Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
And I direct the jury to find the defendant trump guilty — evidence can be introduced at a later date
Gideon has alerted me to the June 28th sale of 15 Meadowcroft Lane for $19.250 million. Three acres, built by Sound Beach Partners and impressive, if your tastes run this way.
Mt. Desert Island
I’ll admit that this post is just a tad hypocritical: Greenwich residents haven’t been exactly welcoming to the idea of creating housing for local workers, so who am I to point a finger at those same Greenwichites trying to preserve the quaint atmosphere of their favorite summer vacation spot?
But here in town, our leaf blowers, domestics, school teachers and lawyers can always bus in from Port Chester, or wherever those people come from, and not disturb our tranquility, whereas the serfs of Maine don’t have the luxury of enjoying nearby apartments to shack up in, twelve per-unit; there just aren’t enough trailer parks in Ellsworth, 45-minutes away, to house them all.
So this effort by the better folk of summer to keep the sweaty-shouldered hoi polloi in their place and off the island during non-working hours seems short sighted: the very people expected to serve the rich their food, clean their toilets and tidy up after the children’s midnight beerfests on the beaches may just decide not to come to work for them at all.
A group of property owners in Northeast Harbor has filed a court appeal to try to overturn local approval of a workforce housing development.
The project, proposed by the local nonprofit organization Mount Desert 365, would create six housing units reserved for income-qualified year-round residents at the corner of Neighborhood and Manchester roads in the Mount Desert village of Northeast Harbor. The group of seven property owners challenged the town’s approval in the state’s Business and Consumer Court, but Justice Thomas McKeon ruled last month in favor of the town and upheld the town’s approval of the proposed development.
The appellants, all of whom are seasonal residents who own property near the planned development site, filed an appeal of McKeon’s decision on Monday with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, according to notices sent to the town and to Mount Desert 365.
“Mount Desert 365 is deeply disappointed by this new appeal,” the group’s executive director Kathy Miller, said. “It will add delays and expenses to much-needed year round housing. It will also add to the legal expense of the town of Mount Desert as it defends the planning board decision.”
Miller said that the town has spent more $55,000 total on the proposal, including on staff time when it was pending before the planning board and on legal fees that have come up since it was approved by the town. She said she doesn’t know what legal arguments the project opponents plan to make in the appeal.
Grady Burns, the attorney representing the project opponents, did not return messages seeking comment on Thursday.
Mount Desert 365’s roots date back to 2016, when the town decided not to allow local cruise ship visits in Northeast Harbor. Some local business owners and residents said that, if cruise ships were not going to be allowed, then something needed to be done to boost the village’s shrinking year-round population and economy. The organization was founded, with support from year-round and seasonal residents, to address the issue
Housing prices on Mount Desert Island and in coastal Maine have soared in recent years, making it more difficult for people with hourly jobs to afford to live on the island. Mount Desert 365, which owns the lot on the corner of Neighborhood and Manchester roads and others in Northeast Harbor, is hoping to develop the site and to put income-related covenants on the property so that year-round residents who work as teachers, firefighters, bank tellers or other service-related jobs can live there.
Miller said the project would consist of one existing house on the lot that is being renovated. Another single-family home and two duplexes would be built on the property, which would be owned in condominium fashion with each homeowner belonging to the property’s homeowners’ association.
Miller said the appeal to Maine’s top court could take up to a year to be resolved.
Bob Newhart is dead at 94. I was introduced to his comedy via the record “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart”, probably a couple of years after its 1960 release, but not much later: we were listening to Vaughn Meader’s “First Family” record at the same time, and the subject of JFK and his family stopped being funny on November 22, 1963. So, 1962-63, and my appreciation of the man continued on over the decades.
My all time favorite of his skits remains “Stop It!”. I don’t when it was first recorded, but it was a long time ago, I still laugh every time I see it.
Four days ago, Time Released this copy of its coming cover:
Then this happened:
On Monday, Democrat house organ Axios ran a column headlined, “How photographers view the photos of Trump’s assassination attempt.”
Zoom in: Multiple photographers worried privately in conversations with Axios that the images from the rally could turn into a kind of “photoganda,” with the Trump campaign using them to further their agenda despite the photographers’ intent of capturing a news event.
None would comment on the record for fear of losing future work.
A photo editor and photographer from a major news outlet said the “amount that publications have been using Evan’s photo is kind of free P.R. for Trump in a way, and its dangerous for media organizations to keep sharing that photo despite how good it is.”
The editors heard the dogwhistle, and obeyed, thus:
And an appreciation of the photograph and the man who took it can be found here.
A Natural: Photographer Who Snapped Now Iconic Trump Rally Shot a Pulitzer Winner.
After 64 days on the market without an offer, the builder of the new structure at 17 Bramble Lane, Riverside, has dropped its price from $5.295 million to $4.995. I’m sure that will do it.
It’s an odd-looking house, but what it lacks in curbside appeal may be compensated for by its “character oak flooring”. I was unfamiliar with the term, so I looked it up: it turns out, it’s oak planks with knots in them. We used to call those “seconds”, but then, we also used to have master bedrooms, garages were referred to as garages, not “garaging”, and porte cocheres were reserved for David Ogilvy listings; life goes on, I guess.
Friends of mine sold this property to the builder in 2022 for $1,771,750 million (original ask, $1.650) and they, at least, did well: I don’t know what they paid for it in 1969, but I’m sure it was less than that.
686 Lake Avenue, $3,000,000. It’s been on the market for 47 days, so we can probably assume that it will be selling for less than that asking price.
(Just sayin’)
22 Angus Lane, $6.450 million; full asking price, 11 days. Usually, a house this ugly takes a while to find a buyer, as this one did when its builder put it on the market in 2020 for $6.250 and had to settle for $4.350 from these owners in December, 2021. Luck of the draw, I suppose.
732 Lake Avenue, priced at $3.995 million and sold for $4.3. Interestingly, the house sold for $3.995 once before, in 2002, but those buyers eventually ran into financial troubles, and had to sell to these owners in 2019 for $1.450.
Someone got a bargain.
Large numbers of people entering or living in America illegally are exacerbating the housing crisis, including in areas like Ohio far from the border.
City Manager Bryan Heck of Springfield sent an urgent letter requesting federal aid to U.S. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Despite the city’s ongoing advancements in housing projects, the sheer number of migrants arriving and residing in the area has strained resources to their limits.
“Springfield has seen a surge in population through immigration that has significantly impacted our ability as a community to produce enough housing opportunities for all,” Heck wrote. “Springfield’s Haitian population has increased to 15,000 – 20,000 over the last four years in a community of just under 60,000 previous residents, putting a significant strain on our resources and ability to provide ample housing for all of our residents.”
“Springfield has found a way to feed, house, and provide free medical care to these poor refugees from that shit hole of a country”, Greenwich Invisible founder Joanna Swomley told FWIW, “and if Springfield can do it, well by golly, then, so can we! Like Springfield, we can put them up 12 to a hoe — well, heck, up in Baldwin Farms, we can make that three dozen — and now that we’ve banned leaf blowers, there’ll be plenty of work for them as tweezer patrolmen (and women! And people assigned as children at birth) to keep our lawns as bright, fresh, and tidy as they’ve always been.”
Since January 2021, an estimated 12 million people have entered the country illegally, coming from more than 150 countries. If you’d like to adopt a dozen or so, please contact the “non partisan” — anyone can join, as long as they’re against Trump” — Greenwich Invisible Ladies at their website: they’ll ship you a busload at your convenience.
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