1. Introduction.
2. The Poison Drainage System.
A. Prior situation in the part which saw the recent destruction.
B. Situation on December 7, 2017.
3. The Playing Fields.
A. Prior situation.
B. Situation on December 7, 2017.
4. Apparent waste of recyclable materials.
5. Open support by the City of Cambridge.
6. Miscellaneous. More Wild life threatened, tree identification, vegetation destruction.
A. Wasp nest.
B. Next vegetation to destroy.
C. Make work for contractors.
D. Censorship, another fake group “created.”
E. Support on tree identification could be helpful.
F. Other Tree Losses, and strengths.
G. City Council / City Manager contact after the fact.
H. Other means of contact.
1. Introduction.
A few days ago, we reported on destruction at the Magazine Beach playing fields by robots of the City of Cambridge and the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
On December 9, we wandered the area taking photographs. Further work has been done, probably by the DCR or its contractors. They love make work for contractors.
The outrages done through their contractors was one reason given for the destruction of the DCR’s predecessor, the Metropolitan District Commission. Unfortunately, the “planners” guilty of the prior outrages simply moved over to the DCR and, with the support of Cambridge, are proceeding with the outrages so visibly condemned by the state legislature.
We have also reported on the outrageous plans. Some of the reports are in the final section of this report.
The photos taken on December 7, indicate matters of interest or concern in the poison drainage system, the actual playing fields, apparent waste of recyclable materials and actual support by the City of Cambridge.
Then again, part of the reality of work done admits the bankruptcy of the “improvements” to date.
2. The Poison Drainage System.
A. Prior situation in the part which saw the recent destruction.
The vegetation nearer the camera in the above picture is the next part of the poison drainage system to the west. This is the vegetation visible in the second prior photo of the Playing Fields. Stretching left and right straight ahead in this picture is an excellent view of the western side of the largest portion of the poison drainage system. The attack on this portion of the poison drainage system is the subject of this report.
This October 2016 photo is from the southern extremity of the playing fields, not far from the starvation wall. The low vegetation running from left to right is the poison drainage system under attack as reported here. Flowers which are part of the system show to the right. The tree slightly right of the middle is one of the tiny number of dead trees upon which the fraudulent term “dead or dying” is based, giving the impression that all 56 doomed trees are “dead or dying,” as opposed to the tiny minority which is the honest count.
The trees way back probably include the magnificent grove hanging over the playing fields and doomed by the DCR and by the Cambridge City Council motion 1 of April 24, 2017.
The above photo is taken from directly south of the poison drainage area under attack. It is the area to the right, with the flowers nearer. Taken in October 2016, the photo gives a different view of the soccer goal showing in below photos taken December 6, 2017. Whether it has been moved or not, I do not know. The big shadow is the result of the massive starvation wall being behind, south, of the camera, and blocking sun.
The above photo, from October 2016, was taken from west of the poison drainage area under attack, the largest of the poison drainage areas. To the right is the starvation wall, to the left is the southernmost end of this poison drainage area. Sorry about the lighting. The sun is to the south, right, and that massive starvation wall really messes things up.
Below pictures, in section 3, show closer photos of the poison drainage area just attacked. The preceding photos were part of general, massive photos of the entire Magazine Beach recreation area mostly done specifically for the June 6, 2017, 51 page report on the outrage voted for by the Cambridge City Council on April 24, 2016. The photos below emphasize the poison drainage area. It, always, is impossible to predict in advance what outrage will happen next.
Just another proof of the statement which has been altogether too true of the DCR and Cambridge since the commencement of these outrages on the Charles River started.
* * *
“Never say they will never stoop so low.”
* * *
B. Situation on December 7, 2017.
Here are photos of the denuded area created by Robots of the DCR and Cambridge at the beginning of December.
This area, the largest area of the poison drainage system, is now completely covered with black tarps in order to smother the remaining phragmite roots (same stuff you put around tomato plants to discourage weeds). Denuded of natural vegetation the whole area was largely under water again after a recent rain. It is pretty lousy to flood the field mice out of their burrows at the start of cold weather. We have seen their delicate little tunnels just under the snow cover there every winter since the reeds grew in.
An excellent report in the magazine of Harvard’s living nature museum, the Arnold Arboretum analyzes the 25 acre portion of the museum where Harvard is displaying phragmite and other valuable naturally occurring vegetation.
The current lie is “non-native” but they very clearly are as valuable in the ecosystem AS THE STUFF THE CONTRACTORS ARE SELLING, unless you understand the lying definitions for usual lovely terms. Inasmuch as this is all filled land, “native” is blatant nonsense, unless you are selling things. The article is on line at http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/2017-75-1-other-order-sound-walk-for-an-urban-wild.pdf
The goal of the DCR with Cambridge City Council support in order 1 of April 24, 2017 and prior actions is to kill or drive away all resident animals. Bees have been seen in very sick condition. Clearly the result of the DCR’s beloved poisons. The addition of those poisons to the clean environment at Magazine Beach was one of the “accomplishments” of the DCR and Cambridge in the outrages of the 2000's.
The drainage system was claimed to make up for the poisons. Of course, they neglected to mention the impact of the poisons on resident animals, including animals residing in the created poison drainage system.
Naturally growing animals and vegetation have “no value” to the contractors. They cannot make money on beauty which comes for free, NO MATTER HOW EXCELLENT. So destroy it and make money for them by replacing it because money is their only thing of value.
3. The Playing Fields.
A. Prior situation.
Please note that the first photo of the prior poison drainage system situation shows brown spots which could have been repaired by the work we report in section B of this section.
The massive grove of trees straight ahead dominates the Playing Fields. The DCR and Cambridge City Council (order 1, April 24, 2017) want to destroy it, although the DCR plays games. MAYBE they MIGHT NOT destroy 2 or 3 of the 10. We agree that a tiny minority are beyond saving, but only a tiny minority are beyond saving.
The DCR also plays games on the count. What they are destroying, normal people would call 10 trees. The DCR counts 3 and has a lovely technical “explanation.”
Part or all of the damage in the foreground could have been damage repaired as shown below. The vegetation shown in the middle is to the west of the poison drainage system reported on above and is a portion of the poison drainage system to the west of the area whose attack is reported here.
The low trees to the left of middle are on the far side of Memorial Drive. Part of the grove to the left, in front of the pedestrian overpass, is slated for destruction.
The structure barely visible behind the trees in the background is the pedestrian overpass over Memorial Drive. The whitish portion visible toward the left under the trees is the lower part of the overpass. The green portion barely visible behind the excellent trees and above the small stands is over Memorial Drive. A number of trees in this picture are being destroyed by the DCR and by the Cambridge City Council Order 1 of April 24, 2017.
B. Situation on December 7, 2017.
This work has been done north of the principal poison drainage area, between it and Memorial Drive.
With regard to the brown, little landfills, the low boggy spots in the grassy area have been filled in with new topsoil. The massive "reconstruction" of Magazine Beach a few years ago was about improved drainage of the playing fields but here's evidence that it's failed dramatically. We have noted for several years now that most of the lawn is sodden after a rain. There were many puddle-holes in the turf when we were there recently as well. When teams play on the wet grass they tear it up and make mudholes that grow and grow
4. Apparent waste of recyclable materials.
This is a Cambridge Department of Public Works garbage truck picking up the vegetation torn from the ground the previous weekend. Photo taken on December 7, 2017.
Why is the Cambridge DPW working on DCR turf? Can the reeds not be composted?
5. Open support by the City of Cambridge / Robots.
To the best of our knowledge, Cambridge workers are not supposed to be working on DCR properties, the photographic evidence in section 4 notwithstanding.
Cambridge, through the state budgeting process, pays for DCR operations, which, supposedly, include maintenance of DCR properties. The long standing failure of DCR to maintain its properties and use of allocated funds for destruction is part of the ongoing outrage.
The fraud by the robots argues that free work by private citizens is helpful to the environment.
The reality is that, through whatever technique used, getting private citizens or the City of Cambridge to do DCR maintenance allows use of corresponding money for destruction, whether outright or by planning for destruction including but very much not limited to work by supervisors when the supervisors should be supervising maintenance.
After the Cambridge DPW workers picked up the remnants from the destruction robots’ work the prior weekend, the truck backed into the area at the southern end of the parking lot. This is the area with the massive vegetation which blocks the tiny opening in the starvation wall. The 36 year resident Charles River White Geese had the nerve to go through the opening to feed.
The green structure in the photo below is a solar trash can. It can be viewed between the first and second introduced obstacle from the left. Cambridge workers on the garbage truck could have been backing up to the solar trash can to unload it for the DCR.
This is a file photo.
6. Miscellaneous. More Wild life threatened, tree identification, vegetation destruction.
A. Wasp nest.
A wasp nest was recently spotted on one of the cottonwoods on the 7th. Here is a photo of it.
B. Next vegetation to destroy.
These people are so destructive, the next question is will they go after the Scotch thistles (which were abundant for the first time this year) have to go, or the evening primroses. They seem to have destroyed a lovely stand of tall flowering perennials which escaped from someone's garden as well as the impressive Joe Pye Weed interspersed with it.
C. Make work for contractors.
One key in the destruction is make work for contractors. Vegetation and animals which do not cost the government money “has no value.” This is another mentality in the obvious “reasons” for destroying the truly magnificent trees which are a day past their peak beauty.
The destroyers have found another way to lie about the destruction as having “value.” Even if the trees they are destroying are excellent, and have 50 years to live, the lie is that they are “in decline.”
So contractors get paid to destroy, and contractors get paid to “replace” five story high magnificent trees with saplings. The key Robot destroyer recently admitted that they are getting paid to destroy all this vegetation. Money, money, money. NOT BEAUTY, MONEY.
The most important thing to these people is make work for contractors. That was also one of the reasons why the predecessor entity was destroyed by the legislature, too much waste destruction.
Needless to say, there are a slew of bad “reasons” for destruction.
Mentioning this one, of course, does not mean that destruction is not being done to rearrange driveways on Memorial Drive to speed up traffic coming to Memorial Drive off MIT’s new Inner Belt highway, its personal exit from the Massachusetts Turnpike (I90) by way of the Grand Junction railroad bridge over the Charles River. Ramps to Memorial Drive are in the plans.
D. Censorship, another fake group “created.”
At the same time, the destroyers who lie that they are a neighborhood association are getting even more blatant about their recognition that their own lies cannot stand the test of meaningful responses. This level of corruption is outrageous.
The “neighborhood association” used to pre censor their ListServ to prevent exposure of participants to responsible positions. That corrupt situation could not stand exposure to reality.
After I pointed out to City Council and City Manager that advance censorship proves the group meaningless for its claimed function as a “neighborhood association,” the destroyers stopped pre-censorship.
Now they summarily expel from the ListServ those who make comments the string-pullers disagree with outrageous “explanations,” of course. Then the string-pullers lie that they are not censoring. Similar situation, more dishonest, and probably worse because they are hand picking the most vulnerable people to get their corrupt fabrications.
The string pullers have also created another fake group recently, same control, supposedly “independent,” independence yet another lie, of course.
The Cambridge Machine and friends are very skillful at creating lovely sounding “independent” group after “independent” group, as in “look at all the independent groups we have supporting us! How dare you stand up to all these independent groups.”
The reality is that the interconnections among the string-pullers is so strong that it is silly to consider all these “independent” groups as anything other than just part of the fraud to fool well meaning voters.
A tiny number of robots lying that they are larger than they are in reality.
And an even tinier number PUBLICLY admits going to the Cambridge Development Department or worse to find out what is “correct” thinking.
E. Support on tree identification could be helpful.
We are not positive if we have all these trees ID'd properly. The leaf shape on what we call “cottonwoods” is definitely eastern cottonwood but the trunk distribution is more typical of white poplar, but its leaves look entirely different. We don't recall seeing any of the cottony seeds coming off these trees as the cottonwoods at Alewife, which have identical leaves as far as we can tell.
F. Other Tree Losses, and strengths.
Introduced plane trees at Magazine Beach have died, but red-twig dogwoods are flourishing.
G. City Council / City Manager contact after the fact.
This report will be a change from our recent pattern of posting communications to the City of Cambridge here after submitting them. We will likely put a shorter version of this analysis into such a city communication after posting this analysis here.
H. Other means of contact.
As of this writing, the Cambridge City Council has one meeting left before three new city councilors take office. The outrages distressingly keep coming, and they have major impact to the region. We will likely have new items to report upon the taking of office of the three replacements. In any case, all of the new members have been receiving condensed versions of these reports for months as part of a larger email condensation mailing which also goes to the Charles River White Geese Facebook page.
If you would like to friend the Charles River White Geese on Facebook, please do so. It is a nice form of a petition.
