Magazine Beach

Join us for a full summer of events at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, MA (at the foot of Magazine Street, just across Memorial Drive). It’s time to go to the beach, Magazine Beach! For more information, go to our Facebook page (and once there, please like us!)

All events have been organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Historical Commission. Thank you to our sponsors! Sanofi, the Charles River Conservancy and Knucklebones.

Painting, Magazine Beach Park, by Cambridgeport artist Jeff Gardner

It’s time to head to the beach, Magazine Beach! This summer we’ll be offering a whole program of summer activities at the park, including Saturday morning yoga, Friday evening picnic concerts, a dance performance, and even the Bread & Puppet Theater.

* Family Summer Kick-off on Friday June 20, 5-8pm.  Picnic to the tunes of Ken Field’s Revolutionary Snake Ensemble while playing games organized by Knucklebones, and mounting art installations Rising Tides and Marking the Shoreline, led by Cambridgeport’s own Ross Miller and Susan Israel. Foodtrucks will be there, too! FREE!

*The pool opens June 28^th!

*2^nd Annual Benefit Party at the Riverside Boat Club on Sunday, June 29, 7-9pm. We’ve made great strides—work will begin on the 1818 Powder Magazine shortly—but there’s more to do! Join neighbors for an evening of live music, hors d’oeuvres, drink, and great conversation as you overlook the Charles River. To purchase tickets, go to Eventbrite, or send a check for $35 per person payable to the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, to: Magazine Beach Committee, CNA, c/o Olivia Fiske, 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Please RSVP by 6.23.14.

Thanks for your commitment to bettering our 15-acre riverside park.

All events have been organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Historical Commission.  Thank you to our sponsors! Sanofi, the Charles River Conservancy and Knucklebones.

It’s almost picnic season again! To honor this, this Saturday, June 7th, from 12-5pm, folklorist Millie Rahn will be collecting stories about Cambridge picnics in the Folklife tent at University Park on Sidney Street. She’s eager for: “memories, stories, and foods/traditions of picnics, as well as photographs, objects (picnic baskets, tablecloths, blankets, dishes, etc.), games, and other picnic lore.”

Magazine Beach picnickers, please share your tales! Click here, for more information about Cambridge River Fest (this year at Central Square). The information about the Folklife tent, go to page 10.

Also, many thanks to Novartis’s 80 volunteers for their clean up of Magazine Beach on May 22nd. According to organizer Danielle Stehlik, of the Charles River Conservancy, they: “picked up trash, raked leaves (under the overpass, in the sprinkler pool, and along the pathways), mulched the garden bed, and removed graffiti. They also fixed and painted benches between River Street and Western Avenue Bridges before the rain rolled in.” The park is looking so much better…

Some of the 80 Novartis volunteers. Thank you, and to the CRC, too!

Christopher Schmidt’s DJI Phhantom FC40 Quadcopter was flying over Magazine Beach last week and captured these views… Thank you, Christopher!

From Christopher, himself:

Over the past several months, I’ve been a regular visitor to Magazine Beach, at all times of day. As an owner of a new RC aircraft — specifically, a Phantom FC40 quadcopter — I’ve loved the open space of Magazine Beach for walking, and flying, in a beautifully scenic spot.

I’ve been able to fly at all times of day, from morning to night, and had conversations with dozens of people about the power of the quadcopter for aerial photography. Whether it’s filming rowers from Riverside Boat House along the river, catching an aerial shot of a little league game at Brud Whalen field, or just navigating the trees and picnic tables near the Powder Magazine, the park offers great oppourtunities for fun in the sun.

The great space, and great conversations with other people about this new technology and the benefits it gives for aerial photography, keep me coming back to Magazine Beach to enjoy a beautiful spot along the Charles River.

(Video music: Awesome Call, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC-BY.)

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Just learned about this at our Earth Day Cleanup. Thank you to Andy Baer for sharing this March 1st story.

On our morning walk today Jane, Jack and I found this lady snowy owl hung up in a soccer goal at Magazine Beach in Cambridgeport. She had chased down the rabbit by her side. We didn’t want to just untangle her in case she was injured and took off so we called our friends at Cambridge Animal Control. Officer Alison P. came down with towels, cutter, and a cage. She and Jane freed her while I took pix(and a video that unfortunately didn’t come out…) and Jack our dog watched from the driver’s seat of the Cambridge Animal Control Van. Alison took the owl to the Animal Rescue League where it was determined to have been banded, to be a juvenile, have a small laceration, be a bit under weight and missing some tail feathers. She is being transported out to Tufts Veterinary School for rehab. All in all looks like a good outcome.

Andy Baer

 To learn more about the influx of Snowy Owls in Massachusetts this past winter, see and hear WBUR’s report on Snowy Owls Head South in Biggest Numbers in 50 Years. Most have migrated south by now, though one was just sighted at Plum Island and another at Duxbury Beach. To learn about bird sightings, see: http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/birds-birding/recent-sightings and http://massbird.org/sightings/.

Many thanks to all who came out in the rain for the Earth Day Cleanup Saturday morning, including volunteers from Momenta, Alumni of McGill University and Whole Foods. The Hale Street Crew, our State Rep. Jay Livingstone and stalwart neighbors also provided critical assistance. The park is looking much better! We picked up about 20 bags of sticks and dozens of bags of trash.

Great organizing, Charles River Conservancy, the Charles River Watershed Association, and DCR! And thanks to Whole Foods for the delicious fruit, to Jet Blue for all the snacks, and to all the other Earth Day sponsors.

McGill Alumni, thank you!

Whole Foods, fabulous, and thanks for the fruit!

Momenta, thank you!

Also, spring has sprung at Magazine Beach. Drop by and enjoy the cherry blossoms.

Hi All,

Looks like a rainy Saturday tomorrow in the low 50ies or so….

But we’re tough Cantabrigians and we won’t let that stop us from picking up sticks and trash at Magazine Beach Park, no siree!

See you at the parking crescent at the base of Magazine Street (near the pedestrian footbridge) with brownies, water (to drink) and other treats AND Earth Day t-shirts, of course.

Wear lots of layers and weather gear for a memorable morning of civic engagement.

The 15th Annual Charles River Cleanup will go on, up and down the Charles, regardless of the weather!

Cathie

See you there, rain or shine, for a morning along the River and the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping out. We’ll provide water, snacks, work gloves and 2014 Charles River Earth Day Cleanup t-shirts. Organized by the Charles River Watershed Association, the Charles River Conservancy, DCR, etc. Spring is in the air at Magazine Beach!

Cleanup participants are invited to an after party at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade from 12noon to 2pm. There will be refreshments, music and games and a chance to win jetBlue airline tickets! Your Earth Day Cleanup t-shirt is your ticket to the festivities.

Dick Garver and his family pose behind the “Dick Garver,” a newly christened 8-person shell.

As a member of Riverside, Dick has worked with the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association over the past three years to encourage improvements at the park. He has spoken in favor of Magazine Beach and general DCR funding at City and State hearings, helped plan several significant meetings regarding the future of our park, and represented Riverside at cleanups and park Celebrations.

Dick is the historian of the RBC and, in 2008, wrote A Brief History of Riverside Boat Club. See: http://www.riversideboatclub.com/page.aspx?p=216. A rower on the Charles since his college days, Dick is famous at Riverside, said former RBC President Igor Belakovskiy, for his extraordinary commitment to the Club and to rowing, even during the most inhospitable weather. He is a model for us all!

Two smaller boats were named for Liane Malcos Keister, a 6-time US National Team Member, 2003 World Champion and 2004 and 2008 Olympic Alternate, and the assistant coach of Riverside’s High Performance Group and Sean Wolf, a two time US National Team Member and former Riverside Captain.

Regarding the Crusher Case Race results, the women’s race was won by Ilana Zieff, while Nick Daniloff took advantage of the age handicap and won the men’s race at the ripe young age of 79.

Thank you to Igor Belakovskiy for this information and the photograph!

Note: The Riverside Boat Club is just to the left of the swimming pool at MB Park. This home of national and international rowing champions is proud of its immigrant, workingman’s rowing heritage. It is the last of the workingman’s clubs on the Charles. Dick notes what a popular sport rowing was in the late 1800s:

“By 1869, the year Riverside Boat Club was formed, there were
approximately ninety American rowing clubs, club memberships were
booming, sixty-five regattas were held throughout the country, and
racing for prizes was attracting widespread interest. Rowing was on its
way to becoming America’s most popular spectator sport.”

The Historic Structure Report for the Powder Magazine is about to be released and the RFP for roof repairs to the Magazine is about to go out. Look for construction come May and for programming at the park this summer–including our 2014 Celebration in September! And more, too…

Save the Date: Saturday, April 26, 9am-12noon, at Magazine Beach, for DCR’s Park Serve Day/15th Annual Charles River Earth Day Cleanup! Be there. It’s fun. It’s needed. And it feels good.

Magazine Beach needing some love. Thank goodness for the Earth Day Cleanup 4.26!