Monday, May 30, 2011

Camb CM Group: Environmental Destruction is not Environmental Destruction unless the advocate calls it environmental destruction

1. Creation of the “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association” by the Cambridge City Manager.
2. Recent record of this City Manager Group.
A. Censorship in support of State Bureaucrats.
B. Meeting to celebrate environmental destruction.
3. The latest.
A. Protection against undesired plants.
B. Unacceptable response.
C. Notice of censorship.
D. Response.



1. Creation of the “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association” by the Cambridge City Manager.

In the recent past, I had a discussion with a friend who was working on creating a neighborhood association in Boston.

I told him: “In Cambridge, we don’t have to do that. The City Manager does it for us.”

He laughed.

One such group calls itself the “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.” Created at the request of the Cambridge City Manager’s people.

We are now informed by this group that they will censor any reference to environmental destruction unless the environmental destroyer calls her environmental destruction environmental destruction.

2. Recent record of this City Manager Group.

A. Censorship in support of State Bureaucrats.

I have previously reported the blatantly fake meeting by this group concerning the ongoing destruction at Magazine Beach.

They allowed the state bureaucrats to present their latest plans, but prohibited the public from making negative comment. They called this “neutrality.”

No negative comments allowed as to any of the ongoing or planned destruction.

B. Meeting to celebrate environmental destruction.

The following email was sent to the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association list on May 11, 2011

******

Save the Date!
Magazine Beach Clean-up and Celebration
Saturday, [ed: omitted], 9am-3pm
(rain date: Sunday, [ed: omitted])

9-12 noon Clean-up
Meet in front of the Riverside Boat Club (across from Starbucks at Microcenter Plaza) for hot coffee, cool drinks, cleanup tools, gloves and assignments.(Cleaner Uppers, please RSVP, so that we can be sure to have enough tools on hand! E-mail: lcw@thecharles.org.)

12-2 Picnic/Potluck/Barbeque to music
by Best Ever Chicken!

1-3 Learn-to-Row at the Riverside Boat Club

Bring your whole family! Bring a picnic cloth, a dish to share, frisbees, balls and badminton rackets!

Sponsored by: Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club and DCR, [ed: omitted, sounds great, as usual.]

*******
Note, once again, they censored negative comment about the Magazine Beach projects in a “Public Meeting”. Now they are sponsoring a “Celebration” on that project

3. The latest.

About the time the city and state started the totally unnecessary destruction of the core Alewife reservation, a woman put out an email denying the destruction was ongoing.

The following is her latest pitch, my response, and the notice of censorship.

A. Protection against undesired plants.

It would be very helpful to the environment, as well as to insure the health and survival of public and private gardens here in Cambridge, as well as to protect butterflies and birds [ed: long totally silent about the heartless animal by their friends] , if everyone could learn to identify some of the worst invasive weeds that love living in our fair city and then set about digging them out. All parts of these plants should be wrapped up in plastic bags and put in the trash, not in the yard waste.

And so, I will be posting alerts about certain weeds at times when they are most troublesome or at times when it is favorable for attacking them.

Some weeds that we see in Cambridge are toxic to small children and pets. Even some adults could suffer mild bouts of discomfort from these weeds by ingesting their berries or other parts of the plant.

This week one very noxious weed and one nasty pest of a weed are growing like crazy. Please be on the lookout for them and pull or dig them out if you can. If everyone just weeds around their residence or the cracks in the sidewalk or along the edge of the sidewalk near their residence, it will make a huge difference.
Weeds being featured this week are: Field Bindweed (Convolvulus) and here is a long link to a page with many photos of the nasty plant. It looks like a morning glory in a way, but don't be fooled by it. It has pointed leaves whereas the morning glory has rounded leaves. We generally see only the white convolvulus, not those colorful ones.

[ed: link omitted. They always point out the responsible one AND CENSOR THE IRRESPONSIBLE ONES..]

But the noxious weed that children should avoid is Black Swallow-wort. You'll see it growing up chain link fences now or anywhere it can climb. It will give children quite an upset stomach. And, it endangers the Monarch butterfly because, although it is in the milkweed family, it is not the milkweed plant that Monarch's use to lay their eggs and so the eggs die. It can also pose a danger to some birds. This plant must be dug out and all bits of root removed from the soil.

B. Unacceptable response.

As the City Manager's appointees were fighting to destroy the Cambridge side of the Charles River, they made lots of noises about offensive vegetation.

I recall the Boston Conservation Commission expressing its disgust for the Charles River Conservancy running around the Boston side destroying that same vegetation.

The Boston Conservation Commission was concerned about MEANINGFUL native vegetation. The Boston Conservation Commission was disgusted with the CRC's destruction.

Strange, the City Manager's appointees stopped using those nasty words shortly after the Boston Conservation Commission showed the opinion of the real world about destructiveness which is fought for by the Cambridge City Manager's appointees.

Instead, they destroyed seven acres of healthy grass at Magazine Beach for replacement by sickly stuff that needs poisons to survive. Then to keep the poisons which have no business being dumped on the banks of the Charles out of the Charles, they DECREASED the size of the playing fields at Magazine Beach. The decreases was "needed" to keep the totally unnecessary poisons out of the Charles.

And the native vegetation the CRC ran around destroying? Well that was the excuse for the bizarre wall of introduced vegetation which now keeps people at Magazine Beach from access to the Charles River. The native bordering vegetation is destroyed twice a year and the bizarre introduced stuff just keeps growing.

And then, of course, there is heartless animal abuse associated with this totally unnecessary destruction. But the supporters of destruction call themselves neutral, and it would be negative to point out that support for destruction is anything but neutral.

And there are people including the author below [ed: quoted above] who think destruction of the environment is worthy of celebrating. But we really must not let reality disrupt things, must we?

C. Notice of censorship.

Bob -- The right to express your opinion does not include misrepresenting the opinions of others. Nowhere in her statement does [omitted] favor destruction of the environment. If you want me to accept your message, please delete the phrase "including the author below."

Thank you, [omitted] (moderator)

D. Response.

How dare anybody call their celebration of environmental destruction at Magazine Beach a celebration of environmental destruction unless they admit they are celebrating environmental destruction.