Seagulls on the fence surrounding Jerry s Pond. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
The owners of a fenced-off pond in North Cambridge will clean up the area and open it to the public, according to plans released during a public meeting last week.
Jerry s Pond is part of a larger 26-acre site purchased by real estate company IQHQ last summer. The area had historically been owned by chemical companies, and contaminants including asbestos have been found in and around the pond.
The pond has been an important issue for many in the area, because of its history as a swimming hole, its contamination and its proximity to the Rindge Towers. The towers along with the nearby Jefferson Park apartments mark the highest density of affordable housing in Cambridge.
“Make me a park!”
The message is written on posters taped to a 6-foot chain-link fence. And shouted, loudly, by Lewis Weitzman, a resident of Cambridge.
Weitzman is shouting about Jerry’s Pond a fenced-off pond completely closed to the public, sandwiched between the Alewife T Station and Russell Field in North Cambridge. He s at the pond on a fall day, running a clean-up event with Friends of Jerry’s Pond, a community group he co-founded with Eric Grunebaum.
Lewis Weitzman during the clean-up day at Jerry s Pond. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
“We could create a lot more space here,” says Grunebaum, “and that space could be used for off-road bike paths, meandering nature walks, some boardwalks through the woods. It would improve the natural landscape, but also give people access to it.”