Update from Magazine Beach.
1. Phil Reports.
2. Analysis.
A. Magazine Beach Playing Fields.
(1) Introduction of Poisons, Poisoning of the Charles River.
(2) The Starvation Wall.
B. Coming destruction of the Wild Area.
1. Phil Reports.
Last week I saw a drilling rig on Magazine Beach, near the athletic equipment area. Soil sampling, perhaps? Never saw one there before. (Phil’s photo.)
Interestingly, those reeds that some wanted to destroy are growing back very vigorously in the area that burned over last month. This while so much else is really struggling in the drought. The big cottonwoods are coming through it OK but maples and even oaks look quite stressed, with more new ones failing. (Also his photo.)
2. Analysis.
A. Magazine Beach Playing Fields.
Here is the eastern part of a previously secret Department of Conservation and Recreation map of Magazine Beach laying out destruction plans agreed to by the DCR and the Charles River Poisoner. It was submitted to the Cambridge City Council a few years ago by the Charles River Poisoner ancillary to comments to the City Council..
Near the top is Memorial Drive. At the bottom is the Charles River. Until the start of the heartless abuse of the 40 year resident tourist attraction Charles River White Geese, this was their feeding ground most of the year. It was pristine for a Century until the late 2000's when the DCR and Cambridge City Council
(1) introduced poisons into the habitat and
(2) created a bizarre wall of bushes lining the river.
These reprehensible people turned a clean waterfront area which was animal habitat into a poisoned area which might as well be ten miles from the river. The bizarre wall kept the Charles River White Geese from feeding and the poisons would have poisoned them if they did feed.
The area of the drilling is to the left of black area to the left of the figure 3. The two trees viewed in the photo show in the map to the left of the drills.
The regrowth is near the Charles River toward the bottom left corner.
The vegetation area which burned out and has now regrown is in the near rectangular area which has has a narrow connection above it. The greenery all around the area is the poison drainage facilities which the Charles River Poisoner previously blocked, causing an algae blight in the Charles River.
The green area next to the Charles River is the Starvation Wall. Recent changes in the wall next to the Charles have been accomplished in essentially SECRET votes by the Cambridge City Council. The SECRECY pattern has continued for years.
The SECRET actions have had several impacts on the Playing Fields.
(1) Introduction of Poisons, Poisoning of the Charles River.
Poisons were first introduced in the late 2000's after a Century of responsible maintenance. Dead bees have been observed in the playing fields. The area surrounding the regrowth were planted as drainage to drain off the poisons, and the DCR even has a sign bragging of the drainage in the area. (My combination of several Phil Barber Photos).
The state acting through an “activist” who is a City Council favorite who has an extended bad record and who has been repeatedly paid by the Cambridge City Council for “environmental work” blocked the poison drainage and caused an infestation of algae in the Charles River. The drainage block is my photo. This is the wide area to the right of the area of regrowth he is reporting.
Here are two photos of the algae blight in the Charles off Magazine Beach from Phil Barber.
(2) The Starvation Wall.
Pretty much entire river front of the Playing Fields as shown on the Charles River Poisoner’s map above has been blocked by a bizarre wall of bushes which turned waterfront land into land as hidden from the Charles as comparable areas miles from the Charles River.
Here is a photo of the Charles River White Geese learning that they were being starved by the creation of the Starvation Wall.
Here is a photo looking across the Charles River from the Boston / Brookline side. Note: exactly one opening. In the map from the Charles River Poisoner above, this opens to the rectangular area at the right marked 0.
The SECRET votes from the Cambridge City Council included a supposed boat dock in that opening. It makes the access from the Charles worse for resident animals and, creates no meaningful improvement for boats which were FIRST barred from access during the outrage of the 2000's.
But they brag of creating a boat dock.
Here is a still from drone photos of the exact area which is key in Phil’s regrowth photo and looking in the same direction. This a cropped still from “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw, minute 10.26
The “Charles River Master Plan” is constantly quoted as the state’s Bible for this area. NEVER mentioned is that the “Charles River Master Plan” called for a “lawn to the river” UNTIL THE STARVATION WALL WAS INSTALLED. Then the supposed Bible was changed to comport with this outrage. Just another lie.
One of the SECRET votes from the Cambridge City Council was the Usual Fraud. They chopped down a part of the large bushes. This was definitely only a partial chopping. The chopping that should be done is to remove it all.
What they did chop down was silly because their replaced the bushes with deep vegetation which continues the solid Starvation Wall and does little to make the area look less isolated from the Charles than any area ten miles from the Charles.
This photo was taken in the Spring of 2021. The vegetation has simply gone up and up and up.
As usual, exactly the opposite of the “Lawn to the River” of the supposedly sacred Charles River Master Plan.
B. Coming destruction of the Wild Area.
From minute 9.13 of the Drone Photos.
Cambridge is to the right of the Charles River. Crossing the river is the B.U. Bridge. Going under it is the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.
The Grand Junction railroad separates the Destroyed Nesting area from the Wild Area.
The Destroyed Nesting Area is bounded by the BU Bridge and the Grand Junction Bridge, above the Grand Junction. Below the Grand Junction is the Wild Area.
Above the BU Bridge, with all the visible dirt, is the Magazine Beach Playing Fields. That dirt is the result of dumping all those poisons over a decade and a half. Supposedly an “improvement” over non poison maintenance.
The state and Cambridge have a goal, FOR A SERIES OF BIZARRE EXPLANATIONS, of destroying the Wild Area, primarily, with the usual harm, as well to the Destroyed Nesting Area. This area, because of repeated outrages starting in the late 2000's is the last part to be destroyed of the former mile long habitat of the Charles River White Geese for more than 40 years.
And the Destroyed Nesting Area / Wild Area is the last remaining free animal habitat on this part of the Charles River.
Secrecy on the Charles River was recently been exacerbated in the City Council staffer exchange with the DCR which we previously reported. The state apparently agreed to a deal which could destroy the Wild Area WITH ACTIONS, ONCE AGAIN, AS SECRET AS POSSIBLE, yet another piece of hypocritical outrage in a very bad situation.
One of the more bizarre explanations for destruction was the construction of a subway line across the Charles River. A necessary part of that subway line was the moving of the Landsdowne Commuter Rail Train Station to a location about two blocks from the left end of the BU Bridge. The station currently serves the Boston Red Sox’ Fenway Park, half a mile or so further away. I informed the developer of a project which considered THE EXISTING Landsdowne Station the jewel of his project. The station as close to suddenly as these things get done was greatly upgraded by the legislature, and the first few buildings have gone in. Here is a photo of the currently location of this station which supposedly is being moved.
And here is a better view of the Wild Area which the Cambridge City Council and their favorite state agency want to destroy, WITH “PUBLIC HEARINGS” limited to the Charles River Poisoner and very few of her friends.
I was at the most recent public showing of Magazine Beach by the state. As near as I could see, there was no participation whatsoever of the friends of the Charles River Poisoner who have helped her help Cambridge and its favorite state “environmental agency” destroy so much on the Charles River.
The composition of “activists” is strikingly similar to the “volunteers” the state provided to help the Charles River Poisoner poison the Charles River. The “well meaning” folks from Cambridge have been steadily part of the bragging, with non stop lies that they were not destroying trees.
On general principles, here is my video on the biggest part of the outrage accomplished so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o. The “City Manager” mentioned is the same one who started this outrage in the 2000's as the Assistant City Manager. The video gives plans for the coming outrage as it was going to happen then. They are still at it, with the Cambridge City Council getting more and more visible, AS SECRETLY AS POSSIBLE. But they have stopped mentioning that they are destroying the Wild Area for that subway line.
My guess is that the subway line will no longer cross the Charles, because of a stunt pulled by the Cambridge City Council and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to block the surviving alternative crossing from the less environmentally destructive alternative. Cambridge and MIT shot themselves in the foot. Creating the subway line as a spur off the Orange Line from Ruggles Station to Kenmore with a superstation including Landsdowne Station will achieve their goals excellently.
