I. Introduction.
II. DEIR Comments, Section 3.A. A whole bunch of bad things with regard to “West Station.”
III. Marked up Index.
I. Introduction.
The Charles River White Geese have lived on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA for 37 years. Most of that time, they lived and fed at the playing fields of the Magazine Beach recreation area. Their habitat was a mile long stretch on the north / Cambridge side of the river centered on the BU Bridge
The Charles River White Geese were loved and admired. People came from the suburbs to quietly commune with them. In more recent years, they have been on the receiving end of heartless animal abuse from the City and Regional Governments.
The current issue is that, while they have been on the North Side for 37 years, Interstate Route 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) has been on the south side for 50 years. The state has decided I90 needs very major improvements. Harvard University has decided it wants to move its Medical School to the largest part of the I90 turf on the Boston side. Harvard owns a former railroad yard and I90 along with its exit ramps, subject to transportation uses.
Entities with bad records are involved.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology rather clearly looks like it wants to create an off ramp from I90 which amounts to its private property, on the Grand Junction Railroad which passes through the area to which the Charles River White Geese have been heartless confined without food. A block from where MIT wants its private off ramp, 50 years ago, Cambridge activists killed another super highway, known as the Inner Belt. To no surprise, the fight for MIT’s updated Inner Belt is being conducted as secretly as possible.
A few years ago, bureaucrats from the City of Cambridge along with Fake Protectors who dominate city politics fought to put Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction as well. People then, as was done 50 years ago, fought and defeated Commuter Rail on environmental purposes. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation listened to the objections and studied the situation. MassDOT found that Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction, with its nightmare creating blockage of multiple major intersections, benefitted nobody except for developers at Cambridge’s Kendall Square, about half a mile from the ghetto to which the Charles River White Geese have been confined.
There has been major destruction on the Cambridge side of the Charles River, with the government owners and the City of Cambridge, and a tiny number of Fake Protectors in the middle of the destruction.
The engineers working on the I90 rebuilt have been forced by the previous governor to add a Commuter Rail station to their project. That Commuter Rail station is being fought for by the usual villains. It is a euphemism for losing causes. Cambridge politics regularly does very terrible things under loud euphemisms, with Fake Protectors running around lying about supposed sainthoods all over the place.
The engineers have submitted a draft environmental document for state review.
We have submitted a detailed response which is outlined in the final section of this, the third report in a series.
This third report concentrates on this West Station which the engineers are trying to stall. The next report will present our alternative proposal to West Station, Commuter Rail and MIT’s private off ramp from I90.
Here, on general principles, are the plans for the future home of Harvard Medical School, and associated uses.
I90 is the thick curved area at the bottom of the triangle.
The Grand Junction and existing Commuter Rail facilities would follow the pretty double broken line below it. The two thicker lines below the area marked “12" would be West Station.
Here is an aerial photo of the area closest to the turf of the Charles River White Geese. On the far side of the Charles River are the Magazine Beach playing fields which have been their home for most of the last 37 years. The photo looks at the above area from a distance. It is the wide area at the top of the highway. The super highway you are looking at enters the above diagram from the bottom right. The Grand Junction is under it.
I think that is the Grand Junction going under I90 just above the bottom edge of the photo and to the right of I90.
The ghetto of the Charles River White Geese through, which the Grand Junction passes, is across the river and to the right.
And here is a photo of the portion of the project which includes the Charles River White Geese.
I90 is in the upper right corner. The ghetto to which the Charles River White Geese are no confined is at the bottom left. MIT’s private I90 exit would merge with the Grand Junction railroad bridge which is the lower of the two bridges and run to the bottom right, exactly the route of the Commuter Rail which also has been defeated in the past and is being now fought for with usual Cambridge con games.
II. DEIR Comments, Section 3.A. A whole bunch of bad things with regard to West Station.
3. Properly planned, the project can reduce the existing overloading on the Red Line.
A. West Station should be trashed along with the publicly defeated Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction concept.
(1) Introductory.
(2) Trash it on railroad management grounds.
(a) Stations too close together.
(b) Projections for both adjacent stations are so low that delaying long distance commuters makes no sense.
(3) Trash West Station on grounds that it has been sold to well meaning people on an unsound basis.
(4) Statement that the project “does not preclude implementation of rapid transit services” is not true.
(5) Commuter Rail Shuttles from Longwood are Nonsense.
(6) Trash West Station on the grounds that the interests in Cambridge fighting for it are attempting to achieve, basically in secret, a goal they have been PROPERLY denied when their project was presented in light of day.
(a) General.
(b) This Outrageous Goal: Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction.
(i) No value to anybody but Kendall ‒ MassDOT Finding, when they were allowed responsible community input.
(ii) Environmentally destructive because it would block 7 major intersections, create major inconvenience to drivers, and create pollution from vehicle exhaust, waiting for commuter train passage.
(iii) Environmentally destructive because it would devastate the last visible animal habitat on this portion of the Charles River.
3. Properly planned, the project can reduce the existing overloading on the Red Line.
A. West Station should be trashed along with the publicly defeated Commuter Rail in Cambridge concept.
(1) Introductory.
The MassDOT organizers have been following directions of the Cambridge Development Department who lost when it last fought for Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction because of large numbers of Cambridge residents who fought the interference of Commuter Rail with major Cambridge traffic arteries. The CDD has solved this problem by telling MassDOT NOT TO PRESENT the proposal to people in areas who killed Commuter Rail. Such tactics are distressingly typical of the CDD during the three manager City Manager Machine.
Such tactics are antithetical to the responsible government Cambridge voters are constantly told they have.
The responsible solution is to trash West Station and, instead, proceed with meaningful rapid transit, the Green Line A spur which we first suggested to the Advisory Committee in 2014 / 2015. The concept is presented in detail below, including graphics presented to the Advisory Committee..
It is our understanding that there are significant numbers of people objecting to delay of West Station. We have three basic comments on the matter, as stated in subsections (2) through (4).
(2) Trash it on railroad management grounds.
I, personally, have two years railroad experience at an administrative / managerial level, including 6 months actual on the ground experience, and a lot of experience using Commuter Rail.
(a) Stations too close together.
The reality is that the proximity of the station at Boston Landing / New Balance to West Station is so close that adding another station at West Station is, from a railroad management point of view, nonsense.
The purpose of a Commuter Rail System is to transport commuters in an efficient, prompt manner at a level of service which makes Commuter Rail a viable option to the users of the system. The addition of West Station creates two stations in such close proximity that they very simply do not have the value to the system that two stations must have to justify their existence. They are so close together that there is no meaningful difference in the system, and the combination needlessly slows down people from areas which need Commuter Rail. The proximity of the stations is such that buses or rapid transit make the only sensible use for passenger needs in the Allston / Cambridge area, rather than a second station.
(b) Projections for both adjacent stations are so low that delaying long distance commuters makes no sense.
Additionally, projected usage both on West Station and Boston Landing / New Balance are so low (DEIR table 5.9.3) in comparison to Yawkey that there is a very real question as to whether either station makes sense. The MBTA is slowing down people coming from Worcester, Framingham, and other long distances to drop off this tiny amount of people? THIS IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF COMMUTER RAIL.
(3) Trash West Station on grounds that it has been sold to well meaning people on an unsound basis.
We have attended as many Working Group and general public meetings as we have been aware of, and able to attend. We have requested that we be informed of working group meetings. We have not been so informed. We have attended, to our understanding, all Working Group meetings that we have been aware of.
We have attempted to assist the Working Group in its duties. That assistance has included formal presentation of the Green Line A concept which we will go into below.
The reality is that, whether intentional or not, MassDOT has sold residents a bill of goods on West Station.
Residents want rapid transit. Residents have been told that West Station will provide them the Rapid Transit they need. That is very simply not the case. Commuter Rail is intercity transportation. Use of intercity transportation for transportation within cities is, for the most part, silly.
West Station cannot do the job it has been sold to residents as doing. Since it cannot do the job it has been sold to residents as doing, it makes no sense to build it.
(4) Statement that the project “does not preclude implementation of rapid transit services” is not true.
Green Line A, described below, which we formally presented to the Working Group in 2014 / 2015, will do the job residents have been told would be done by West Station. Green Line A could be prevented if allowances are not made to allow it to be built in such a manner as it should be built.
The DEIR, chapter 9, page 2 provides a very unsatisfactory response to this issue in its answer to the first sample question on West Station.
The question in part reflects the constant push for Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction in spite of its resounding defeat when presented other than behind closed doors.
While the plans allow Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction in the future, the plans could prevent meaningful implementation of a Green Line A. The situation gets worse because Harvard has been doing the usual fight for Harvard’s goals, people talking oh so sweetly.
Harvard is pushing for a reverse Red Line fork out of Harvard Station originating, according to the pitch, from Porter Station. The Harvard proposal would be EXTREMELY expensive, Deep Bore Construction, with a major rebuild of Harvard Station. It would amount to a private shuttle from Harvard Station to Harvard Medical School, to somewhere around the Longwood Medical Area.
Green Line A would provide transportation which the neighbors are demanding and have been given the incorrect impression that they are getting. However, the I90 work could prevent it and leave the Commonwealth with no choice other than the horribly expensive option that Harvard is floating, with transportation for the neighbors only to the extent they walk to the new Harvard Medical School.
(5) Commuter Rail Shuttles from Longwood are Nonsense.
There was a slide in the MassDOT presentation on the DEIR which seemed to project ridership based on shuttles from the Longwood Medical Area. It is our understanding that Brookline people are highly disturbed about such buses running through Brookline.
Longwood is half a mile from Yawkey Station, also on the Worcester line. The trip from Longwood to West Station sounds like something like three miles. Additionally, existing shuttles, and many MBTA buses, to Kenmore should be readily adaptable to providing service to Commuter Rule users. Existing service goes past Yawkey Station. A quick stop on Brookline Avenue just before I90 at that point would do the trick very effectively.
The managers at Longwood would have to be extremely incompetent to run Commuter Rail shuttles to West Station.
Added to this analysis should be the still pending Inner Belt Rapid Transit discussions. Inner Belt Rapid Transit should most definitely be provided as a spur out of Ruggles with service from Downtown Orange Line stations to Longwood at Louis Pasteur and Longwood Avenue, and then to the Kenmore / Yawkey superstation.
(6) Trash West Station on the grounds that the interests in Cambridge fighting for it are attempting to achieve, basically in secret, a goal they have been PROPERLY denied when their project was presented in light of day.
(a). General.
People on the opposite side from the Fake Protectors defeated Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction when it was MEANINGFULLY AND PUBLICLY studied by MassDOT.
So now, after the CDD was publicly defeated in open discussion in front of MassDOT, the CDD is telling MassDOT to ONLY go to the CDD’s friends to discuss the Mass. Pike (I90) rebuild, and not to talk to the people who defeated the CDD and its friends when they publicly proposed Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction.
Notwithstanding this, the people who lost when MassDOT studied Grand Junction Commuter Rail use have had representatives at the Working Group meetings appointed by the Cambridge Development Department, the people who lost the last time. And people who were very visible fighting for the destruction of hundreds of trees on Memorial Drive are suddenly appointed, AS BOSTON RESIDENTS, to the same committee.
So the people who lost the last time are surreptitiously attempting to reverse a decision made in public by secret maneuverings in a group which claims to have no jurisdiction outside of the rebuilding of I90 in Allston.
Irresponsible, but dirty tricks of this sort are normal in Cambridge politics.
MassDOT has considered use of the Grand Junction for commuter rail. IN PUBLIC.
MassDOT saw a lot of people who strongly objected. MassDOT found that Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction makes no sense.
The only thing that has changed is that, THIS TIME, MassDOT has only talked to people delivered to MassDOT by a fake group which ejects people from its ListServe if they make comments or offer to make comments on their ListServe contrary to the wishes of bureaucrats of the City of Cambridge or to others with comparable goals.
MassDOT should have shared its ideas in public, not in secret meetings managed by people who have a record of running around telling folks only to look at what they want folks to know about, and not to look at the things this fake group wants to keep secret. But the entity referred by the CDD does tend to praise the CDD, which, in turn, has told MassDOT only to deal with these folks who praise CDD.
MassDOT should be communicating with the Cambridge City Council, preferably in meetings telecast to constituents on Cambridge Cable. Talking to essentially secret meetings which do not really even claim to represent areas which would be harmed is unacceptable, but that is what has been done.
(b) This outrageous goal: Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction.
(i) No value to anybody but Kendall ‒ MassDOT Finding, when were allowed responsible community input.
The only thing that has changed from the formal study of Commuter Rail by MassDOT is that the Cambridge Development Department has told MassDOT not to talk with the responsible people MassDOT talked with when MassDOT killed it the last time.
The finding then was that Commuter Rail has no value to anybody other than Kendall Square interests, and the advocates are exactly making ONLY THAT POINT, that it has value to Kendall Square. They are making no claims that we are aware of, that Commuter Rail up the Grand Junction has any value EXCEPT to Kendall Square / M.I.T.
(ii) Environmentally destructive because it would block seven major intersections, create major inconvenience to drivers and create pollution from vehicle exhaust, waiting for commuter train passage.
Here is a state map of the Grand Junction with intersections marked which are negatively affected by Commuter Rail.
This was the secondary argument which killed Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction when responsible contact with Cambridge was ALLOWED BY CAMBRIDGE.
Commuter Rail would create a vehicular nightmare on the major streets it would cross, with associated increase in pollution and very major interference with transportation viability on the streets of Cambridge.
Railroad planning for the past 50 years or so has been antithetical to such outrageous interference with public streets in populous areas. But, in the dead or night, forces of Cambridge are trying to force such irresponsible design on a population which has defeated it when the cause has been publicly fought for.
(iii) Environmentally destructive because it would devastate the last visible animal habitat on this portion of the Charles River.
There is only one tiny area on this part of the Charles where corrupt tactics by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the City of Cambridge have yet to kill off animal habitat. Running of commuter rail through this area would be devastating, both in the wild area east of the Grand Junction and in the area to which the Charles River White Geese, the most visible victims have been confined.
Photos and plans detailing destruction plans are provided below in our analysis of the real game going on, M.I.T.’s planned update to the Inner Belt project which was killed 40 years ago. Since it was killed 40 years ago as a result of public discussion, it is being done with maximum secrecy now, using all sorts of stalking horse arguments.
Cambridge has its own destructive plans which have been progressed with comparable secrecy. The MassDOT Davis letter forwards the plan, as just one excellent example of bad faith.
The Davis MassDOT letter seems to have obviously been written by the Cambridge Development Department with “supporting” letters from the City Council and City Manager. Massive habitat destruction was obfuscated by misleading tactics inflicted on the entities who had “support” pushed in front of them without meaningfully being told what they were supported.
And the letter’s principal visible function was to raise questions about a vote impacting the River Street Bridge which, according to MassDOT had the principal writer on the opposite side from the side she gives the impression she supports while in reality fighting for the outrages on the Charles River.
Please see sections 5 and 6 for analyses of the heartless animal abuse, and of M.I.T.’s updated Inner Belt proposal. These analyses are also applicable here.
III. Marked up Index.
This will be a customary feature, to show where our reports on the blog fit into the document we filed for a February 9, deadline concerning the Draft Environmental Impact Review (DEIR, I think).
1. Introduction.
A. Maneuvering with maximum secrecy by forces in Cambridge who cannot win in broad daylight.
B. The Issues.
2. Properly planned, the project can reduce traffic on Memorial Drive and elsewhere.
END OF REPORT 1, posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/highway-rebuilding-i90-on-charles-river.html.
Summary Report present in REPORT 2: http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/highway-rebuilding-i90-on-charles-river_11.html
3. Properly planned, the project can reduce the existing overloading on the Red Line.
A. West Station should be trashed along with the publicly defeated Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction concept.
(1) Introductory.
(2) Trash it on railroad management grounds.
(a) Stations too close together.
(b) Projections for both adjacent stations are so low that delaying long distance commuters makes no sense.
(3) Trash West Station on grounds that it has been sold to well meaning people on an unsound basis.
(4) Statement that the project “does not preclude implementation of rapid transit services” is not true.
(5) Commuter Rail Shuttles from Longwood are Nonsense.
(6) Trash West Station on the grounds that the interests in Cambridge fighting for it are attempting to achieve, basically in secret, a goal they have been PROPERLY denied when their project was presented in light of day.
(a) General.
(b) This Outrageous Goal: Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction.
(i) No value to anybody but Kendall ‒ MassDOT Finding, when they were allowed responsible community input.
(ii) Environmentally destructive because it would block 7 major intersections, create major inconvenience to drivers, and create pollution from vehicle exhaust, waiting for commuter train passage.
(iii) Environmentally destructive because it would devastate the last visible animal habitat on this portion of the Charles River.
B. Far superior and far more responsible than Commuter Rail on the Grand Junction would be a new Green Line A Spur running from Commonwealth Avenue and the B.U. Bridge to the main work site in Allston to Harvard Square, which should be enthusiastically supported..
(1) General.
(2) Harvard Square.
(3) Summary.
4. Two of the three “throat” options are destructive to the Charles River or to Cambridge. Cambridge destruction not documented in any analysis.
A. Architects’ (ABC) Proposal ‒ Outrageous Destruction of Boston River Bank.
B. Both non MassDOT Proposals ‒ Massive Destruction in Cambridge, Destruction ignored in DEIR.
5. Impact on Wildlife / Selected examples of Heartless Animal Abuse.
A. Direct Application.
B. A terrible record being made worse.
6. The Real Game ‒ M.I.T.’s Updated Inner Belt.
