I. Introduction.
A. General.
B. Map.
C. Details.
II. Updating of my Letter of June 6, 2017 with its two subsequent reports of early destruction supported by City Council Order 1 on April 24, 2017.
Former Section III. Introduction provided at the end because less immediately important than the above.
III. Updating of my Letter of June 6, 2017 with its two subsequent reports of early destruction supported by City Council Order 1 on April 24, 2017.
Former Section IV. Reporting on institutionalized corruption in Cambridge City Government.
A. My personal experience.
B. A very bad reality under the 3 City Manager Machine.
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.
IX. Links to Official Report, Prior Reports in this Series.
A. General.
B. The outrages last year.
C. Details from the most recent postings.
I. Introduction.
A. General.
I apologize for the delay in the presentation of these materials. I have been busy in drafting new materials which have already been submitted to the Cambridge City Council, plus on other matters.
The purpose of this blog is to defend the free animals on the Charles River from truly reprehensible governmental entities.
The trouble is that the vile entities we are dealing with simply destroy, destroy and destroy the environment, and the free animals are just part of a reprehensible situation, and there is a lot of fraud involved.
The final section of this report collects recent posts on this blog along with other sources, including videos, of the recent outrages. Since the attacks on the Charles River began, it has always been amazing just how many terrible things they are doing.
It is constantly wrong to think that the latest outrage is the lowest they can go. And, as I try to communicate things, the horror simply amasses. The horror, combined with the fraudulent tactics, require me to provide such great detail, simply to debunk the constant key lies.
This posting is the third of three to communicate my August 2, 2017, letter to the Cambridge City Manager and City Council, presented at the August 7, 2017 meeting of the Cambridge City Council.
The first part went into how this destruction fits into a new private off ramp from Interstate 90 (Mass. Pike) on the Boston side of the Charles River to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with outrageous environmental destruction and a lot of lying about what is being done. The real horror is that, 50 years ago, MEANINGFUL activists in Cambridge defeated a super highway half a block east of this highway. So three bad City Managers saw a bunch of fake groups grow around them as company unions. The company unions are fighting for this highway and the related destruction and have done a lot of damage from 1974 to 2016, while I have a lot of victories over them.
The current City Manager appears to have clean hands, but the company unions all have the same sort of people pulling the strings, just different faces.
The first part is posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach.html.
The second part analyzed updates photos provided in my June 6, 2017 letter. These new photos provide detail about one location I slighted and provide greater detail about the biggest trees in the really massive destruction. It is posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_30.html.
This is the third part will present further thoughts on the corrupt practices in play.
These new material is are in parts II and III of this posting. They were parts III and IV of the August 2, 2017 letter received on August 7,2017 by the Cambridge City Council.
Part II (former III) presents my analysis which I had intended to put at the beginning of the August 2 letter, but I simply considered the materials in the first two sections to be so important that I found it inappropriate to insert the introductory language and delay the first two sections.
Part III (former IV) is historical. It goes into my rather spectacular personal experiences before being exposed to the outrages in Cambridge City Government and my exposure to how “things are done” in Cambridge. I have avoided comments on the Cambridge political situation, but that political situation has destroyed hundreds of trees and animal habitat, with heartless animal abuse, on the Charles River which really have very broad impact. This section is an extremely condensed version of reality.
If you would rather the original version, it is made part of the City of Cambridge records at http://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1825&Inline=True at pages 176 to 192. The city posting of papers which are part of the meeting record, including this letter, is, itself, massive, hundreds of pages. Downloading the records can be daunting. I would be pleased, at your request, to provide three email size PDF records of my submittal. Please contact me at boblat@yahoo.com.
After this new material, I will continue sections with background information for the benefit of newcomers and those who wish a refresher, and conclude with links to the preceding reports in this latest series..
B. Map.
Here is a map placing this area in context. It is a map from the DCR’s predecessor in August 2001:
C. Details.
The river is the Charles River. The bridge crossing it at the bottom of the map is the Boston University (BU) Bridge. The bridge under it is the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge. The area between the two on the upper side of the Charles River is the Destroyed Nesting area of the Charles River White Geese. The area to the right of these and running to the second bridge to the right was destroyed by Cambridge and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, including destruction of at minimum 150 trees plus animal habitat.
To the immediate left of the BU Bridge is the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority pollution control plant. It is sensitively designed to fit in with the environment, including a lawn and trees on its roof.
The white area to its left is the driveway and principal parking lot for the Magazine Beach Recreation area. This area extends to the top of the map, the River Street Bridge. The portion left of the parking area is the Magazine Beach Playing Fields. The small circles below the playing fields are: under the MWRA plant, bushes / vegetation, under the playing fields, apparently trees. I do not remember that extent of trees .
The area under the playing fields has almost totally been replaced with a 16 foot high wall of introduced bushes which have no apparent purpose except to keep the Charles River White Geese from the playing fields. The playing fields were their home, food and sleeping area for most of the last 36 years.
The thickly treed area to the left of the playing fields is the hill overlooking the playing fields, including a tiny, beautiful parking lot. 30 or more excellent trees in this area are slated for destruction, along with the parking lot.
The oval and rectangle to the left of the hill area is the Magazine Beach swimming pool and grass between it and the Charles River. To the left of these are seven excellent, healthy trees slated for destruction and other trees. Between the trees and the Charles River is a parking lot which the DCR and Cambridge City Council want to move on top of those seven trees.
Total destruction in the latest plans seems to be 54. 5 trees have already been destroyed.
The square to the left of this area is a privately owned boatclub, analyzed in section II, below. To its left is the balance of the Magazine Beach recreation area, analyzed in section III, below.
Across the Charles River, in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, very visible at the River Street Bridge, are several commercial buildings. Nearest the river is Storrow Drive / Soldiers Field Road, running through the length between the bridges. To the right of the BU Bridge and south of the roadway, running easily a mile to the east is Boston University. The BU holdings west of the BU Bridge and south of the roadway extend west to about the western end of the playing fields.
West of the BU holdings, south of the highway and the commercial buildings and south of the extension of the River Street Bridge is a massive area which contains I90 (Mass. Turnpike) and a now mostly abandoned railroad yard. Harvard purchased this area with the intent of moving much of its campus here, including, rather clearly, its Medical School.
II. Updating of my Letter of June 6, 2017 with its two subsequent reports of early destruction supported by City Council Order 1 on April 24, 2017.
Former Section III. Introduction provided at the end because less immediately important than the above.
This letter started as an update of the destruction that Order 1 of April 24, 2017 voted for. That update is parts I and II of this communication.
The reality is that, beneath this destruction is the corrupt manipulation of this government and this City Council by three City Managers through the Cambridge Development Department and its fake group friends starting in 1974 and accelerating. As I have reviewed the situation on the Charles River, the underlying rot has gotten clearer and clearer.
Two reasons have been given for the outrage on the Charles River unanimously supported by the Cambridge City Council in Order 1 of April 24, 2017. Passage of said order for all practical purposes immediately followed a rally by City Councilors on the front steps of City Hall proclaiming their environmental sainthood.
(1) The reason embedded in the fraud which stemmed from the fight of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. This got reworded in Order #1, almost certainly by the Cambridge Development Department, as “Dead or Dying.”
My 51 page letter of June 6, 2017 gave you a tree by tree analysis, debunking this nonsense. I have supplemented this analysis.
(2) The reason repeatedly given by the latest fake group for the destruction it has fought for on the Charles River, AND HAS ACHIEVED through the destruction of hundreds of trees and animal habitat between the BU and Longfellow Bridges:
DO NOT LOOK AT WHAT WE ARE DESTROYING.
LOOK AT WHAT WE TELL YOU TO LOOK AT.
The latter position shows just how low the government of the City of Cambridge and its friends has stooped since 1974.
III. Updating of my Letter of June 6, 2017 with its two subsequent reports of early destruction supported by City Council Order 1 on April 24, 2017.
Former Section IV. Reporting on institutionalized corruption in Cambridge City Government.
A. My personal experience.
I had nothing to do with the killing of the Inner Belt, BUT during the events which killed it, I had two fairly major experiences which made me absolutely flabbergasted to see what was created in Cambridge apparently in response to the killing of the Inner Belt and / or other matters of which I do not have actual knowledge.
(1) As an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, I was key, as a Student Senator, in a major revision to student rules which put Umass Amherst at the forefront of student regulations.
It was an incredibly difficult and extended endeavor with a lot of hard feelings on both sides. The Dean of Students was kind enough in a small group discussion afterwards to refer to me, individually, as “The most dangerous student on campus.”
This was in spite of the fact that I was politically a moderate with no connection to the growing radical movement on campus, and, in fact, I was hostile to that movement.
(2) At the time when the killing of the Inner Belt was formalized under Governor Sargeant, a bicycle bill passed both houses of the General Court WITHOUT NEGATIVE COMMENT. The bill was well intended but it had key, stupid and destructive provisions. The author simply did not know what he was doing.
A week later, that bill was vetoed by the Governor at the request of the bill’s sponsor in response to a surprising and very effective outburst of opposition in which I had no VISIBLE part.
The Boston Globe editorialized as to what it considered an incredible response in that key week. The Governor, with great displeasure and without public comment, considered me personally responsible for the veto.
I, myself, was amazed at how much easier it had been to work with the Massachusetts legislative system than it had been to work with the management of UMass Amherst.
I was totally flabbergasted to see what evolved in the City of Cambridge.
B. A very bad reality under the 3 City Manager Machine.
One of the first things James Leo Sullivan declared as his intentions upon being rehired in 1974 was that he wanted the creation of what he called “neighborhood associations.” What was created, to all public appearances independent of him, was a system of company unions. These company unions claimed to be protective groups but, in reality, prevented public input by being in a stated place of protecting voters, but, altogether too often, preventing public action.
I have had a hand, for environment purposes, in the writing of more of the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance than anybody else not employed by the City of Cambridge. Very often, my achievements were a matter of the Cambridge City Council overriding the wishes of the 3 City Manager Machine operating through formal presentations and through the shadowy but very real small group of people who controlled the company unions.
Once I realized the existence of the Machine, I worked around it. The most important factor in my victories was that of keeping people who were part of the Machine out of my groups.
The killing of Rent Control created a vacuum in control of the Cambridge City Council. While Rent Control was in existence, Cambridge had a two party system which kept City Councilors alert to the actions of their fellows in the opposing party. With the death of Rent Control, this internal control disappeared and the City Manager Machine expanded into a lot of the vacuum.
City Councilors have good reason to fear the fake groups. Reality is irrelevant to the fake groups. All that appears to be relevant TO THE TINY NUMBER OF PEOPLE PULLING THE STRINGS ON KEY MATTERS in fake groups is the reality which they have been told exists.
One determined person or an organized subgroup can destroy a group of well meaning people.
It does not take large numbers to dominate small groups. All it takes is a minority which is in agreement, and fight hard (or even one person), and the rest are well meaning. In one of the fake neighborhood associations, I have seen a self proclaimed zoning expert bragging that his strongly believed information was derived from going to the CDD to find out what was correct thinking.
And the CDD spent 22 years OR MORE propounding a flat out and obvious lie about transportation plans on the Charles River. That blatant lie was the basis of zoning changes on the Grand Junction. That blatant lie was parroted by EVERY “EXPERT” in the fake groups, and by exactly no person outside the influence of Cambridge “activists.”.
The Charles River version of the fake groups was well demonstrated in two letters (transmittal and enclosure) sent to MassDOT by me which appeared very close to each other in the Communications which include my June 6, 2017 letter. Links, including to the detailed report on the 22+ year major transportation lie, are above.
The outrages must end. The DCR must be replaced by MassDOT on the Charles. The CDD must be cleaned up of its filth. The fake groups must end. The outrages must be reversed.
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 after most of their 37 year habitat has been destroyed to them..
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.
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.
VII. Links to Official Report, Prior Reports in this Series.
A. The Big Ones during the latest series of outrages.
A lot of links are present on this blog.
The official and complete Cambridge, MA, USA, City Council record of the letter to them detailing the destruction they supported by their order number 1 on April 24, 2017, 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
This outrage, of course, was preceded by a rally of Cambridge City Councilors on the front steps of City Hall, proclaiming their environmental saintliness.
B. The outrages last year.
Videos of the outrages accomplished last year 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.
C. Details from the most recent postings.
Prior Postings in this series may be viewed at:
(1) 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.
(2) 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
(3) 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
(4) 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
(5) 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.
(6) 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
(7) 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
(8) 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.
(9) 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
(10) 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
(11) 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
(12) 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
(13) Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Trees West of Bathhouse and across from MicroCenter, Shopping Center, Posting 13, s. 14 of report, July 22, 2017, posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_22.html
(14) Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction: Summary, trees at Boat Club and West, Posting 14, s. 15, 16 and 17 of report., August 13, 2017, Posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/re-charles-river-ma-magazine-beach.html
(15) Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction Plans: The Real Explanation?, August 24, 2017, posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach.html
(16) Charles River, MA: Magazine Beach Destruction Plans: More photos, some omitted plus more of the worst, posted at: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/charles-river-ma-magazine-beach_30.html
