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This is The Gaian Workers’ Paradise of Cambridge. Welcome.

'The City of Cambridge should plant more fruit and nut trees to be harvested by residents.' [Insert punchline here.]

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  February 13th, 2010 at 11:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The City Council of Cambridge, MA established the Cambridge Climate Congress in 2009 and charged them with recommending actions to combat the “climate emergency” which currently threatens Life As We Know It in America’s most intellectual city.

The committee was seated in December, and considering the gravity of the emergency, has acted with alacrity in preparing a vision of the City’s New Green Future. The Drafting Committee’s first stab at a set of recommendations (a 20-page .pdf file) is available here.

While none of these measures have yet been enacted, they represent a window on the soul of the radical environmental movement, and the authoritarian means by which they’re prepared to force their vision on the rest of us.

Harvard Hometown Plans Coercive Taxes, Veganism to Stop Climate ‘Emergency’

Going green will not be optional in Cambridge, Mass., if the Cambridge Climate Congress has its way. It will be mandatory.

There will be congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Curbside parking will be eliminated. There will be a carbon tax “of some kind,” not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. And the Massachusetts city, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advocate vegetarianism and veganism, complete with “Meatless or Vegan Mondays.”

Those are just some of the proposals put forth by the Congress, which was created in May 2009 to respond to the “climate emergency” plaguing Cambridge. Once the Congress settles on its recommendations, they will submitted to the City Council.

But wait! There’s more!

Other proposals include provisions to mandate “eating regionally” (a practice of dubious environmental value), restrictive zoning requiring new construction to have zero carbon footprint, and a mandated “temperate zone” program, banning space heating or cooling during certain months.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com fmaidment

    …just so I can grill a Kobe Beef steak over a charcoal pit in the middle of Harvard Yard.

    In June. It’s friggin’ cold in Mass during February.

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      As I was leaving Widener Library. Note the Climate Emergency!!!!11!11!!!1! (which appears to resemble RFKjr’s snowless-DC emergency prediction of two years ago).

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      Clearly also suffering from a Climate Emergency.

  • RedBeard

    Go to any college town and look around. You’ll find the same emotional and fact-free idiocy being preached in Madison (Wisconsin), Bloomington (Indiana), and every other town that has been co-opted by the leftover human debris of ’60s flower power.

    Sad and sickening, really, to see so many foolish and unrepentant old hippies with positions of power and influence over our young people’s minds. Most of us who were seduced as college students by the Vietnam-era leftist agenda have grown up, seen the truth, and gotten real jobs. Many of those who remained deluded never left the university cocoon and now spend their hours trying to warp the minds of a new generation. With some significant degree of success, sad to say.

    Somehow, some way, we must reclaim our education system from the clutches of the radical left.

    • Richard Mullins

      The commies were around before the ’60s but they worse during the ’70s. Because of them, we have commie hangouts in the Biggest cites here in Texas. It’s a good thing they can make it in Monahans or some other West Texas town.

      • texasgalt

        any serious lefty could find himself on display on a barb-wire fence like other varmints and snakes.

        • Richard Mullins

          I don’t think a leftist will be in Sweetwater at that time. I don’t think they would be very welcome at my Grand uncle Dwight Gunn’s place in Sweetwater any time. They just aren’t welcome.

  • mbecker908

    college town in America.

    • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

      Fort Collins is a college town (CSU), and I live here.

      Did you see the “Green Police” commercial? That’s what they want to do here…and were well on their way. First up was trash re-districting. They tell you who will pick up your trash (no more choice), and they’ll look through it to make sure you didn’t throw away anything recyclable. If you did, you’d get a fine.

      Well, that was until they opened up the City Council meetings for comments and almost 1,000 people showed up to comment. The meeting went four and one-half hours until they finally just gave up and killed the idea.

      • TheSophist

        We need such um… “local laboratories” to see what the effect of such regulation is on a city.

        Once the businesspeople of Cambridge either (a) move out, or (b) raise prices enough to cover the costs of these mandates, we can see what the citizens think about that.

        Once the numerous startup companies spawned by MIT, Harvard and others decide that the cost-factors of doing business in Cambridge are unsustainable (ironic that ‘sustainabiliy’ measures lead to unsustainable balance sheets), and move their companies to less totalitarian towns like Arlington or Medford, with resulting decrease in taxable business activities, we can see what the people of Cambridge think of that.

        Once the residents find that they can’t have a cookout or a pot roast without visits from the police, we’ll see what the people of Cambridge like about that lifestyle.

        I rather think the college towns should volunteer to be laboratories of all faconnable du jour ideas of the Left.

        One major requirement: no state and no federal funds of any sort should be provided to these laboratories of social change.

        -TS

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

          when they show up at a City Council meeting with torches and pitchforks. I’m guessing our two very conservative councilmembers could hardly contain the glee.

        • Achance

          The stupida$%ed limits on residency restrictions are the main cause of this mischief. Thirty days does not make you a resident! The college students, transferred government employees, and, yes, even the military should not be able to establish residency and should be required to vote absentee in their actual residence unless they’ve been there at least a year and have an intent to remain. Transferees and military definitionally cannot do that, so they stay absentees in their original home.

          • Xasteius

            Someone here wrote a blog on limiting voting rights to those who paid more income tax than received back. College students usually don’t pay income tax (unless they’ve worked for their scholarships), so that would eliminate the problem. In reality, you’d have the welfare rolls and progressives squalling, so I don’t know if that idea is plausible.

          • Achance

            was not dropping the voting age to 18 but rather letting members of the military vote without regard to age. In today’s world, 21 yr. old kids generally have no independent life experience and little if any common sense; the typical 18 yr old is simply brain dead.

          • mbecker908
          • Achance

            At least not legally. That’s just damned stupid.

          • nessa

            At one time I had discarded that as too “restrictive”, now I can no longer justify such largess. The privilege of voting and having a say in the governing of the Nation must require a minimum of investment. Those who would vote themselves a check should be eliminated. Illegals, any recipient of gov’t assistance, those who do not contribute to the tax base they would draw from should have no say in governance. Don’t let them “vote themselves a pay raise.”

          • momofthecastle

            should happen before the age of 21 is physical: The frontal lobe of the brain, the part for critical thinking and decision making, is not fully developed until around the age of 23. Granted, military personnel are trained to think critically, but most people under the age of 25 (in my opinion) haven’t had the training in studying issues, education in liberty, or life experience in capitalism to know how to vote constitutionally. Or even intelligently.

    • mustango

      …to show them what it’s like actually living under the high-minded rules they set?

      Nice thought, but unless the college scene has changed a lot since I was there, the average college student won’t care and/or will find a way to circumvent the rules the minute they actually become an inconvenience. (Or maybe there’s mass respect on college campuses for “21 means 21″ these days? Yeah, I didn’t think so.)

      • mbecker908

        but the pinhead professors and administrators will.

        And when the real people, like business owners, move the hell just over the city line you can bet a whole bunch more people will care.

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

          Wellington, Windsor and Timnath are big fans of the liberal City Council members of Fort Collins. After nearly every meeting, more businesses (and tax dollars) are pushed their way. Our (AHEM) Republican Mayor’s solution is to raise sales tax in the city another 1%. Yeah…that’ll teach ‘em…

          • mbecker908

            I’d start a PAC to elect more Marxists in Fort Collins.

          • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister
  • winterhawk

    must be insane if they even have a brain. I don’t give a damn about Cambridge but, if they intend to limit my liberties with bulls–t like this, they are going to have a fight on their hands.

  • Carolynp

    that they are showing their true colors. There is no problem with a vegetarian day, we practice it, too. ‘Course we do it because we’re broke. I’d love to see a straight veg menu in all state sponsored cafeterias. First, it would encourage the best workers to go elsewhere. Second, I have a sneaky suspicion changing the menus would change alot of votes. Liberals don’t intend to DO what they say they believe in, they just want to make others do what they say.

  • renny

    The “upper” wealthy in NJ are busy moving to TX.

    The people moving in tend to be less financially well off and are even often illegals.

    So, we have a state budget of $6 billion and only $3.8 billion in revenues. Gov. Christie is busy trying to slash $2.2 billion out of the numbers. And, are the Dems. in Trenton screaming? Was that a supersonic jet that just crashed in your yard?

    Cambridge can prob. get away with its tutti frutti “green” ideas until the last deli has packed up and moved to Rhode I. and MIT and Hahvahd profs can’t find a place to nosh.

    • DirtyDave

      We welcome them as long as they don’t bring their Yankee ways with them. My advice is to lay low, observe how the locals do things and copy them. And lose the accent. Nobody cares how you did it up north. Trust me, as a transplanted Yankee, I know.

      What is a carbon footprint, anyway?

      • edintexas

        When we had the influx of people from the “rust belt” in the 80s, there were many comments about how great it was to live in a state with no income tax. After a couple of years you could hear these same people saying “Why doesn’t the (state, county, city) do X for me, when I lived in (Ohio or other Rust Belt state), the (state, county, city) did it.”

        If people want to move to Texas, and have that sort of attitude, I suggest they move to Moscow on the Guadalupe (AKA Austin), where they will have lots of kindred souls and tens of thousands of college kids (and most professors) at UT to vote their way.

  • Common_Cents
    • RedBeard

      So, I invested in green technology to curb methane pollution. Each kit (one for each head of cattle) consists of a large industrial strength cork, plus a roll of duct tape to secure said cork.

      It’s a nice feeling, knowing I’m part of the solution.

  • saterp

    I don’t mind if those idiots make themselves miserable. It’s when they try to make ME miserable they’re going to sustain some bruising.

  • http://www.gopmom.com GOPMOM

    to replace lawn mowers and provide fertilizer for the gardens?

  • kmacwayne

    “The city translate and print materials relating to the energy efficiency and sustainable practices into Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages deemed appropriate.”

    Wouldn’t a better option be to force Harvard Professors to teach English to their community?

    • RedBeard

      Hey, I just wanted to beat the screaming lefties to it. ;-)

      But you know we can’t expect immigrants to learn English. Just because our ancestors did, and wanted to do so, is no reason. Now it’s just so unfair. And racist.

      Assimilation? Again, racist.

      • eburke

        where on the site there was a liberal losing an argument to a conservative.

        Well…..where the hell is he?

    • mbecker908

      understand English.

      • eburke
        • RedBeard

          …have to press “1″ to speak to someone in English, the language of the country in which I live and was born and raised, I get angry. Shame on me. I should be horsewhipped. I would do it myself, if I had a horse. [apologies to Groucho Marx]

  • http://xmmlbchat.blogspot.com katesmith

    His Alliance for Climate Protection has organized groups in 22 states with “swing senators,” he says next few months will be only political window for some time to come. Cap and trade is already in place in many regions and states. Gore item from AFP article, he was at a gathering with Bill Gates, Google founders and others.

  • http://truthupfront.blogspot.com jsanzone

    Too bad environmentalists had to make it “all about global warming” or the “climate crisis” because some municipal proposals are otherwise not horrible. Municipalities have the right to regulate parking in their city, and even to make it more efficient/less consumptive. Same goes for plastic bags–a waste product 95% of the time that doesn’t decompose and which the municipality has to find a landfill for/foot the bill for. If it were simply about reducing pollution and not allowing “anything can go in the trash” mentality when a city has jurisdiction, it wouldn’t be unreasonable, and perhaps even welcome.

  • Warrior

    is that people who predict the weather have to be accountable.

    Those, like algore, who “predict” the climate don’t. All they have to do is make outrageous claims and cash in…

  • wayneepalmer

    You think this is bad?

    You should see the stuff in the climate change task force report commissioned by Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin.

    That butt-smudge is going to have people here collecting cow farts (or limiting meat and dairy production to reduce the flatulence).

    It recommends limiting the types and number of cars sold in the state.

    They are already implementing road redesigns that reduce traffic flow to encourage people to use mass transit AND SPENDING NEARLY 1 BILLION DOLLARS ON “HIGH SPEED RAIL” (in a state that is about as broke as California, with a total population less than the Chicago metro area).

    Incandescent bulbs are to be banned AND THEY RECOMMEND THAT ALL HOMES – WITHOUT REGARD TO AGE – SOLD IN THE STATE BE MANDATED TO MEET NEW HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS BEFORE SALE. This includes all appliances, wiring, lighting, insulation, windows, roofing, water heaters, air-conditioners, and furnaces. As someone with a house built in 1927 you can imagine what I think about this.

    They are currently voting on a bill that will mandate 15% renewable energy source usage (including using ethanol for auto fuel) by 2013 and 25% by 2020. In an icebox state that relies on a lot of coal and a couple of nukes for power this will mean a minimum of a $1,000 per year increase in energy costs – maybe as high as $3,000.

    It goes on and on. The tax situation is one of the worst in the country, the business climate IS the worst and we’ve already lost 250,000 jobs here. They are going to pile on sales taxes to pay for the rail system and mandate ethanol levels in the fuel that will remove every car built before about 2001 from the road.

    These Cambridge clowns are amateurs. The real green fascists are in Madison, Wisconsin and their Fuhrer is named Jim Doyle.