Friends of the White Geese

An Attorney General Registered Charitable Organization since 2001,

Defending the Charles River, its Animals, Trees and Water From destructive Governmental Entities..

Post Office Box 391412		Cell: 617-283-7649
Cambridge, MA	02139	E-Mail: boblat@yahoo.com
Website:	http://friendsofthewhitegeese.org
		February 16, 2021
City Manager Louis A. DePasquale		City Council, City of Cambridge
795 Massachusetts Avenue		c/o City Clerk
Cambridge, MA 02139		795 Massachusetts Avenue
		Cambridge, MA 02139

RE: A private Interstate Off Ramp to MIT sold as a Bike Path with major harm to Cambridge

Segment 1. A private Interstate Off Ramp to MIT sold as a Bike Path, with major harm to the Charles River, and to the Cambridge Environment, General.

1.The key part of an outrage.

2.Introduction.

3.I90 connection to MIT.

Segment II: MIT’s Interstate Off Ramp ¯ details on the “Bike Path” stalking horse

0.Introduction.

1.The Stalking Horse, part 0 S The Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.

2.The Stalking Horse, part 1, at the Charles River ¯ the SECRET part..

3.The Stalking Horse, Part 2, official overview.

4.The Stalking Horse, part 3, temporary southern terminus or, if Cambridge had a responsible City Council, the permanent southern terminus.

5.The Stalking Horse, part 4, MIT’s proposal for bike connection to Memorial Drive ¯ The reality on the Charles.

6.The Stalking Horse, part 5, Who knows?.

Segment 1. A private Interstate Off Ramp to MIT sold as a Bike Path, with major harm to the Charles River, and to the Cambridge Environment, General.

1.The key part of an outrage.

Here is the overview of the situation, taken from “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw. This is a still from minute 1.59. Below We will present

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more stills from this source, only providing the minute as identification.

This is an overall picture of the area we have been studying. The Magazine Beach Playing fields, Woods and Swimming pool are very prominent in the middle. Also prominent toward the bottom is the narrow portion of I90 which needs to be replaced, plus Soldiers Field Road below it.

Less visible AND KEY are the BU Bridge, the Grand Junction railroad bridge, the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese, the doomed wild area, and the Grand Junction Railroad which runs through and is targeted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Details below.

2.Introduction.

It is so distressing to see Cambridge Pols selling con games to well meaning people. We could go on and on and on.

The basic con is:

Do not look at what we are destroying. Look at what we tell you to look at.

The Charles River White Geese, other free animals and the Charles River environment are beloved by decent human beings and attacked by frauds who call themselves environmental saints.

One of the big differences from the past is that we now have drones flying around in the skies which help call liars liars.

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Plus there are good people involved. On the Charles River the good people are the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The bad people, as usual, are the Cambridge City Council, related bureaucrats, fake “protectors” who do exactly the opposite, and too many others. The bad folks scratch each others backs and lie and lie and lie. People who have been conned, however, can be very aggressive about stabbing themselves in the their own backs because they trust people who should not be trusted.

I have been working on the state’s plans to correct a very dangerous situation on the Boston side of the Charles River from the habitat which is directly being attacked by the Cambridge City Council and by bureaucrats from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Cambridge and the DCR have very terrible plans for the Charles River. They have been fighting for destruction using various frauds. This report is about a fraud which claims to be helping bicyclists. Much of the fraud is quite beneficial. MassDOT is protecting the bicyclists from the bad stuff.

There is a railroad track going through the eastern part of Cambridge called the Grand Junction railroad. There are big plans there, most of it is good.

As usual, the bad stuff has been kept as secret as possible from the victims. The worst of it can be avoided, and we have tried to help well meaning people from, once again, being shafted by their government, and we have proposed a limited modification which could make the plans responsible.

Our proposal is on Page 26, on a map provided by MIT, next to an alternative

raised by MIT.

MassDOT, once again, is standing up to dirty tricks coming out of the Cambridge City Council and the DCR. I have responded to those dirty tricks and communicated a lot of responses.

Reality dates back to 2003 when the regional transportation authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority proved it possible to create an off ramp from I90 to the Metropolitan Institute of Technology. This off ramp is behind so much of the outrages on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.

The bad guys have tried to sneak in dirty tricks publicly AND LOST. So they are trying to sneak them into MassDOT’s proposal

A.to make safe the portion of I90 which is across the Charles River from Magazine Beach, and

B.to straighten out I90. Straightening out is now possible because of:

(1)the relocation of the major Beacon Park railroad yard to Worcester; and

(2)improvement in technology with regard to management / charging of users.

The portion which needs to be replaced is now 40 to 50 years old.

It is raised and being held together by extreme measures which are needlessly expensive because the segment is beyond its proper replacement time.

Cambridge and friends are trying to use this repair work to assist in the creation of the off ramp which was proven possible in 2003, and which is an update of the “Inner Belt.”

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Here is how it works.

3.I90 connection to MIT.

Never mentioned in all the piety from the Cambridge pols is the demonstration by the MBTA in 2003 that an off ramp can be built from I90 to the north through Cambridge, specifically to the heart of the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OR FURTHER.

Their sales pitch is “bike path” / other euphemisms, not mentioning that the bike path, IF THE POLS HAVE THEIR WAY, will be the stalking horse for that off ramp.

From minute 4.39 of the Drone footage:

On the left side, in the V between the BU Bridge and the on ramp to Memorial Drive, is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese. The Grand Junction railroad bridge can be seen on both sides of the BU Bridge. It runs under the BU Bridge.

Following that line to the left can be seen the Grand Junction Railroad Tracks heading to MIT. The buildings directly above that track, starting from the tallest building, are MIT buildings.

Looking to the right, the BU Bridge meets Commonwealth Avenue Boston ABOVE I90, the Mass. Pike. I90 comes to that point from the bottom right hand corner. Closer to the Charles River than I90 and running under the BU Bridge is Soldiers Field Road, the Boulevard on the Boston Side of the Charles River which matches Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

To the bottom left can be seen the Magazine Beach Playing Fields blocked off from the Charles River by the Starvation Wall.

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At minute 4.40 is a closer view of the same relationship.

The MBTA study proved an off ramp can be built from the east bound lanes (upper / right side) of I90 AT THIS POINT to the Grand Junction River Bridge. The study showed that a ramp in the opposite direction can be built from the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge to the west bound (lower/left) lanes.

The one problem with the MBTA plan was that the bridge is not wide enough to build both the railroad and the off and on ramps. Dah, dah, all those lovely people and the Cambridge City Council are fighting to add to the I90 rebuild a widening of the Grand Junction Bridge.

They call it bike paths. The reality is that, once it is built and it is convenient for MIT, there is no reason from the point of view of MIT to continue to call it bike lanes. Once MIT decides it is convenient and politically feasible, they have their private off ramp to I90. That off ramp can be extended beyond the Main portion of MIT to Kendall Square, Cambridge and, quite possibly over the extent of the “bike path” toward the Somerville line.

Nearly fifty years ago, Cambridge activists defeated a super highway in this area. It was called the “Inner Belt.”

I had the honor of being an intern in the governor’s office when he announced the killing of the inner belt, although I was working on other matters. Very discretely, on my own, I was in the middle of a legislative bicycle victory. Without my having any visibility, some associates of mine, in consultation with me, achieved a veto of an inadvertently harmful bike bill which passed both houses without negative comment.

Cantabridgians from that time period are very proud of the victory over the "Inner Belt."

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Here from minute 9.13 is the same view from the east (upper in the prior picture).

Here from minute 10.54 is the view from the west showing the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge (on right) connecting to the Grand Junction Railroad toward the MIT Campus. It has to go under Memorial Drive to get there.

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At the top can be seen the Mass. Ave. (“Harvard” Bridge) which connects directly to the main part of the MIT Campus.

Here, from minute 9.28 is the Grand Junction track running from this point to Massachusetts Avenue.

From the left, first is the Grand Junction. Then is Vassar Street. Then is Memorial Drive. At the top is the Mass. Ave. Bridge. Massachusetts Avenue and the Grand Junction connect straight ahead.

To those in the process of being fooled, the Grand Junction widening is sold as a bike path. The MBTA plan showed it as an off ramp going to the heart of the MIT Campus.

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Segment II:	MIT’s Interstate Off Ramp ¯ details on the “Bike Path” stalking horse

0.Introduction.

To put it succinctly, the usual cast of characters in Cambridge are trying to sell a super highway off ramp through Cambridge, MA. The super highway lost 50 years ago when it was honestly called a super highway, the “Inner Belt.” This time they are calling it a bike path.

Here are two key still photos from above. Six others provide detail in that segment. The photos are stills from “From Cambridge to Boston with the DJ Inspire 1 Drone footage,” posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-OmMzvHhw. These photos are taken from minutes 4.40 and 9.28.

Minute 4.40, above, shows the area where the off ramp will originate (on the right, doing a loop from the inbound side next to Commonwealth Avenue and the BU Bridge), the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge (It needs to be widened to handle the Inner Belt Highway, under middle part of the BU Bridge. Perhaps it will be TEMPORARILY used as a bike path, but the stab in the back would work more easily early on. The Cambridge end can be seen beyond the left portion of the BU Bridge), and the future path of the stalking horse (mid left). The Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese is between the BU Bridge and the Grand Junction. The Wild Area is beyond the Grand Junction facing the Charles River.

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Minute 9.28, below, shows the path of the proposed renamed and redescribed Inner Belt.

The future Inner Belt is the left of three vertical highways. The middle road is Vassar Street. The road on the right is Memorial Drive.

The stalking horse bike path is projected to be built on the left portion of the left highway to allow connections to Memorial Drive off and below the picture. The connection would be by a fairly new highway . The con is that this connection directs bike traffic the far more dangerous way to Memorial Drive. The plans for the construction of this highway showed thick tree planting which has not gone forward. That could be because I pointed out to a developer type that the trees to be planted left room for highway connectors to the new road from the Mass. Pike off ramp. If you know what to look for, those openings were damning.

Responsible alternatives would connect a real bike path ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE GRAND JUNCTION right of way to Vassar Street in either of two routes,

A.by a narrow taking of private property slightly below the bottom of the photo and then to Memorial Drive safely or

Bby the alternative proposed by MIT ¯ by an existing walkway from Cambridge’s Fort Washington Park (trees halfway up to the left) to Vassar Street and then to Memorial Drive.

In sections 3 and 4 below are key parts of Cambridge’s presentation of the stalking horse, the bike path which would disappear when the new Inner Belt is constructed. After Cambridge’s con game, in section 5, is the simple map presented to the Cambridge City Council by MIT which shows its proposal and Cambridge’s. Without the con game, it shows the con game’s reality.

Section 2 presents some of the secret stuff. A little of our analysis is included in Section 4.

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We regret not showing a lot of tree destruction coming. This is a long report. Including tree destruction would make it a book.

1.The Stalking Horse, part 0 S The Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.

Everything depends on widening the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge. The powers that be in Cambridge have worked on different excuses. This excuse is a bike bath. It sounds so great!!!

The excuse the local transit authority, the MBTA, had to study widening of the Grand Junction in the first place was to put in an express bus from Newton to Kendall Square. Express Buses tend to run maybe two or three times in in the morning with return trips in the evening.

The amount of money which would be needed to be expended to create a route for three buses per day each way absolutely would not justify the amount of money needed to upgrade facilities. That was obvious from the beginning.

The MBTA noticed the funding reality after spending all that money on the research. Golly gee.

The Grand Junction was the “obvious” route for their new express bus.

They did the engineering. They proved that the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge over the Charles could be modified by cantilevering a new lane off the existing bridge while continuing one lane of train service.

The current con game claims to be providing two lanes for rail with one lane width for a bike path.

The important thing is GET THAT EXTRA LANE. Once they have the extra lane, they can SUDDENLY change the use as is convenient for MIT and other developers and businesses along the Grand Junction.

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Here is a good photo of the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge from the west side of the BU Bridge.

The very Southern end of the portion of the portion of the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge over the Charles is shown at the bottom of the photo.

As can be noted, the Grand Junction used to consist of two tracks each using one side of the bridge over the Charles River. This photo shows that the west side (shown to the right) has been abandoned.

The tracks move to the middle of the two lanes when the track goes over Soldiers Field Road on the Boston side. They then curve to go under I90.

If you look straight ahead, you can see a green highway sign over the outbound side of I90. If you look REALLY carefully, you can even see a car straight ahead on the outbound side. Access to the Outbound side of I90 is simple. Instead of going down at this point to get under I90, you go up to create a ramp to the outbound vehicle traffic side. The complicated part was how to get inbound and outbound traffic associated with areas to the west of the BU Bridge. The MBTA devised the loop as we show in section 0 for inbound traffic.

There is not enough room for ramps for associated traffic in both directions on I90. The MBTA study proposed a U turn on the Mass. Pike to the west of the Grand Junction Bridge to allow outbound traffic to switch to the inbound side of I90 and the loop ramp to the Grand Junction to resolve that.

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That U turn was relatively cheap. It was done years ago just east of the former toll booths at the Brighton / Cambridge exit. But Cambridge and the DCR still needed to widen the Grand Junction Bridge by any means that worked.

This particular tactic is to call the off ramp a bike path.

I have a whole bunch of photos of this area of I90 and where the ramp could go. But the Drone photos do a lot more with less time needed. Really a more useful use of our and your time is to go into the connection on the Cambridge side.

A photo showing the Cambridge end of the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge is the next photo below.

2.The Stalking Horse, part 1, at the Charles River ¯ the SECRET part.

Cambridge has spent a lot of time on the responsible parts of what it calls the Grand Junction bike path / other euphemism. It would be a good project IF IT WERE REAL AND NOT A STALKING HORSE. The key modification is also included.

The responsible way to provide the bike path is to move the bike path to the right (east) side of the Grand Junction right of way. This would allow the bike path to connect to Vassar Street followed by access to Memorial Drive. The bike path should not go under Memorial Drive because of the associated very major destruction on the Charles River and on its banks.

See Page 26, below.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation has already done massive destruction on Memorial Drive in January 2016 WITH CAMBRIDGE ASSISTANCE including but not limited to the Cambridge City Council’s VERY LOUD silence when this outrage called for objection.

I had been keeping the Cambridge City Council up to date with photos and comment in emails multiple times a week starting in September 2015, emails which do not go into the official record.

Our video, Memorial Drive Destruction, final cut, posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o, goes into great detail based on the DCR’s plans which were written by its predecessor, the Metropolitan District Commission with assistance from Cambridge “planners.”

The MDC was destroyed by the Massachusetts legislature at least in part to protect the Charles River from the destructiveness of the MDC “planners.” The “planners” proceeded to move to the DCR with their outrageous plans and with the assistance of the extremely destructive Cambridge Development Department and the Cambridge City Council.

Outrages are continuing at Magazine Beach. These plans with analysis are on line at http://focrwg.com/agenda1.html. This is my letter to the Cambridge City Council in response to FALSE claims of environmental sainthood during a rally led by city councilors on the steps of Cambridge City Hall.

The plans included destruction of the excellent woods east of the Grand Junction at the Charles River. The DCR destroyed hundreds of mostly excellent trees, but did not destroy this excellent woods.

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Now, the DCR has proceeded with lying “public notices” for hearings which they included those plans in a project which was advertised as having an eastern end at the BU Bridge. They then announced the reality that the plans went to that doomed woods. The key slides are presented below/

Here are the doomed woods, the Wild Area, and the plans for destruction. There are much more detailed plans available for destruction in the “Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese which is off camera to the left. The white figures are a gaggle of the Charles River White Geese. The place has much greater diversity. A lot of the other free animals have been driven away, but many remain / have returned. The Grand Junction railroad bridge is at the lower left.

This is the last remaining natural wild in this part of the Charles River.

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Here are the most visible, but most definitely, not the only victims of this outrage, the Charles River White Geese, admiring the Charles River in the winter, viewing from their Destroyed Nesting Area looking under the Grand Junction railroad bridge.

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Here are the destruction plans. They show both halves. The massive destruction in the Wild Area, to the right, is

shown by displaying only ONE TREE NOT DESTROYED.

If the stalking horse ends above Memorial Drive (the almost horizontal line from right to left) as currently identified, it would be a responsible project

The upper right part of these plans is near the location where the bike path should connect to Vassar Street as shown on page 26.

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Here is another winter shot of the Charles River White Geese. The view looks through the Wild Area from the sidewalk next to the Destroyed Nesting Area and the Wild Area.

This bay stays liquid during the most frigid part of the winter. The Charles River White Geese also use this natural harbor for refuge during the most extreme storms. Their goose down jackets protect them in winter. Having non frozen water is very valuable on the coldest days.

DCR plans shown above would destroy EVERY TREE BUT ONE in this picture. The balance of the plans were implemented in the January 2016 outrage.

From the day this shot was taken, I also have photos of Canada Geese, not familiar with the turf, hunkering down in the cold Nesting Area.

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