existing line connects Kenmore Station and Downtown Boston to Boston College. The Harvard Square end could connect to existing Harvard Station bus tunnels by an existing tunnel which runs from the bus tunnels perhaps half the distance to the Charles River.
3. Assistance for Highway over Grand Junction Rejected.
The big victory would appear to be a rejection by MassDOT of Cambridge’s attempts to get MassDOT to assist Cambridge in its plans to build a bike highway (and later a Mass. Pike off ramp) over the Grand Junction railroad bridge under the BU Bridge.
This would be yet another attack on the wildlife living on the north banks of the Charles River, most visibly but not solely, the Charles River White Geese.
4. Cambridge Common Destruction.
One of the four new Cambridge City Councilors attended. He went out of his way to obtain the flier I was passing out, which was targeted at the Cambridge City Council and its accomplices.
The flier is dominated by the outrageous State House authorization of $20 million to the Department of Conservation and Recreation for the destruction of hundreds of trees between the BU and Longfellow Bridges on Memorial Drive, close to the Charles River.
Also prominent in the flier is the imminent destruction of many excellent trees on the Cambridge Common by the Cambridge City Council. For space considerations, the flier solely discusses the plans to destroy the excellent grove of trees which form the entrance to the Cambridge Common from Harvard Square. The horror of these plans is such that this relatively small part of the flier is overwhelmed by this outrage.
Omitted, quite distressingly, are the plans to destroy other excellent trees at the far end of the Cambridge Common from Harvard Square. This destruction, on its own, would be shocking. The trouble is that this destruction is way outweighed by the absolute horror of the Cambridge City Council’s destruction near Harvard Square.
If the councilor wants to give responsible behavior on the Cambridge Common a chance, that councilor would, apparently, have to take action in the City Council meeting this coming Monday, September 22, by suspension of the rules. Once those trees are destroyed, they will be destroyed.
5. Summary.
I anticipate I will follow with detailed reports on the importance of the MassDOT actions. There are a number of past reports on this blog already posted on these matters.
