In the middle of destruction on Magazine Beach, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is holding “hearings” on how they should destroy further on Memorial Drive.
A few restrictions.
No mention of the ongoing outrage on Magazine Beach and no mention of the destruction they will inflict as part of this plan. They want the public’s “input” and that will be called hearings on the destruction. The basis for the “input” is saccharine coated descriptions of the outrage to date.
And, oh yeah, they keep secret the area where the greatest destruction will be inflicted.
“Comments” on the public hearing are due July 25, 2019. No attachments / graphics are allowed.
Here is the comment I filed on July 24, 2019. Together with relevant graphics which can only be included by reference in the “comments”
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This change package reenforces the need to replace the Department of Conservation and Recreation on the Charles River with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
Grounds can be most concisely communicated as:
1. Destructiveness and.
2. Dishonesty.
The dishonesty of the DCR is excellently demonstrated by its most basic description of the project.
Quoting from the on line description:
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Memorial Drive Greenway Improvements, Phase III
DCR is undertaking the redesign of the Memorial Drive Greenway between the B.U Bridge and the Eliot Bridge.
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Elsewhere, it describes the outrage of Phase II as stopping at the BU Boathouse.
Thus the general description of the destruction being organized omits the animal habitat between the BU Boathouse and the BU Bridge.
Pages 43 to 49 of the slides presented at the June 25, 2019, meeting prove that statement yet another lie.
The slides and related analysis bring the project to the BU Boathouse.
The destruction plans from the January 2016 outrage are thus included:
Our video on the January 2016 outrage posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o, debunks the bizarre description of the January 2016 outrage included in the DCR slides. Massive outrageous and totally unnecessary destruction is fluffed over.
[Key description from the DCR Note the first sentence of the fine print.]
The slides from the June 25, 2016 [presentation], at pages / slides 43 to 49 belie the lie that the latest project ends at the BU Bridge.
The slides clearly show work proceeding past the Destroyed Nesting area at the BU Bridge, past the Grand Junction and past the thick woods, the Wild Area, between the Grand Junction [and the BU Boat House]..
Our video on the December 2016 outrage, at 3:53 minutes into the video present the destruction plans for this area with analysis. The DCR AND CAMBRIDGE want to destroy hundreds of trees in the Wild Area. The plans show EXACTLY one tree NOT DESTROYED, number 535.
[and the slides]
[and here is a photo of the area to the far right in these SECRET graphics, followed by a shot from the area showing in the slides.]
[Of the 38 year resident Charles River Fine Print, they have been destroying in fine print since the 2000's, the most visible of the free animals forced into this last remaining wild area in this part of the world.]
[photo from the BU Bridge. The Grand Junction is visible on its bridge BU Bridge is barely visible in lower left corner.]
[and of the magnificent tree which dominates the view from the BU Bridge, and which is on the plans to destroy (see above)]
[Here is a view of the on ramp which shows in the plans. The entrance to the Destroyed Nesting Area is immediately to the right. The doomed and excellent tree is a little bit up the ramp. Straight ahead in the picture is the Memorial Drive overpass. Remember, however, that the DCR commonly destroys things kept secret and THEY ARE KEEPING ALL DESTRUCTION SECRET.]
[and a view of the Grand Junction from the on ramp / secret work area. The Destroyed Nesting Area is to the right. The Wild Area is to the left. Straight ahead is the bridge and the Charles River.]
[Also remember, graphics are not allowed in comments.]
More destruction is admitted in the last remnants of the 38 year habitat of the Charles River White Geese which, of necessity will be used to truck all that destruction from the Wild Area, with significant harm to the animal habitat which remains in the Wild Area and to the Animal Habitat in the Destroyed Nesting Area, the final remnants of the Charles River White Geese’ habitat, along with untold less visible animals who have been crowded into this last vestige of wild life, along with whatever else gets in the way.
So the answer, the explanation, is to lie that the project starts at the BU Bridge.
For other examples of the outrages from the DCR and the City of Cambridge, please see our analysis of the DCR’s destruction plans for Magazine Beach, presented to the Cambridge City Council on June 6, 2017, posted at http://focrwg.com/agenda1.html.
The 54 mostly excellent trees doomed in these plans were increased to 56, then 58 and now, apparently 59. Our analysis of the latest part of this outrage is posted at https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2019/07/recent-photos-from-secret-destruction.html.
I could keep on going, and going, and I have in multiple communications to the City of Cambridge / Cambridge City Council. Poisons are being rerouted into the Charles River by blocking drainage which was designed to keep the poisons out of the Charles when those poisons were introduced into the playing fields as part of the 2000's outrages. Further obstacles are being built at the Magazine Beach playing fields to keep the Charles River White Geese from their food there of most of the last 38 years, plus, of course, the poisons.
And the nonstop lies of environmental sainthood.
There is so much very terrible behavior which is normal from the DCR and the City of Cambridge that it is silly here to attempt to go into it all.
One bright spot in this outrage has been MassDOT. The legislature tried to protect the Charles River from the Metropolitan District Commission’s destructiveness by splitting the Charles River between the DCR and MassDOT. MassDOT has done its job. MassDOT has been the adult in the room standing up to a lot of outrages from DCR and Cambridge. The MDC’s “planners” went to the DCR with their irresponsible plans and have been basing outrages on those plans.
MassDOT should replace the DCR on the Charles River. The nonsense from the DCR and the City of Cambridge on the Charles River should be ended, not expanded through vague Pablum which includes the false assumption that the DCR is a responsible entity.
The DCR’s “explanation” is nonsensical claims which give the false impression of professionalism
Robert J. La Trémouille
Chair, Friends of the White Geese
Post Office Box 391412
Cambridge, MA 02139
Attachments are not allowed. This comment will be posted at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/, along with full supporting documentation.
