July 2, 2008
This picture was taken this morning at Lechmere Canal. The lovely green streaks on the surface are the same blue-green algae that have caused problems for the last couple of years.It seems early for this stuff to be so visible, but we have had a lot of rain lately which causes a lot of chemicals to be put into the river with the runoff. Combined with the the droppings of the exploded population of Canada Geese, the tons of fertilizer added at the Ebersol baseball area at the Esplanade, and the heating of the water by the Mirant electric generation plant at Kendall Square, we have quite a soup cooking.

July 3, 2008 11:00 AM read more...

Saturday night June 28, I went to the inaugural concert of the Freisinger Chamber Orchestra at the First Church on Marlborough St. in Boston featuring their concertmaster, Cambridge resident Arie Yaacobi. The program included two world premier performances. The Siren Etude for String Orchestra by Brazilian composer Luiz Casteloes, and Instinct by American Anthony Green. read more...

And it's STRAWBERRY SEASON! There is a Farmers Market just about every day in Cambridge. From now until November, you can buy great fresh food from the actual producers. I always feel better about spending my money locally on goods produced locally by people that live around here. That money will circulate in the area and my extended neighborhood will benefit. read more...

Today's Boston Globe (6/19/2008) has a good article about herring in the Charles. Click the link to go to the article.
Globe Article

A friend who lives on the Cambridge Riviera sent me an e-mail on Monday June 16 saying that there was another oil slick on the Charles River this morning. It extended from the Charles River Yacht Club opposite 100 Memorial Drive to some point down river from the Mirant Kendall electric plant. The Broad Canal was completely covered. This has been happening since April.

Both Cambridge Fire Department and the State Police were on the scene investigating. Mass DEP also sent a crew. I called the CFD and was told that the Mirant plant manager reported the spill at 9:28 A.M., and that they had eliminated the barges working on the Longfellow Bridge as a source. The gentleman also mentioned run-off as a possible source. This seems unlikely since the rain did not come until Monday night. read more...

I was a delegate from Ward One at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention on Saturday June 7, 2008. As a first timer I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I got what I expected. That is a lot of officials tooting their own horns. There was only one piece of actual business to conduct. Ed O’Reilly is challenging John Kerry for the party’s nomination to run for the U.S. Senate. In Massachusetts, this is probably the real race.

Each candidate was allotted twelve minutes to speak to the crowd. Mr. O’Reilly gave a great twelve minute speech listing Votes that Mr. Kerry made that he would have voted differently on. Among these were the Iraq war authorization, single payer healthcare and the so called “Patriot Act”. Kerry : Yes, No, Yes.

Mr. Kerry took the podium and stumped for more than twenty minutes without apology for running on and violating the convention rules. read more...

To see the location of this parcel of land and pictures click on this link. East Cambridge Hot Spots Map

To see the pics, click on the image in the bubble that pops up. Double click on the map to zoom in.

After eight years of waiting, construction is starting at the corner of Charles St. and Lopez Ave. in East Cambridge. Back around 2000, activists in the neighborhood With the help of the East Cambridge Planning Team, were able to persuade a developer to donate a small plot of land to the city for open space as mitigation for their project. It is located across Lopez Ave. from Costa Lopez Taylor park. (Who was Costa Lopez Taylor anyway?)

In typical form, the city jumped on the opportunity and immediately built the most wonderful public space in the country... Oh, wait, that was in Narnia. This is Cambridge. let me start this paragraph over. read more...