Chaos in Massachusetts Charity Regulation

 We have previously reported on excellent experiences with Governor Healey, who has stepped in and taken steps to start to undo the very terrible things state and local bureaucrats have done to the Charles River and its residents.

Unfortunately, we have come to what used to be a routine part of the year, annual registration with the Attorney General.  Governor Healey was previously the Attorney General.  Things went very nicely with her as Attorney General.

The new Attorney General has created a nightmare.  One thing which is clear is that the new regimen is biased against non Anglo names.  Thus they have immediately misspelled my name, and will make it a nightmare to get correct spelling.

Here are a couple of comments on such "improvements."

* * * * *

That's the state all right. Their "help" is quite useless. I did find this in my archive of my odyssey with the imbeciles, hope it may help

FROM https://www.mass.gov/guides/guide-to-the-department-of-revenue-your-taxpayer-bill-of-rights#-getting-information-

I need help resolving an ongoing problem with DOR. Is there someone who can help me?

Most issues can be handled by the Contact Center Bureau via phone or e-mail; however, if you have a problem that began before the current tax year and has not been settled after at least two contacts with the Department, call or write DOR's Problem Resolution Office (PRO). More recent problems should be handled either through the bureau involved or through the Contact Center.

PRO was established specifically to help taxpayers whose problems have not been resolved in a reasonable amount of time; staff can research your problem and make sure that it is solved as quickly as possible. Once you contact PRO and your case is accepted, a PRO staff person will be assigned to assist you with all aspects of your case until your problem is resolved.

If you need special help resolving a problem, please call PRO at (617) 626-3833 or write to the office at PO Box 9552, Boston, MA 02114-9552. Correspondence may be faxed to PRO at (617) 626-3799.

You also can seek resolution to an ongoing problem by contacting the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/dor-office-of-the-taxpayer-advocate This office was created to ensure that taxpayer concerns are addressed fairly and expeditiously at the executive level. The Taxpayer Advocate is DOR's ombudsman, and acts as an independent voice in reviewing protracted individual cases. The Advocate works to ensure that taxpayers are afforded their rights in all communications with the Department.

To contact the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, please call (617) 626-2280, or write to the office at PO Box 9550, Boston, MA 02114-9550.

* * * * *

that's what the system  *did to me the first time, I think it was. Had a long conversation with the state guy (who behaved like he was talking to an imbecile), got a password and so on, put it in and it said "unrecognized." As it happened that fellow had me set up a sales tax account WITHOUT telling me I had to set up first a personal account to add it to. The second time the guy said, all's well, we'll call and email you with a new login code, never did hear back from them. Third time was the charm for the personal account, gave up on adding the sale tax registration as there was no link to do so where there was supposedly one to use!

Good luck, it'll get straightened out eventually. They just make you jump through hoops. But if they truthfully called it the Mass. Dept. of Sadism, the peasants might get rowdy.

Cyncial, that's me. we seem to be living in an age of, well i don;t know what to call it, just crazy upside-down

* * * *

Fundraiser Portal

 

From:

ma_charities_donotreply@mass.gov

To:

boblat@yahoo.com

Fri, Apr 19 at 3:20 PM

Hi Robert,

            Welcome to MA Public Charities Filing Portal! To get started, go to https://masscharities.my.site.com/FundraiserPortal/login?c=VqDtndpI4vYYtNVU6xnM2CZEb2Q5mOz.dsGUQpWg1PlAVKYXT_n5XJwoHo1l3vnuiAvckDhzlcBDZcPlUAoe6NI7GzoMzdxJIRnmv2SUy9ZcPDxI.Ws8nQXdOs1RT72KT_IzLKuPuRJpz3nq8lwYXsSXzkQk9wS9gjJ3FgopggqTcIExtljxEJ9EumswCQFxAPafCnmj

            Username: boblat@yahoo.com

            Thanks,

            Massachusetts Office of Attorney General

* * * * *

When I get around to it, I will scan and print out and publish the 12 pages of instructions.

One key piece of information is that the public charity is not allowed to have its own account, as near as I can get it.  It seems to require at least two accounts, or maybe three.  One thing is clear:  non anglo names will be mangled..  

I really do not know if it will be possible to file in time with the deadline.  The instructions allow for retroactive payment of the annual filing fee for at least five years.

But remember.  The current governor was the previous Attorney General.  She immediately got things done as govenor without a nightmare and her incumbency as attorney general was comparable..

Photos of BU Bridge Rotary and Related, Cambridge, MA / Charles River.

Photos of BU Bridge Rotary and Related, Cambridge, MA / Charles River.

1. New Photos.

We have three new photos for you, a rush hour scene of the BU Bridge Rotary, a felled tree near the overpass I showed being “Storrowed” last time, and a new photo of the Charles River White Geese.

First of all, to place things in perspective, here is the Drone Photo of our principal area:

"From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw

2. Charles River White Geese.

A. Report and photo

* * * *

Two whites were among the Canada geese on the Charles River.  

They were off the gravelly area next to the observation deck.

That was a nice photo op. they came in close to the shore to see if I had any food for them and the sun was sparkling in the water so nicely around them.

B. Location in the drone photo.

Starting at the left end of the BU Bridge, the open space below it is the environmentally responsible MWRA plant.  The brownish color is probably out of season grass.

It is surrounded by trees.  The next open area in the main parking lot for the Magazine Beach recreation area.  Then there is a softball field which is part of the Magazine Beach playing fields..

During the outrages inflicted by Cambridge and the state bureaucrats, they walled off the Magazine Beach playing fields with a row of introduced bushes which were allowed to grow to heights exceeding 13 feet.  They thus turned the playing fields into a situation where the playing fields might as well be ten miles from the Charles River.  That wall, in 2008, commenced years of heartless abuse of the Charles River White Geese from their principal feeding area for most of their residence on the Charles River, the Magazine Beach playing fields.

In 2008, the two also introduced poisons onto the Magazine Beach playing fields with obvious problems for resident animals.

A lot of games have been inflicted on that opening, primarily as part of the continuing heartless abuse of the Charles River.  A nonsensical pond was introduced.  Over the pond was placed a bridge which was too weak and narrow to support vehicle which had transported boats to the Charles River at that location.  That “bridge” thus was another barrier to boat use of the Charles River from Magazine Beach.  This barrier was to boats larger than a canoe.

The Charles River White Geese loved the introduced pond, and used it, horrors, to get food from grass on either side of the parking lot.  With the contempt of governmental entities for resident animals, that could not be allowed.  So the pond was drained and converted into sloping wetlands and another wall of bushes was introduced between the introduced wetlands and the parking lot keeping the Charles River White Geese from that parking lot.

Most recently, the Cambridge City Council, in an essentially SECRET action, “improved” the opening by splattering gravel which would be offensive to web feet and putting in a new wall, an observation deck.  The lie to explain this SECRET was that they were creating a canoe dock.  Since they did not change the bizarre “bridge” which in reality was a wall for boat larger than canoes, they created nothing.

The photo was taken from the gravel area.

3. BU Bridge Rotary..

A. Photo.

In the drone photo, the BU Bridge Rotary is to the left of the BU Bridge.

The report:

* * * *

The picture shows two #47 buses bulling their way through the daily 4:30 traffic jam at the BU bridge rotary. The two together is so typical of how the T runs buses (and trains). One is late, so everyone jams on it when it finally arrives, then another appears right behind it after the first one is loaded and runs mostly empty. The schedule may call for a bus every 20 minutes but you get two with a 40 minute gap between, essentially. On the 47 route sometimes the driver won’t even stop to pick up people waiting at a stop, which is really bad for those who rely on the T to get in to work on time. Don’t know if this happens on other lines but I’ve seen and experienced this, as the 47 goes right down Pearl Street and I used to use it quite a bit. Quite a ride, though, for the price, long route all the way to Southie via Roxbury

* * * *

The near bus is approaching the BU Bridge Rotary from Brookline Street, Cambridge.  Beyond the Yield sign is the other bus, going under Memorial Drive..

The Yield sign is for the BU Bridge Rotary.  The ramp from the rotary to Memorial Drive Westbound can barely be seen beyond it.  Memorial Drive is overhead.  The buildings visible under Memorial Drive are on the far side of the Charles River, very certainly Boston University. Structures look closer than they are because of telephoto distortion.

* * * *

B. . Continued Thanks to Governor Healey.

Kitty Corner from the ramp in this picture is the entrance to the Destroyed Nesting Area of the, Charles River White Geese.  Governor Healey arranged for that entrance to be reopened.  All that can be seen from the blockage is one lone barrel.  Governor Healey reopened this entrance to allow the 43 year resident Charles River White Geese to regain access to the luscious grass under Memorial Drive at that point.  That much LESS heartless abuse by the Cambridge City Council and selected state bureaucrats.

C. Continued Target of the Cambridge City Council and, maybe, state bureaucrats.

Walking up the ramp and crossing over the Grand Junction Railroad bridge, you come to the Wild Area.  I have repeatedly presented a winter view of the Charles River White Geese swimming in the bay next to the Wild Area in the worst of winters.  Here is a view from the BU Bridge, from about halfway across the bridge behind the above photo.

Memorial Drive can just barely be seen over the Grand Junction railroad.  The trees on the left are the Destroyed Nesting area of the Charles River White Geese.  Kitty corner across the DNA is the view in the immediately preceding photo.  The most recent plans of the relevant state bureaucrats that I am aware of show exactly one tree in that area.  My video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o goes into an extended analysis of these plans.  The plans reported in the video resulted in the destruction of hundreds of trees on the Charles River running from the white Boston University building in this photo to the second bridge east of the BU Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge.  This limit was a pleasant deletion.  The Cambridge City Manager condemned int this video has, thankfully, retired.

Recent maneuvers have been telling.  The state bureaucrats had plans to destroy on the Charles River starting with the Wild Area and going beyond.  They lied that the eastern end of the plans was the BU Bridge, but proved that claim a lie in slides which included the Wild Area in their definition of “BU Bridge.”  The bureaucrats backed of the  part of the plans east of the River Street Bridge (1st bridge west of the BU Bridge), but an employee of the Cambridge City Council spoke in a public ZOOM meeting to regain this destruction.  The bureaucrats gave somewhat of a concurrence, but seem to have backed off that, although their action certainly is telling.

Hopefully, Gov. Healey’s intervention will protect this area.  I have fought these outrages since 1985 with success based on non DCR entities.  Cambridge’s destructiveness does not cease, and it is impossible to tell exactly what is going on behind the scene.

The white shapes in front of the Wild Area is a flotilla of the Charles River White Geese hunting for what food has not been destroyed for them.

D. Information from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The most useful graphics of this area that I am aware of appear in a report submitted by MIT to the Cambridge City Council in 2014.

Here is part of the presentation by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the Cambridge City Council in 2014.

The photo in the bottom right is of the Grand Junction under that Memorial Drive Bridge, shown in the photo of the Wild Area above..  

Upper right is an overview of the area around the BU Bridge rotary.  At the far left is the Memorial Drive Bridge over the Grand Junction.  The top left graphics is a key map showing a broader area than the close up.

On the map, point 2 is very close to the location of the camera in the first photo above of the B.U. Bridge Rotary.  The two lines left of point 2 show the traffic flow around the BU Bridge rotary.  The further line is the area shown in that photo.

Here is a blowup of that plan:

Key in this area is the diagonal line with the 3 marking blue lines under it marked 1, the line connecting to the 2, and the curved line IN THE DESTROYED NESTING AREA marked 4.

Line 3 is supposedly a bike highway.  It is a stalking horse for a private off ramp from Interstate I90, visible above the Charles River in the drone photo above and at the beginning of the next section.  The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Company in 2003 proposed that an exit be created from I90 for a nonsensical express bus route.  Once proving it could be done, the MBTA “suddenly” discovered the expense could be justified for an express bus.

The proposed highway would connect to Memorial Drive heading east bound by destroying the Wild Area, and to Memorial Drive heading westbound by an off ramp running past the number 3 and connecting to the BU Bridge Rotary.  Looking at the drone photo above and at the beginning of the next section, the big highway at the bottom of the photo is I90.  There is a side road in I90 to the left of the BU Bridge, and the railroad can be seen going under the BU Bridge.  The game proposed was to widen the railroad by cantilever construction and build ramps in two directions around that side road including the large unbuilt area on the opposite side of I90 to get connection to and from the west, i.e. the left, in the photo.

That stalking horse bike highway appears to have been funded.  It supposedly will CONNECT to the mess at the BU Bridge Rotary shown in the above photo.  “Suddenly” the “planners would discover the mess and say they have to connect to the I90 area described in the MBTA plans.  ALL SORT OF GAMES have been tried by organized people in the planning for I90's rebuild.  Naturally, after the smoke has clearly with bike highway and the RELATED widening of the railroad bridge, suddenly somebody will discover what a great off ramp that will make to MIT and MIT’s speculative development.

LAST I HEARD, MassDOT had rejected those games, BUT I HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE LOOP FOR YEARS.

The blue lines under the supposed bike highway are marked by the number 2.  Near the upper right corner is the connection MIT proposed in this plan.  MIT seems to be in the process of destroying that connection for another dormitory, with help of property maneuverings by the Cambridge City Council which were essentially secret.

Connecting to the bend in that blue road (Vassar Street) at the middle of the plan by a taking of a parking lot between the bend and the supposed bike highway will satisfy the “suddenly needed” connection for the bike highway.  Review of the aerial photo above in the combined MIT page shows the viability.  There is an open area parking lot under the bend which could be partially taken to put in platform parking to replace the parking lost.

The route marked 4 is MIT’s exposure of a highway in planning through the Destroyed Nesting Area.

4. Tree Destruction between the two overpasses.

A. The drone photo cropped to the overpass.

Here is the drone photo cropped to the overpass..

The overpass is the almost vertical line at the left.  Morse School is to its right above Memorial Drive.  The trees at the bottom are at the northwest corner of the Magazine beach playing fields.

Here is a tree destroyed from nature combining with neglect, photo with commentary.  Apparent distances are confused by the lens used.

* * * * *

here's another photo of the stressed trees along the Drive (opposite the school) that just blew down in the past few days

* * * *

The green figure to the left is the overpass.  Straight ahead is, first, Memorial Drive, and then Cambridge’s Morse School, also shown in the blowup.

5. Our 50 page report.

Presented to the Cambridge City Council, Governor Healey and others.  Cite is to the City Council records.  This document is the basis for the clean up of the food access of the Charles River White Geese at the on ramp to Memorial Drive east from the BU Bridge Rotary.  It also provides photos with more detail than have been possible in this report.

https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, Pages 2654 to 2713, Communication 177, City Council, 6/26/23.

Plus a very distressing list of horrors from Cambridge and state bureaucrats.

Update on recent Cambridge, MA / Charles River Photos

 Update on recent Cambridge, MA / Charles River Photos.

1. Central Square Revisited

2. Memorial Drive at Magazine Beach, box truck being “Storrowed”

1. Central Square Revisited

I recently passed on a particular outrage in Central Square, Cambridge, business as usual in spite of environmental nonsense.

About 8 excellent Locust Trees were destroyed, probably to brag about the “replacements” while keeping the destruction silent.  The number may include one or two different varieties outside the planters.

Officially, this location from which these excellent trees were destroyed is called “Carl Barron Plaza.”  I understand that Wikipedia has “late 1980's” for the creation of the plaza, and thus for the planting of the Locust Trees.

We do not seem to have before pictures for the plaza more recently..  

We, however, have been provided the following two photos for Locust Trees planted in 1991 at 11-15 Green Street, east of Central Square and a block south in the notorious Simplex area acres of former industrial properties which MIT converted to a many acre wasteland for speculation.  MIT did not evict anybody.  They simply did not replace industrial  tenants as tenants moved out, 

In the first photo, the Locust Trees are on the right, in front of 11-15 Green Street.

A closer view from the opposite direction.

2. Memorial Drive at Magazine Beach, box truck being “Storrowed”

The Boston media are particularly fond of reporting box trucks being “Storrowed,” trying to drive on the Boston boulevard following the Charles River, Storrow Drive.  They are warned of low bridges and keep on driving with fully predictable results, thus "Storrowed."

Magazine Beach has its own access bridge running over Cambridge’s Charles River boulevard, Memorial Drive.  This bridge was rebuilt with a whole bunch of games.  One thing that I thought was a lie was the height warning.  I figured the rebuilding had been intended to be higher and that a warning sign was a lie to fool Cambridge residents into thinking the blockage continued.

My guess appears to have been wrong.  Here is a box truck Storrowed at the Magazine Beach overpass.

Here is the drone photo I have used to place things at Magazine Beach.  

The Destroyed Nesting Area of the 43 year resident Charles River White Geese is just beyond the BU Bridge on the Cambridge Side of the Charles River.  In the middle is the Magazine Beach playing fields on which the Charles River White Geese fed for most of their residence, until the heartless City of Cambridge and state bureaucrats introduced poisons and created the Starvation Wall which separated the playing fields so that they might as well be ten miles from the Charles River.

The bridge where the truck is being “Storrowed” is barely visible to the far left, slightly below the middle.  This still is taken from “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw

Here is a blow up. The overpass is the almost vertical white line at the far left.  Below it is the Magazine Beach playing fields.  Apparently to its right is Cambridge’s Morse School, an elementary school.

Winter on the Charles River, Cambridge, MA, USA

 RE: Winter on the Charles River, Cambridge, MA, USA

1. Magazine Beach this week.

2. Misleading self-praise from Cambridge.

A. The con.

B. PART OF the reality.

3. Drone View.

1. Magazine Beach this week.

We have received the following photos and comments from the Charles River:

● A crew replaced a broken water pipe (goes to fire hydrant, I believe) on Magazine Beach today, most unusual sight

Ed:  This is the grove of large trees at the eastern end of the Magazine Beach recreation area.  The Destroyed Nesting Area is a few hundred feet to the right.  The brick structure running horizontally beyond the grove is the Memorial Drive overpass which is connected to the BU Bridge by a ramp system on either side of the  bridge and the BU Bridge Rotary under the bridge.  The food mentioned in the next section of this report is below Memorial Drive just beyond the BU Bridge rotary.  Covered by snow to the right of the grove is the primary parking area for Magazine Beach.  The grey shape is a car going from the parking area to the nearest ramp.  In section 3 I provide a drone overview of the area.

● I interrupted this fine fellow today (a juvenile Cooper's Hawk) hunting a bunny bigger than himself. He gave me the eye for a while, trying to decide if I might be tasty too.

2. Misleading self-praise from Cambridge.

A. The con.

A city magazine for its voters includes the traditional level con on the environment..

Self-praise was heavily present for its planting of trees.

This is a continuing con game.  The City Manager's name is on the magazine.  Clearly it would have been written by the destructive Development Department.

For years, Cambridge bragged about being a Tree City USA.

The con was and continues to be:

● The usual environmental bragging is about class patronage for contractors.

They are bragging about all the trees they are planting.

● The usual DEADLY environmental destruction is kept silent, class patronage for contractors.

Cambridge keeps as secret as possible the continuing, outrageous destruction of the environment, which looks like class patronage for contractors in the opposite direction.  

While bragging about paying contractors for saplings, they have long kept as secret as possible the unnecessary destruction of the environment primarily with benefit for contractors, at the same time as outrageous destruction, planting saplings to “replace” mature trees which should not have been destroyed in the first place.

The next step in the destruction will, of course, be “new trees,” WITHOUT mentioning the destruction.

This con is a dominant factor is the outrages on the Charles River.

B. PART OF the reality.

● Here is my 29 minute video / slide show on the outrageous destruction of hundreds of trees between the BU and Longfellow Bridges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o. 

● Here is my CONCISE summary of outrages I have lived through on the Charles River, including very prominently PART of the heartless abuse of the 43 year resident tourist attraction, the Charles River White Geese.

From the official records of the Cambridge City Council:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713, City Council communication 177, City Council Meeting, 6/26/23.

The real benefit from this summary is that I gave a copy to Governor Healey who through a representative gave me a name at the Department of Conservation and Recreation to whom to provide the report.  That person, would appear to have undone part of the outrages, as stated in detail below.

● My report to the Cambridge City Council on the ongoing and increasing destruction of 60 to 65 mostly excellent trees and animal habitat at Magazine Beach on the Charles River.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/charles-river-state-destruction-plans.html.  Blog version, 12/16/2018, Re-submittal to Cambridge City Council, December 17, 2018.

The City Council has proceeded to play games as secretly as possible, through bizarre SECRET votes on the banks of the Charles River which included “public” review by burying the actions among a large, very varied collection of programs.

● My recent report on a reversal of PART of the heartless abuse of the 43 year resident tourist attraction, the Charles River White Geese, thank to intercession by Massachusetts Governor Healey. 12/24/23, following up on the large condensed report of destruction cited above.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/deluge-on-charles-river-extreme-cold.html.

● My report on Cambridge’s destruction of the excellent grove of trees which adorned Cambridge Central Square.  1/5/24.

https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/update-on-recent-cambridge-ma-usa.html.  

Coming up, they will, as usual, brag about the “replacements” of these mature trees.

3. Drone View.

We have published a lot of drone photos of the world of the Charles River White Geese, under attack by destructive bureaucrats at the state level and by the environmentally destructive City of Cambridge.

Our source is “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw.

Here is a good drone overview taken from the Boston side of the Charles River, above Harvard’s coming Allston Village campus in planning..

The larger area beyond the Charles River is the Magazine Beach playing fields.  This area was the principal habitat of the 43 year resident Charles White Geese until state bureaucrats and the environmental vile City of Cambridge started their destruction, including heartless starvation of these beautiful and valued birds.

Note the GREEN EDGE of the Magazine Beach playing fields.  This is the Starvation Wall  imposed on the Charles River White Geese which is hated by people who love the Charles River and who want to visit it.  ON THE BANKS OF THE CHARLES RIVER, the Starvation Wall made the playing fields as remote from the Charles River as if it were ten miles away.  More importantly from the point of view of these irresponsible government entities, the Starvation Wall keeps the Charles River White Geese from their food for most of the last 43 years, food which these terrible ;people started poisoning in 2008, after it had been pristine for the better part of a century.

The baseball field in the middle of the picture is just below the grove in the above picture.  To its right is an environmentally responsible sewage treatment plant of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.  The MWRA brought the distant ancestors of the Charles River White Geese to the Charles River to sound the alarm against trespassers after the MWRA’s guard dogs passed away.

Just beyond the MWRA plant is the BU Bridge, the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese and the Wild Area.  

The Wild Area has been under attack by Cambridge and its apologists since at least 1986, a few years after the first arrival of the Charles River White Geese. 

The Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese and the Wild Area are the last remaining havens of nature in this part of the Charles River.  They are the thick woods just beyond the BU Bridge.  Memorial Drive is just beyond.  I have been fighting to protect these areas since 1986, with major success as pointed out in the 50 page summary to which Governor Healey has impressively responded.  

Under Memorial Drive just beyond where the BU Bridge reaches Memorial Drive is the vestige of food which Governor Healey has returned to the Charles River White Geese.

Update on recent Cambridge, MA, USA, environmental activity.

 Update on recent Cambridge, MA, USA, environmental activity.

1. Introduction.

2. Technical Correction and related.

3. Follow Up.

4. Recent view of former excellence.

1. Introduction.

A week ago, I praised Massachusetts Governor Healey for standing up to Cambridge and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation in their years long starvation attacks on the Charles River White Geese.

I concluded with a report on tree destruction by Cambridge in Central Square, perhaps a mile from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the heartlessly abused 43 year resident and tourist attraction gaggle.

2. Technical Correction and related.

At the end of the report I added:

“CAMBRIDGE just destroyed ‘eight fine healthy locus trees’ in the heart of Central Square,”

First of all, I included a typo.  The trees were locust trees.  I am not a tree expert.  I noticed the lack of a “t” and figured I could be thinking of a plague of locusts” and let it slide.  I have learned “locusts” was correct.  Additionally, there is a chance that one or more may have been another variety of tree.  Since the evidence has been destroyed, it is impossible to check, so let us be with that notation.

The casual destruction of excellence by Cambridge and the DCR is nothing less than outrageous.  It gets worse when you listen to city councilors loudly bragging of environmental sainthood.

Cambridge received a Tree City USA award for several years.  The game was that Cambridge bragged about a lot of REPLACEMENT trees planted and “neglected” to mention all the trees destroyed by Cambridge.

The most wanton outrage in recent years was the destruction of hundreds of mostly excellent trees on Memorial Drive between the BU and Longfellow Bridges, followed by the ongoing destruction of 65 (number keeps increasing) at Magazine Beach on Memorial Drive, the in season residence of the Charles River White Geese, UNTIL CAMBRIDGE AND THE DCR STARTED STARVING THEM AND OTHERWISE ABUSING THEM.  

Last I heard, the Cambridge City Council had funded the hiring of the woman who poisoned the Charles River to do the planning of the destruction of the excellent MicroCenter Grove as part of the 65 tree destruction.  A few years earlier, she provided the City Council with plans she had agreed to which would destroy that grove.  The poisoning was done as agent for the DCR, with assistance in removed destroyed excellent vegetation from Cambridge.

Planning for destruction, of course, was also with the DCR.

And the Cambridge City Council keeps up its bizarre claims of environmental sainthood.

3. Follow Up.

I have gotten the following comment:

* * * * *

I've passed by the site of the destruction a couple of times now and it just sickens me to see the stumps of those beautiful, healthy trees. There were street trees along with the ones in the raised planters, which tends to give me the idea they may have been of several species. So many street trees dying on the neighborhood streets, and here we lose these fine hardy specimens. You'd think a city as rich as Cambridge could afford to have them professionally excavated and safely moved elsewhere, at the very least.

There are two huge locusts in the yard of my neighbor behind me. One is a black locust, that bears clouds of sweet-smelling white blossoms in June (it looks like it snowed in my yard when the petals fall from the tree) and the other a honey locust that is probably a good 60' tall. Locust wood is exceptionally strong and bug resistant. When I lived on a farm many years ago there was a pasture enclosed by a locust wood fence whose posts the locals told me had been put in during the Civil War, and it was still sound.

* * * *

4. Recent view of former excellence.

Wednesday, I passed by the destroyed excellence in Central Square.

Here are two photos I took as an update: