This evening, May 7, 2018, the Cambridge City Council is facing a motion concerning the future of a side street very central in Harvard Square. Here are my comments on the motion.
Harvard Square / Palmer Street is one of the many locations in or near Cambridge which have seen environmental outrages from the Cambridge Development Department and the Cambridge City Council.
I place the outrage on Palmer Street in the context of the record of a highly destructive “planning” department.
This communication will not be formally viewed by the Cambridge City Council until their next formal meeting. Complicating the situation, on looking at the motion more closely, I note that I am excessively positive about the motion. That is a trouble of mine. I try to think well of these people, and it frequently is a mistake.
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Gentlemen / Ladies:
Vice Mayor Devereux, Councilor Mallon and Mayor McGovern are to be commended for Order 6 on May 7, 2018. It is my hope that order 6 passes.
The three movants stand out because, as near as I can remember, none of them have dirty hands on this matter.
Cambridge’s irresponsible “Planning” Department with, I would anticipate, support of the then City Manager and City Council, destroyed every tree on Palmer Street. The explanation then was that the trees blocked the sun.
This is an excellent example of the lack of fitness for their jobs which has for too long been demonstrated by the Cambridge Development Department.
Similar outrages include:
1. Destruction of 3.4 acres plus of the irreplaceable Silver Maple Forest at Alewife.
2. Destruction of the excellent grove on the Cambridge Common at the entrance from Harvard Square.
3. Support for and participation in planning of the destruction of hundreds of almost all excellent trees by the Department of Conservation and Recreation on Memorial Drive between the BU and Longfellow Bridges in January 2016.
4. Rather obvious drafting of the outrageous City Council Order 1 of April 24, 2017 supporting the destruction of an additional 56 mostly excellent trees at Magazine Beach, along with multiple destruction of habitat and retention of truly outrageous examples of malfeasance in office. Friends of the White Geese debunked the blatant lie of “dead or dying” used in that motion in our June 6, 2017 letter which ran 51 pages with more than a hundred graphics debunking that outrageous nonsense. We have followed with multiple updates and expansions of the June 6 letter.
5. Multiple outrages of the 2000's at Magazine Beach a significant part of the which is very clearly deliberate and heartless animal abuse, and including BUT NOT LIMITED TO the Starvation Wall of 16 foot high buses which the DCR admits is hated by the public but which the DCR and the fake protectors refuse to undo. The DCR with CAMBRIDGE MANAGEMENT OF THE PROJECT turned playing fields on the Charles River to a situation essentially identical to being ten miles from the Charles River.
Whatever is going on with the boat dock renovation is still unclear. The fake group involved routinely keeps Charles River discussions out of public view while FALSELY bragging about the great job they are doing. The falsehoods go so far as censorship by them of their listserve by expelling person or persons even OFFERING TO express ideas which conflict with the party line.
Traditionally, pretty much every initiative on the Charles River has ramped up the heartless animal abuse. The dock renovations were consistently and repeated lied to be new work. The current City Manager is to be commended for correcting the falsehoods which surrounded “new work” lies, and publicly describing the “new work” as renovation.
Three piles of sand, apparently dumped in the Magazine Beach parking lot by Cambridge, have been spread over portions of the playing fields other than used as part of the Dock Project. This use on other parts of the playing fields is a use whose justification and funding is unknown to me. The sand was marked with signs apparently from the Cambridge DPW.
TEMPORARY lowering of the Starvation Wall by volunteers resulted in stubs which so far (and in combination with other obstructions) continue the deliberate starvation of the Charles River White Geese. The photos I have provided you indicate that within six years, with the routine DCR non maintenance, the blockage of view of the Charles River will be returned to previously IN THE TINY PORTION OF THE STARVATION WALL AFFECTED by the volunteer efforts.
Those continued stubs are rather clear proof of the dishonesty of the diagram upon which funding was based, which showed unbroken ground surrounding the dock rendered useless in the 2000's, with addition of what appears to be a large concrete monstrosity.
Signs of algae infestation have appeared between the playing field and the starvation wall resulting from the blocking of the poison drainage ditches by fake protectors acting as agents for the DCR. This project clearly has received support from Cambridge because I saw DPW trucks picking up the residue from the attacks on free vegetation which fed on poisons draining through that poison drainage ditch. DCR love for use of poisons has also resulted in an annual algae infestation of the Charles River.
I could go on.
The short of it is that the Development Department destroyed every tree on Palmer Street as part of a continuing record of environmental destructiveness. This action, according to the CDD, was because they found blockage of the sun by trees unacceptable. That action almost certainly was blessed by the then City Manager and City Council.
And the destruction of every tree on Palmer Street related to this public expression of contempt for this normal function of trees directly conflicts with constant proclamations of love for trees by the Cambridge City Council.
At minimum, it would be nice to see trees on Palmer Street.
