Magazine Beach covers 15 acres of open space squeezed between the Charles River and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, near the BU bridge. After a project to restore the historic Powder Magazine building at the site caught the community’s attention a few years ago, efforts have been underway to improve the public park as a whole.

Who cares about the Magazine Beach park process, and who has a say in what will happen as the development plans take shape over the next year?

An ongoing exhibit about the history and future of Magazine Beach has been on display at the Cambridge City Hall Annex since November. A community potluck event attracted a small crowd on Tuesday evening, where I spoke with people about what they hope to see happen.

Meet them here.

 

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Cathie Zusy is the chair of the Magazine Beach Committee of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association and the leading champion of the site's renovations. "One does not say no to Cathie," said one attendee, chuckling. Another agreed cheerfully: "You'd better do whatever Cathie tells you!" She's recruited State Rep. Jay Livingstone's support for their work. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 7:06pm PST

Interest from individuals and organizations helps organizations like the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) allocate scarce attention and resources to Magazine Beach, says Rep. Jay Livingstone. DCR has matched $181,500 in funds raised for Magazine Beach. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 11:07pm PST

Megan isn't a Cambridge resident, but she lives in a neighboring town and has gotten involved with the Charles River Conservancy. She and a few friends came out to learn more about the Magazine Beach project. #magazinebeach #wcamb #whocares

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 8:01pm PST

Kate Sullivan, a rower with the Cambridge Boat Club, says she hopes parking and safety issues can be addressed. Proposals for the park would reduce parking and favor skinny roadways with parking over large surface lots. Magazine Beach has lots of active users before sunrise and before the T runs, making parking a key concern for many RBC members. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 7:41pm PST

Renata von Tscharner, Founder and Director of the Charles River Conservancy, sees the Magazine Beach renovation as part of a larger vision for the Charles River waterfront. She would love to see success here help build momentum for other projects along the river — especially a large patch of land in Allston, directly across the river, which is ripe for changes after current highway improvement projects are completed. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:21pm PST

Dale Wickenheiser has been coaching rowers on the Charles for 15 years. Formerly the head rowing coach at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, he now coaches at MIT Rowing and Buckingham Browne and Nichols. Changes to the waterfront access will affect his rowers. (1 of 2) #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 7:15pm PST

Dale Wickenheiser, a longtime local rowing coach, is excited to see Magazine Beach become a major destination. But he has concerns about the Memorial Drive traffic impacts. Increased car traffic, limited parking within the renovated park, and an already hairy traffic situation make him worried that theze issues need to be better addressed by the planners. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 7:25pm PST

Theresa Doherty, Project Coordinator for the Charles River Conservancy, is managing the group's efforts to make Magazine Beach a swimming spot in the future. Boston's Olympic bid could be one source of funds for environmental remediation work that needs to be done before a walk-in beach is safe for swimmers. Today, the Charles River has an A- water quality rating, but a century of industrial use left a toxic legacy in the sediment of the riverbed. Clean-up efforts would require significant funding. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:58pm PST

SJ Port heads up development and communications for the Charles River Conservancy. Her emails brought out most of the night's attendees. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:49pm PST

U.S. national rower and Riverside Boat Club member Peter Morelli has been in Cambridge since 20002, and he came here to row with RBC. He says he hopes to see Magazine Beach become more of a community center. #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:40pm PST

The Powder Magazine building is under renovation and Peter Morelli is looking forward to its completion. #icecream #whocares #magazinebeach #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:46pm PST

Amanda Milad, chair of the Community Committee at the Riverside Boathouse, explains why their members care about Magazine Beach. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:16pm PST

Kate Sullivan, a member of the Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge, visits Magazine Beach at least 6 times per week during the season. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:10pm PST

MIT postdocs Kristina and Markus, who attend church near Magazine Beach and occasionally meet friends for a walk there. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:05pm PST

Gilead Tadmor, a Cambridge resident, wants to swimming restored to Magazine Beach, although he hasn't spent much time there in the past. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 6:01pm PST

Peter Ambler, a retired architect and member of the Cambridge Historical Society, leads boat and walking tours around the area. He described the history of changes on the Charles River since it was crowded with commercial river traffic, shipping coal and goods, a century ago. #magazinebeach #whocares #wcamb

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 5:55pm PST

Bob La Tremouille, Friends of the White Geese, is passionate opponent of any changes at Magazine Beach. He says any of the development efforts will disturb the population there now, and he wants to protect them . Bob shows up to every event, including volunteer events organized by the Charles River Conservancy to collect litter, and voices his opposition. He's also active online, commenting regularly on blog posts by and about all of the involved groups. #magazinebeach #whocares

A video posted by Celeste LeCompte (@celerae) on Feb 23, 2015 at 5:49pm PST

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Notes on the Four-Hour Challenge

I totally failed to meet the four-hour constraint, even though I tried, because of a few false starts:

• I was planning to embed Instagram images here, forgetting that the WordPress is not self-hosted so it won’t accept embeds using scripts. I spent about an hour trying to get this tool running on my own website, but failed. UPDATED: The issue was that I use HTTPS Everywhere — the WordPress embeds only work with http not https. Stupid!
• Initially, I was going to the Cambridge City Hall Annex to do a piece about people filing permits — but then I encountered the great exhibit on Magazine Beach and found out about the event. There was one hour of my time, but it was more research than reporting.
• I got caught up talking to people at the event and stayed longer than I intended — 2.5 hours, instead of 2 sharp.
• I tried to bolt on an ill-advised visit to Magazine Beach to see who was missing from the event at the Annex — and I’m sure there were many! For example, none of the many pick-up soccer players who use the site were represented except our classmate Melissa, who I told about the event. However, none of the fields or athletic areas had been cleared of snow, so there were no users of the park. The swimming pool and boat house are also obviously closed for the season. There went an hour of my time.
• My best video is with State Rep. Jay Livingstone, but I can’t get it to upload to Instagram. 🙁 
  UPDATED 2/24: I woke up this morning and found that the video was posted after all (?) so I added it to the stream above.

That said, even in trying to hit the time limit, I felt the limits of real-time reporting.

(1) There wasn’t enough time to real try and bring in voices from those who use the park but weren’t at the meeting, to analyze who was there and why, and so on. That’s why I opted to stick with the videos: the faces and voices I shared here tell their own kind of story about the night.

(2) I had to edit my material down in a less analytical way than I’m used to; I made decisions based on “what can I do right now?” instead of “what’s the most important thing about this story?”

… I’ll probably still try and figure out some ways to create my own Instagram image feed, since it’s something I’d like to do, in general. If I do, I’ll post a link in the comments.