I. Introduction.
A. General.
B. Specific, The very terrible destruction.
(1) Introductory.
(2) Personal highway to MIT from I90, abbreviated.
(3) Related communications.
(4) Yet more interrelated games.
(5) How MIT’s New Inner Belt fits in.
(6) Direct connections to Magazine Beach destruction.
II. Section 14 of the June 6, 2017 letter, Swimming Pool West, Across from MicroCenter Parking Lot.
A. Maps.
B. General Analysis.
C. Photos.
III. Additional photos in support of Part II.
IV. Responsible Action, repeating from our letter of June 28, 2017, to the Cambridge City Council.
V. Lies, outright lies and flat out fraud. An analysis for newcomers and for people who need a refresher.
VI. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s private exit from I90 (Massachusetts Turnpike), taken with editorial improvements, from our July 7, 2017 report.
VII. What You Can Do.
A. Introductory.
B. General.
C. The Institutions.
D. FRIEND THE CHARLES RIVER WHITE GEESE ON FACEBOOK.
E. Contribute and / or work.
VIII. Links to Official Report, Prior Reports in this Series.
I. Introduction.
A. General.
This is Posting 13 of a series placing on the internet record our attempts at preventing YET MORE DESTRUCTION on the Charles River by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), by the City of Cambridge, MA, and by their cheerleaders. Check the last section of this report for links to referenced documents which are not directly attached by reference.
The first 6 postings of this series and the 9th through 12th postings present sections of our 51 page letter to the Cambridge City Council of June 6, 2017 responding to the vote of the Cambridge City Council of April 24, 2017 to help the DCR in its destruction. Key in the vote were a few things:
(1) City Councilors preceded the vote with a rally for themselves on the steps of Cambridge City Hall. The rally loudly praised them for their environmental sainthood,
(2) In the vote, the City Council gave the impression that all they, and their accomplices, were doing is destroying “dead or dying” trees. The introduction to our letter wiped out the fraudulent word game which is the source of this false claim, and we presented photos of EVERY tree in the parklands of which they had voted to subsidize the destruction. Section V of this posting, below, repeats much of the most direct response in our letter to this fraudulent nonsense. Our series is reproducing all photographs in the 51 page report, finishing the response to this nonsense.
(3) The City Council did not communicate hugely irresponsible parts of the destruction at Magazine Beach by Cambridge and the DCR that they are continuing and making worse. The most extreme, other than tree destruction, was the bizarre walling off of the Magazine Beach playing fields by in introduced wall of vegetation which now reaches 16 feet. This bizarre wall has turned the playing fields into a situation where they might as well be 10 miles inland, a strikingly irresponsible thing to do on the banks of the Charles River.
The main purpose of this starvation wall is to starve the 36 year resident Charles River White Geese by denying them access to their food and home of most of the last 36 years. This gaggle is hugely valuable as a tourist attraction, but the “managers” cannot see beyond the tip of make work for contractors. Free animals do not make money for contractors. The DCR has a policy to kill off and / or drive away all resident animals, codifying a blatant lack of fitness on the part of the DCR to manage the environment.
(4) There is a very real goal to create a ramp to Cambridge / the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from I90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, which is visible on the Boston side of the Charles River. Meaningful activists prevented a related highway, the “inner belt” from going through Cambridge in the 1960's, and possibly got the first of a series of three interrelated City Managers fired in the process. Section V, below, repeats with editorial improvements how this project fits into the current outrage.
(5) James Leo Sullivan was rehired as City Manager in 1974, with a stated goal of creating a system of “neighborhood associations.” What he did not state was that these and other fake “protective” groups would exist hand in glove with his Development Department and act as Company Unions to PREVENT meaningful organizing in Cambridge, plus to further the development goals of the City Manager, whether the voters wanted those goals or not.
The technical term for the Sullivan creations is “company unions,” entities designed to PREVENT organization by filling a void and preventing meaningful action.
B. Specific, The very terrible destruction.
(1) Introductory.
Here is a map of the Magazine Beach recreation area on the Charles River from the DCR.
In part II of this posting is the section I gave to the Cambridge City Council on June 6 concerning the destruction of seven trees west of the Magazine Beach bathhouse. The brown rectangle to the right of the left double arrow is the bathhouse. The MicroCenter retail building is the odd shaped building directly above it. The densest of the tree destruction, 30 or more doomed, mostly excellent, trees, is to the east / right of the bathhouse.
The word game fraud used by the Department of Conservation and Recreation backfires here. The DCR admits all the trees it and the Cambridge City Council are destroying in this area are excellent and with many years before they can reach the peak of maturity after which they may only have 50 years left (or whatever) and under the DCR nonsense are fit for them to destroy.
(2) Personal highway to MIT from I90, abbreviated.
One very important thing going on here is the speeding up of Memorial Drive to put in an exit from I90 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A new highway in this location is political anathema in Cambridge. So the bureaucrats do a lot of lying and use stalking horses to fool angry voters.
Section VI goes into this nonsense in detail.
One map provided by MIT to the Cambridge City Council concerning the Cambridge Development Department’s Grand Junction ideas says a lot.
The diagonal running up and to the right from the lower left is the BU Bridge.
In the lower left is I90, the Massachusetts Turnpike. The blue lines which come from the left middle, turn and go under the BU Bridge are the edges of the Grand Junction Railroad and its railroad bridge. The Grand Junction railroad goes off the map to the right middle. Beyond the map in that direction, the property ownership is overwhelmingly MIT with some property owned by others.
In 2003, the local transit authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, MBTA, did a report which found it possible to extend ramps from I90 (the Mass. Pike) through the large empty area at the lower left of the map, bounded by I90 , the BU Bridge and the Grand Junction bridge. The ramps were proposed to move traffic from the Mass. Pike to the Grand Junction Bridge. TheMBTA further determined that it is possible to widen the Grand Junction bridge from its current two lanes to three lanes by cantilevering a third lane east / below the Grand Junction Bridge. [Ed: this analysis is complicated enough without explaining “cantilevering.”]
For most of the time since the MBTA study, in a city where a highway through the middle of Cambridge from the Mass. Pike is anathema under the Inner Belt fiasco, the Cambridge Development Department and a bunch of people who include a lot of MIT types have been talking about widening the Grand Junction Bridge to put in a bikeway. No mention whatsoever of the highway which needs that widening, just talk about lovely bicycles.
(3) Related communications.
I presented an analysis to the Cambridge City Manager at his assumption of office of the Cambridge Development Department and the local fake group which works in support of the CDD. I provided a copy of this analysis to the head of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation responding to another key plan of the Cambridge Development Department for the Grand Junction. Then I provided the letter to the Cambridge City Council along with the cover letter to MassDOT. It wound up in the official records of City Council action a few pages before the 51 page June 6 letter providing details of the 56 trees the City Council voted to destroy at Magazine Beach.
This letter is posted by the Cambridge City Clerk on line at http://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1815&Inline=True, pages 181 to 184. It, in turn, in preceded by the transmittal to MassDOT. The subject of the transmittal letter was yet another dirty trick which, in the fine print attacks the Charles River White Geese.
(4) Yet more interrelated games.
Yet another outrageous project of The Cambridge Development Department in this area was the changing of zoning of properties adjacent to the Grand Junction beyond the north side of Memorial Drive.
The Cambridge Development Department insisted that the zoning change made sense because a new subway was a sure thing under traveling in the Grand Junction right of way and going under Charles River next to the BU Bridge. The CDD insisted that there was no alternative under consideration for the subway crossing.
This flat out lie was repeated by the CDD and its controlled “experts” for a minimum of 21 years, from 1991 when an alternate route became an MBTA official possibility to 2012 which was the last time I checked.
Last I heard, the alternate route WHICH DID NOT EXIST ACCORDING TO THE CDD, became the most likely alternative because the route favored by the CDD required Yawkey Station next to Fenway Park to be moved half a mile. Yawkey Station which was rebuilt by the state on the route which the CDD repeatedly said did not exist. Yawkey Station is essential on whichever Charles River crossing wins. This would be to provide connection to Commuter Rail.
(5) How MIT’s New Inner Belt fits in.
These are the same folks, who along with their robots, are pushing a bike highway to widen the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge exactly where the MBTA found a new Inner Belt anathema could be built, and who, somehow never mention the MBTA highway to MIT over that bridge which needs the bridge widened by exactly the width proposed for the bike highways.
During the consideration of this always unmentioned new Inner Belt, the City of Cambridge built a new highway which shows on the MIT map as Waverly Street connecting the New Inner Belt highway to Memorial Drive by way of Brookline Street. On the map, the connection to Brookline Street is at the top middle. The MBTA study proudly showed an off ramp to Memorial Drive East through the Wild Area on the Charles River between the Grand Junction railroad bridge and the BU Boathouse.
The Wild Area shows as solid trees in the MIT map. DCR destruction plans for the BU Bridge to Longfellow Bridge area, destruction accomplished in 2016, showed exactly one tree in the Wild Area. The BU Boathouse is the building to the right of the solid trees.
[Again, sorry about the level of detail. This is shortened, but gives you a feel for the “lack of opacity,” to use the nice contemporary euphemism, which is common on the Charles River. The letter cited in subsection (3) above goes into great detail WITH OFFICIAL PLANS and related photos. This presentation is brief.]
Original plans for the building of the Waverly Street extension / connector showed heavy construction of trees around the Waverly Street connector. I mentioned to a development type involved in the planning that there were openings in the tree plantings exactly corresponding to ramps connecting the Waverly Connector to the New Inner Belt up the Grand Junction. The trees were never planted.
The BU Bridge rotary would move the traffic from the New Inner Belt on the Grand Junction to Memorial Drive in both directions, in addition to the ramp to Memorial Drive east so visibly planned by the MBTA in the Wild Area.
Here, once again, is the map from the DCR for destruction at Magazine Beach, with entrances to parking marked by blue dots.
The DCR says it is destroying those seven admittedly excellent trees to move the parking lot away from the river and next to Memorial Drive. Now would that not be lovely?
A more reasonable explanation comes from the blue dots.
To the right is the BU Bridge rotary feeding traffic from MIT’s reborn Inner Belt. The Grand Junction is off this map to the right.
(6) Direct connections to Magazine Beach destruction.
The left hand dot under / south of Memorial Drive is the one exit from the existing parking lot. There are two dots above / north of it. To minimize traffic flow, there is an advantage in lining up entrances. This lower entrance is between the upper two entrances. Moving the lower entrance to the right, opposite the upper right hand entrance would put lower entrance across from the right hand entrance to the MicroCenter Parking Lot. That entrance LEGALLY IS A CITY STREET.
Moving the lower entrance to the right puts it in the middle of those seven excellent trees.
SUDDENLY THE DCR AND THE CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL WANT TO DESTROY THOSE SEVEN ADMITTEDLY EXCELLENT TREES AND MOVE THE PARKING LOT ON TOP OF THEM.
To the right are two dots which are the entrance to the existing little guys’ parking lot, where the DCR and the Cambridge City Council want to destroy 30 or more trees, mostly excellent, but with the word game fraud which is analyzed in Section V, and which appeared in Order 1 of Cambridge City Council’s April 24, 2017, meeting as “dead or dying.” The MDC claim plays word games. The City Council motion turned the word games into unadulterated flat out lies.
This merger of driveways assists the MIT off ramp from I90 to the MIT holdings by speeding up traffic on Memorial Drive. That is detailed in part VI, below.
Part IV of this posting provides a general analysis of the destruction, with suggestions.
Part V of this posting goes into analysis of the fraudulent word games by which trees with “only” 50 years or so of life remaining are lied to be “dead or dying.”
Part VII below goes into what you can do.
II. Section 14 of the June 6, 2017 letter, Swimming Pool West, Across from MicroCenter Parking Lot.
In the black and white maps, circles are trees, X’d out circles are trees to be destroyed. In the subsequent color submission, filled in yellow circles are trees to be destroyed.
14. Swimming Pool West, Across from MicroCenter Parking Lot.
A. Maps.
B. General Analysis.
The colored change adds a fifth tree to the west of the four trees facing the MicroCenter parking lot slated for destruction. The added tree and EVERY OTHER TREE IN THIS AREA ARE admittedly healthy trees not beyond their peak, and not even claimed by the fraudulent word games to be worthy of destruction sought by these horribly irresponsible people.
They want to move the parking lot. In their bizarre world, it is better to have people on Memorial Drive looking at a parking lot than looking at excellent trees with more than 50 years of life remaining.
NOTE, HOWEVER THAT TREES IMMEDIATELY WEST OF THIS AREA NEXT TO THE BOAT CLUB HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM PROPOSED DESTRUCTION. That is what happens when you have a real protective entity, as opposed to the Cambridge Development Department type fraud which is telling people not to look at what they are destroying WHILE KEEPING MASSIVE DESTRUCTION SECRET, loudly proclaiming how great their plans are.
C. Photos.
Here is the ADMITTED magnificent, healthy grove not a day or so beyond perfect beauty that the DCR and the Cambridge City Council want to destroy to move a parking lot to the frontage at Memorial Drive. This doomed magnificence is directly across from the MicroCenter parking lot.
MicroCenter is in the rear (October photo). Second photo is from the MicroCenter side in May.
The tree to the left in this photo appears to be a SIXTH admittedly excellent tree proposed for destruction in this area, although the maps are confusing.
The goal is to line Memorial Drive with parking lots at this point and put new saplings way out of view.
Great for the contractors, lots of Make Work, and an excellent example of one reason why the legislature destroyed the Metropolitan District Commission.
And here is a view of that grove from the far side of the sixth(, or seventh) ADMITTEDLY HEALTHY AND PROPERLY AGED TREE which the DCR and the Cambridge City Council want to destroy across from the MicroCenter. (October photo)
Note that the propaganda piece, as is too common, presents confusion concerning too many doomed trees and the areas around them. The color map seems to have moved the location of this doomed tree. I am doing the best I can with terrible materials to work with.
These supposed lovers of the environment are destroying these trees to make Memorial Drive dominated by parking lots at this point.
III. Additional photos in support of Part II.
Here are a few more photos running along Memorial Drive, starting from the first really bad outrage at Memorial Drive and running to this latest outrage. Amazingly, looking at these photos, the largest trees being destroyed are away from Memorial Drive. I am not going to repeat specific destruction. Those are spelled out in the June 6 letter and in the preceding postings as linked in the final section of this posting.
The pedestrian overpass is the green structure barely visible at the right in the first photo.
Severe damage will occur before the pedestrian overpass.
.
The next photo is taken from across Memorial Drive just beyond the overpass. It shows the foot of the pedestrian walkway.
The next two are October 2016 photos, panning from east to west across the dense park in which 30 or more mostly excellent trees are being destroyed. The above scene is slightly to the east of the east entryway proposed to be destroyed to smooth out the traffic coming from MIT’s new Inner Belt highway from I90 over the Grand Junction Bridge over the Charles River to the Memorial Drive ramps and to the MIT campus / campus expansion area.
The brick in the background in the first photo below is the swimming pool bathhouse. It really is not part of the parkland. We will skip past it after the dense park being heartlessly destroyed.
In the third photo of this group, the entryway from three photos above is seen to the left, and the west entryway, next to the bathhouse, is visible to the right. Those entryways have the nerve to be slowing down traffic from MIT’s new Inner Belt. And all those excellent trees simply have no business slowing down traffic from MIT's new Inner Belt.
* * *
And here are some photos from October 2016 from across Memorial Drive. They present the Area across from the MicroCenter shopping center which nine Cambridge City Councilors voted to destroy shortly after conducting a rally for themselves on the front steps of Cambridge City Hall as environmental saints.
ALL SEVEN TREES BEING DESTROYED ARE ADMITTED TO BE HEALTHY AND NOT BEYOND PEAK BEAUTY (translating the DCR / City Council motion fraudulent language. They are all healthy and have significantly more than 50 years (or whatever) to live).
I am not going to spell out exactly which is which, and really, responding to the same old frauds gets monotonous. The plans are above at the beginning of section III.
I will give you just one photo from the Charles River side.
This is the reverse angle of the photos from the public road in the MicroCenter shopping center. .
The second to the last prior photo is taken from the public street which runs to the west of the MicroCenter building which in turn is to the left of the camera. The new entrance on the river side would, apparently be installed directly straight ahead in this photo.
This photo shows the location of the new entrance and trees being destroyed for the benefit of MIT’s New Inner Belt. The white structure is the MicroCenter building. The public street is to its left. The moved entrance would be on this side of Memorial Drive from the public street feeding the moved parking lot on this side. SEVEN excellent trees would be destroyed to move the parking lot next to the moved entrance.
This photo is taken from the parking lot being destroyed. The entrance being moved is to the left (west) of this photo.
AND NONE OF THE SEVEN TREES BEING DESTROYED IN THIS LOCATION ARE CLAIMED, EVEN UNDER THE FRAUDULENT WORD GAMES, TO BE “DEAD OR DYING.”
IV. Responsible Action, repeating from our letter of June 28, 2017, to the Cambridge City Council.
The responsible thing to do is to implement the wishes of the legislature when the legislature destroyed the Metropolitan District Commission, in part to protect the Charles River from the destruction of its irresponsible “planners” in conjunction with the irresponsible “planners” of the Cambridge Development Department, and their controlled fake “protective groups.”
The reprehensible MDC “planners” took their irresponsible plans to the Department of Conservation and Recreation. They and the CDD and the Cambridge City Council are proceeding to implement those irresponsible plans. Hundreds of MOSTLY EXCELLENT trees have already been destroyed on the Charles River, as demonstrated in my videos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o, and https://youtu.be/dWyCdcWMuAA.
Behave in a manner consistent with the proclamations of environmental sainthood on the steps of City Hall on April 24, 2017. Fulfill the wishes of the legislature when the legislature destroyed the MDC.
Reverse Order 1 of April 24, 2017.
Prevent any and all alternate sources of funding for this and for ALL SIMILAR OR RELATED outrages, including but not limited to actions of the legislature.
Reverse the destruction of the 2000s by Cambridge and the DCR / MDC.
Oppose the secret fine print in the blatantly deceptive Davis communication. My analysis was provided in a separate letter in the communications a little before the June 6, 2017 letter. I have posted my analysis of the Davis nonsense to the Secretary / CEO of Transportation at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-con-game-fights-for.html, and the analysis attached to that letter of the CDD and its fake protective groups at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-con-game-fights-for.html. The official record is filed a little before my June 6, 2017 letter.
Give the DCR’s powers on the Charles River to the Department of Transportation which has split the former MDC powers with the DCR since the MDC was properly destroyed. MassDOT is not perfect. The DCR and “planners” of the CDD approach being perfect from the wrong direction.
Hopefully, City Manager DePasquale will clean up the outrages remaining from the preceding 42 years of three destructive City Managers by severely pruning the destructiveness of the CDD, which fits hand in glove with the reprehensible DCR / MDC.
In the meantime, I have provided you photos of 4 more trees destroyed by the DCR as part of this outrage, including some really good photos. These, bringing accomplished destruction up to 5, are the first to be destroyed of the very terrible destruction of 54, now 56, MOSTLY EXCELLENT TREES on the Charles River IN ADDITION TO THE HUNDREDS ALREADY DESTROYED east of the BU Bridge.
FIVE supposed justifications for this destruction have now been destroyed. The “justification” for Order 1 is rapidly going to EVEN MORE indisputable non existence.
V. Lies, outright lies and flat out fraud. An analysis for newcomers and for people who need a refresher.
The following is edited from the beginning of my letter of June 6, 2017 to the Cambridge City Council. These 51 pages provide a detailed analysis of the 54, now 56, trees at Magazine Beach for whose destruction the Cambridge City Council has voted to seek funding. This occurred in order number 1 of April 24, 2017, following a rally on City Hall steps by City Councilors praising themselves for their self-proclaimed environmental saintliness.
This analysis is being repeated because readers may need repetition of key issues. Editing has been done in an attempt to isolate the key issues.
People who wish to review the full 51 page analysis are encouraged to review it from the City Clerk’s detailed agenda preparatory to the City Council meeting at which the City Council received the letter. The official record of the letter is posted at http://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1815&Inline=True, pages 198 to 249. This is a large document which is part of a truly massive document containing everything being considered at that meeting. There can be a significant delay in loading it. Should you prefer, we have PDF versions at a size transmittable (5 files) over the Internet. Please just give us a request at boblat@yahoo.com.
* * * *
A relevant, and true, comparison that can be made to Order 1 of April 24, 2017, is to compare the 54 trees (now 56) the City Council has supported destroying at Magazine Beach to trees on the City Hall grounds, specifically to the grove directly behind the rear entrance to City Hall.
I was recently very much impressed by this grove. Then it came to me.
[Ed. A photo of this grove was watermarked on the first page of the letter. It appeared under the text at the beginning of the June 4, 2017 letter. Here is the photo; it is straight out.]
This is a good grove, BUT its individual trees are inferior to a significant number of trees at Magazine Beach which the Cambridge City Council voted to destroy by Order 1. The reality is that the skillful word games used by the DCR in its color amendment to its destruction plans, to justify outrageous destruction are fraud, fraud, fraud. Key words in Order 1 converted skillfully reworded fraud in the DCR color amendment to a statement of an absolute fact. Rewording fraud as absolute fact does not change reality. I presume this order with the fraud was written by the Cambridge Development Department and not by the signers of the order.
In any case, A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF THE TREES THE CITY COUNCIL VOTED TO DESTROY ON MAGAZINE BEACH ARE SUPERIOR TO THE TREES AT THE REAR OF CITY HALL. It is irresponsible and wasteful to destroy them.
I have previously passed on to the City Council and City Manager the wisdom of Phil Barber with regard to destruction proposed on the Charles River. Phil Barber’s words have general relevance to the destruction called for in Order 1 of April 24, 2017.
* * *
It's certainly an outrage to destroy entire stands because of some deadwood or unsightly growth. I see this all too often, that trees that have valiantly survived the elements and abuse are cut down simply because someone judges them not to be sufficiently aesthetic. I imagine people who lack the awareness that these are living beings deserving of care simply see the bottom line, that it's cheaper to ruin an irreplaceable old tree and put in a new one, as if it didn't matter.
I've also seen city workers on the job in the various little parks and public landscaping hacking away willy-nilly at the vegetation blissfully unaware of the difference between weeds and plantings. The lack of concern, and of knowledge, is appalling but such is our time.
* * *
As I have analyzed the original official DCR black and white submittal to the Cambridge Conservation Commission in comparison to the subsequent color package with the fraudulent word games, it has become clear that the proposed destruction in the areas I have previously reported has grown.
While destruction has gotten more irresponsible in the area claimed to be under the protection of the fake neighborhood association associated with the development department, DESTRUCTION IN THE BOAT CLUB AREA WITH MEANINGFUL PROTECTION HAS DROPPED FROM TWO TREES TO ZERO.
There are trees which may accurately be described as dead or dying in the area proposed to be destroyed by Order 1 of April 24, 2017. This report points them out. The dead and dying are almost all outside the core areas of outrageous destruction. Most of the dead and dying are around the playing fields.
This tiny number of dead or dying trees, in no way, justifies the massive destruction supported by Order number 1 of April 24,2017, in spite of the DCR’s skillful word game fraud in the color propaganda package being reworded in Order 1 as absolute truth.
Almost all of the dead and dying trees are at the playing fields, the beginning of my analysis. The parkland, from the east of the pedestrian overpass to the boat club, has the vast majority of doomed trees. These doomed trees are almost all excellent, especially when you ignore the areas which have been improperly added to the parkland.
If “technically correct” language knowingly communicates a different meaning to average human beings who hear normal meanings for that language, usage of the technical language without explanation of the difference from normal language is fraud.
I use the language of normal human beings and I call fraud fraud. I do not go into a long explanation which explanation, to the normal human being, is silly.
The chop, chop, chop mentality of the Department of Conservation and Recreation is one reason why the legislature destroyed the Metropolitan District Commission ‒ to protect, among other things, the Charles River from the horribly irresponsible “planners” of the MDC. Those horribly irresponsible “planners” moved to the DCR. Too many of those “planners,” are now working in the DCR. They, with the bad Cambridge Development Department and others in the City of Cambridge, have just destroyed hundreds of trees east of the BU Bridge.
There are significant and key trees which the DCR and Cambridge want to destroy that they admit are healthy and have not reached their peak beauty. The DCR and Cambridge just want to destroy them.
The color / propaganda package represents the second phase of fighting for destruction. It uses word games. It claims that, if a tree has reached peak perfection plus a day, the DCR and Cambridge have a right to destroy it. The euphemism is “decline.” Translation: while excellent, it only has another 50 years to live (or whatever). This outrageous word game is the sole supposed justification for a very significant part of this outrage. This outrage will devastate the river side of Memorial Drive from east of the pedestrian overpass to the Boat Club.
This outrage was based on skillfully worded fraud. The writers of Order 1, whether the named writers or the Cambridge Development Department, took skillfully worded fraud and converted the skillfully worded fraud to call the skillfully worded fraud an absolute (and false) “truth.”
VI. The fight behind the fight, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s private exit from I90 (Massachusetts Turnpike), taken with editorial improvements, from our July 7, 2017 report..
But what is really going on here?
To start off the understanding, my first contact with this outrage came in 1997 when one of the usual fake groups announced lovely plans for “improvements” from the Cambridge City Manager. When I got her plans from the head of DCR (I will not go into organizational issues here) Planning, she pointed out the minor differences between her plans and the ones announced for the then Cambridge City Manager in 1997.
Here is a modification of the DCR map which I created. The purpose was to show the impact on the Charles River White Geese in their nesting area, the location which has been turned into their foodless ghetto.
To the far right is the BU Bridge and the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.
In the middle is the environmentally sensitive pollution control plant of the Metropolitan Water Resources Authority.
To the far left is where we began this series, the eastern end of the playing fields. The goal of the DCR was, and probably still is, to create a new highway in the Charles River. The vertical arrows below the MWRA area, in the Charles River, point out the planned highway construction. This would connect the eastern end of the Magazine Beach playing fields to Destroyed Nesting Area.
Connecting the two areas greatly increases the value to Boston University, which has heavy involvement in this area. The heart of the BU campus is at the bottom end of the BU Bridge.
Here is a state plan showing the Grand Junction going under the BU Bridge. Boston is to the left, Cambridge to the right. In the upper left corner can be seen I90. In the lower left corner is a BU Building. Another BU Building is below the BU Bridge and to the left of the Charles River. BU has another boat house below the wild area (trees visible) which is below the Grand Junction railroad.
Here is a photo of the Grand Junction railroad bridge, southern extension on the Boston side of the BU Bridge (the left side of the above map). In the distance can be seen a green sign. That sign is above I90 (Mass. Pike).
In 2003, the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority (the MBTA) did a study which proved an off ramp can be built from I90 to the Grand Junction Railroad bridge, and showed how the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge could be widened to handle two way traffic plus one railroad track.
Here is another City of Cambridge map.
If you blow up the right side of the map, you will see the words “retaining wall” pointing at the sidewalk which currently abuts the Wild Area. “Retaining wall” calls for destruction of the Wild Area. It is currently a steep hill containing wild animals and a LOT of Trees. Plans to destroy those trees are extensively studied in my video on the destruction of hundreds of trees east of the BU Bridge, posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.
The MBTA plans very visibly showed an off ramp in this location, THROUGH THE WILD AREA, to Memorial Drive eastbound.
Above Memorial Drive, north of a large MIT building, Cambridge has converted part of parking lots into what was originally called the “Waverly Connector.” Nominally, the Waverly Connector /Waverly Street connects MIT holdings north of the location to the intersection of Brookline and Granite, a block north of the rotary connecting Memorial Drive to Cambridge and to the BU Bridge.
Here is MIT’s plan showing that area.
The BU Bridge is diagonal from the bottom left. Under, marked in blue, is the Grand Junction railroad bridge. At the very bottom left is I90, the Mass. Pike. I will not go into the MBTA analysis. Clearly, there is a lot of room to connect I90 / the Mass. Pike to the Grand Junction railway bridge.
The MBTA plans showed an exit from the widened Grand Junction bridge to Memorial Drive east through the Wild Area, which is to the right of the blue Grand Junction and below Memorial Drive.
As you move to the right, the Grand Junction railroad approaches “Waverly Street”, the Waverly Connector. At the top middle, Waverly Street connects to Brookline and Granite which, in turn connects to the BU Rotary under Memorial Drive, slightly to the left top of that Waverly - Brookline intersection.
MIT’s campus and holdings for campus expansion dominate the area to the right of this map.
The initial plans for the Waverly Connector included detailed tree planting plans. I commented that there were gaps in the tree plantings which exactly fit connections of MIT’s off ramp from I90 to the Waverly Connector, and then to Memorial Drive westbound through the BU Bridge rotary. The tree plantings disappeared.
And here is my usual map of destruction at Magazine Beach taken from the DCR's fraudulent 2d plan. The BU Bridge rotary is to the far right. All that lovely traffic from I90 coming through the BU Bridge rotary and then on Memorial Drive westbound would be slowed by traffic going into the little guys’ parking lot. So the parking lot and 30 trees PLUS are being destroyed as part of an overall destruction of 56, with 5 destroyed so far.
The purple asterisk is in part of the MicroCenter shopping center. Its parking lot is in white. Across the street are currently SEVEN admittedly excellent trees. The plans move the parking lot south of Memorial Drive which is currently next to the Charles River at this point on top of those trees. The combination of this change with the destruction of the little guys’ parking lot replaces three interferences with traffic with one interference with traffic. Traffic currently going to the river parking through an opening west of the shopping center, traffic going to the shopping center, and traffic going to the little guys’ parking lot would all be making movements at the same location, thus three interferences with through traffic would become one.
THIRTY or more trees would be destroyed around the little guys’ parking lot. SEVEN excellent trees would be destroyed across from MicroCenter. FOUR trees have already been destroyed next to MicroCenter, including two which the owner lovingly cared for.
And, oh yeah, A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF the balance of trees being destroyed out of 56, are THE REMAINDER OF the ones described as “dead or dying” in the fraudulent motion taken by the Cambridge City Council on April 24, 2017 immediately after city councilors conducted a rally for their supposed environmental saintliness.
VII. What You Can Do.
A. Introductory.
What we need is:
● End the accelerating Charles River destruction by the DCR and by Cambridge.
● Give DCR duties, powers & funds on the Charles River to MassDOT. Trash the bizarre bush wall walling off Charles. End poison use on the Charles’ banks.
● Tell the Cambridge City Council and new City Manager Louis DePasquale to end the destruction, the fake groups and the 42 year long 3 City Manager Machine.
Part III above went into a lot of this.
There are two general categories of possible assistance.
B. General.
There are two entities who are a waste of time, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Cambridge Development Department.
These entities as they have existed for the last 42 years (counting the prior entity which was replaced by the DCR) need to be destroyed, not talked to.
The Cambridge City Manager needs to clean house. A much more detailed analysis is in my letter of welcome to him, posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-trust-cambridge-ma-usas.html.
Here are the key contacts. I hope you can make them. I apologize that a lot of contacts are given through yet another link. The reason for the additional link for legislators is that that gives me only one place to change rather than trying to change every document.
Governor Charles Baker (DCR): 617-725-4005, email form: http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office
Cambridge City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, 617-349-4300, ldepasquale@cambridgema.gov
Legislators: 617-722-2000, http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/201304/emails-for-all massachusetts.html
Cambridge City Council. Call them at 617-349-4280, or
Email your comments care of the Cambridge City Clerk. Request that the City Clerk present your entire message to the Cambridge City Council at their next meeting. The Email address is: dlopez@cambridgema.gov
C. The Institutions.
Since 2011, these reports have been read in 106 countries, at last count. It is reasonable to assume that such vast a variety of reading may be by people with contacts in the three key institutions.
The three key institutions involved are:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT is fighting for its personal exit from I90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) in a situation where meaningful activists previously defeated a super highway going through pretty much the same area. So fraud is normal. Similarly, most of Memorial Drive between the BU Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge has been and is being turned into an area which is effectively the personal enclave of MIT.
Boston University. This is turf which BU has started to claim for itself. BU did the first destruction as part of its seeking to make this more clearly its turf. A lot of the fine print makes the key areas more hospital to BU. Boston University has conducted graduation activities in the Magazine Beach recreation area.
Harvard University. Harvard is turning the Boston side of the Charles River even more into its private domain with its impending relocation of Harvard Medical School and other facilities into an area in Boston visible from the Cambridge side of the Charles River.
Anybody with contacts with MIT, BU and Harvard knows the contacts better than we do.
Please contact.
D. FRIEND THE CHARLES RIVER WHITE GEESE ON FACEBOOK.
The Charles River White Geese have lived on the Charles River since 1981. They are beautiful and loved, a very real tourist attraction. Having lived so long so close to densely populated cities, they well deserved to be studied and praised, not destroyed piece by piece. Their habitat can and should be returned. The barriers to their long time home and food should be removed.
Where they live, other much less visible but very real free animals also live.
Cambridge and the DCR are heartlessly abusing free animals on the Charles River. The DCR PUBLICLY states a desire to kill off or drive away all resident animals on the Charles River Basin. Cambridge and the DCR are unfit to manage the environment. They, particularly the Cambridge City Council, combine their lack of fitness with non stop lies of environmental sainthood.
In the fine print is that proposed off ramp from I90 to MIT in a location where Cambridge brags a super highway was killed by MEANINGFUL PROTECTIVE GROUPS 50 years ago, as opposed to highly visible but fake protective groups with connections to the Cambridge government which have been carefully created and nurtured in the decades since that victory. The replacement highway is having its grounds set through stalking horses, deception and multiple outrages. Naturally, the replacement highway would destroy areas most valuable to free animals.
Here is a plaque which was included in a propaganda show about the Charles River conducted over an extended period in the Cambridge City Hall Annex.
Animals should not be driven off the face of our earth. It is outrageous that these reprehensible government entities, lying about themselves, want to destroy what little sanctuaries free animals have left. Their sanctuaries should be cherished and returned to the status quo of the beginning of this Millennium.
It is reprehensible that, lurking behind the government destructions, are institutions which proclaim themselves throughout the world as enlightened.
The Charles River White Geese are a very visible and beloved symbol of what should be cherished, not destroyed.
The list of friends on Facebook is a very visible show of decency standing up to truly vile government entities and their related “non profit” institutions.
E. Contribute and / or work.
This situation is one of little guys standing up to an entrenched amalgamation of destructive people. There have been major victories over the years. Your help is crucial now.
Friends of the White Geese is the latest in a series of major activities standing up to this very terrible situation. FOWG has been recognized as a charitable non profit by the Attorney General of Massachusetts since 2001.
Our Chair has been active fighting for environmental causes using a number of strategies since 1974. His interests have overlapped with those of Harvard University. During this period, he has had more environmental victories, including major victories, over Harvard University than all other “activists” that he is aware of combined.
Please contribute, either electronically or by snail mail. We have a link at the top of the blog for electronic contributions. Snail mail contributions / checks should be made to “Friends of the White Geese” and should be sent to Friends of the White Geese at Post Office Box 391412, Cambridge, MA 02139.
If you are able and interested in working, please contact us at boblat@yahoo.com.
VIII. Links to Official Report, Prior Reports in this Series.
NOTE: I have confused these reports by indiscriminate mixing of part and section. I am trying to clarify with consistent (and frequently different) word usage. This section reflects my, hopefully, less confusing word usage even though the words used may be different from the original.
The official and complete Cambridge, MA, USA, City Council record of the letter to them detailing the destruction they supported by that order is posted by the Cambridge City Clerk at http://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1815&Inline=True, pages 198 to 249. It is part of a very large file and takes some time to load.
PDF copies of this filing with the City Council / City Manager may be obtained directly by email from boblat@yahoo.com
* * * *
Videos of the outrages recently accomplished are available on YouTube.
Our video analyzing the outrageous destruction east of the BU Bridge in 2016, with limited comments around and west of the BU Bridge is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.
Our video on the nonsense of “improvements” is posted at https://youtu.be/dWyCdcWMuAA.
There are many links to reports and admiration of the Charles River White Geese at the top of this blog.
One report which is particularly beautiful shows the Charles River White Geese feeding across from the Hyatt Regency Hotel, to the east of their Destroyed Nesting Area. This location is one of the most vicious subjects of the attacks of 2016. ALL TREES WERE DESTROYED and the “improvements” can best be described as irresponsible lies, to the extent they should not have been done WITHOUT DESTRUCTION ten years earlier. This location has a very skillful starvation wall of its own to match the one installed at Magazine Beach with the lie of a “lawn to the river.”
This report on the Charles River White Geese feeding across from the Hyatt Regency Hotel before the destruction of 2016 is “The White Geese of Cambridge” by Eddie Sarno, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2-xSIYrB5o.
* * * *
Prior Postings in this series may be viewed at:
Posting 1, June 10, 2017, repeating Section 1, Introduction, of the Report, in
Charles River: What is being destroyed next, Posting 1 at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-what-is-being-destroyed.html.
Posting 2, June 11, 2017 Repeating Sections 2, Northeast Corner of the Playing Fields; and 3, Parking Lot of Playing Fields, of the Report, in:
Charles River: What is being destroyed next, Posting 2, “Dead and Dying” reality of Magazine Beach, Early History of the Outrages, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-what-is-being-destroyed_11.html
Posting 3, June 14, 2017, Repeating Sections 4, Southern Edge of Playing Fields; 5, The Starvation Wall; and 6, The middle of the playing fields. Poison usage. Drainage for poisons that should not be used. of the Report, in:
Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Playing Fields Destruction, Council report posting 3, sections 4 to 6, Starvation Wall, Use of Poisons, Some Dead Trees, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach-playing.html
Posting 4, repeating section 7, The Start of the BIG Destruction, Northern Edge of Playing Fields, in:
Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Playing Fields Destruction, Council report posting 3, sections 7, The Start of the BIG Destruction, Northern Edge of Playing Fields, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach-playing_16.html
Posting 5, repeating section 8, Northeast Hill, Northwest playing fields, in:
Charles River, MA, USA: Magazine Beach Destruction Plans, Council report posting 5, section 8, at the Pedestrian Overpass, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-ma-usa-magazine-beach.html.
Posting 6, repeating section 9, Destruction of the Magnificent Grove dominating the Playing Fields.
Charles River, MA, USA: Planned Destruction of Magazine Beach 6, to City Council, section 9, Destruction of the Magnificent Grove dominating the Playing Fields, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-ma-usa-planned.html
Posting 7, Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Posting 7, Destruction Starts, at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach.html
Posting 8, Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Posting 8, EARLY Destruction Proceeds, Doomed Trees Rise from 54 to 56, July 1, 2017.
Posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach.html.
Posting 9, Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Posting 9, southeast hill with magnificent doomed Willow, s. 10 of report, update on magnificent overhanging grove, July 3, 2017, Posted at:
http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_3.html
Posting 10, Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Posting 10, Near total destruction of Hill Parking Lot, s. 11 of report., July 7, 2017, posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_7.html
Posting 11, Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Bathhouse & MicroCenter, Posting 11, s. 12 of report.
Posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/71217-re-charles-river-ma-magazine.html
Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Trees at Bathhouse & MicroCenter, explanations why, Posting 12, s. 13 of report, posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_17.html
