New construction in Riverside

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New to the market today, 9 Dorchester Lane is entertaining offers beginning at $5.995 million. Nothing unusual about that these days except, perhaps, its location on Dorchester, but what is unusual is what happened when the house this one replaced was put on the market in April, 2023 at $1,499,500: a listing agent’s standard hyperbole was actually fulfilled. “Drive by and submit your offer today”, Raveis’s David Wilk urged prospective buyers, “before it’s too late”. Son of a gun, the house sold immediately for $1.550 million.

“this one won’t last!” and it didn’t.

Contract on the Peninsula

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29 Field Point Drive, of Belle Haven but not in it, reports a contract. Current price is/was $7.950 million, it started off last April at $8.750. 1925 construction, updated over the years, it has a far prettier interior than its exterior would suggest. I’ll guess that that’s because the original acreage, which would have offered a nicer approach, was sold off over the years.

But that’s a quibble, sort of; nice neighborhood, golf club- wielding ruffians aside, and good house.

I’d thought he was going to go after our and Europe's open borders, but Stephen Hayward has a bigger target in mind

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InstaPundit’s Sarah Hoyt combines the two, and I’m sure Hayward would agree: WELFARE STATE COMBINED WITH OPEN BORDERS. YOU CAN’T AFFORD FERAL CULTURES COMING FOR HANDOUTS:

Here’s PowerLien’s Hayward:

A Parable of the Welfare State?

“The New York Times ran what I am sure they thought was just a mildly amusing human interest story a few days back:”

Woman Calls 911 When 100 Aggressive Raccoons Show Up in Her Yard

The Washington State resident fed some friendly critters for years. Then, their mean friends turned up.

For more than 35 years, a woman in Washington State would leave some food in her yard for about a dozen resident raccoons.

“The key word in that sentence is “dozen.” ‘

Six weeks ago, the number of raccoons began to increase. “Somehow the word got out in raccoon land, and they all showed up to her house expecting a meal,” Kevin McCarty, a spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, told NBC 9 news. . .

The newer raccoons began scratching around the woman’s house near Poulsbo, Wash., all night demanding food. “Anytime she comes out of her home, they swarm her until she throws them food,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement. “The normal raccoons that she feeds are nice, but the new ones showing up scare her.”

By last Thursday afternoon, the newly scary raccoons had grown to a horde of about 100, prompting the woman, whose name has not been released, to call 911. Her concern was increased by the newer arrivals’ greater aggression after years of dealing with a relatively docile, much smaller band.

Hayward: “We are—or should be—familiar with the warnings at Yellowstone and other national parks not to feed the wildlife because it makes them fat and dependent. Why isn’t this lesson applied to humans who become dependent on public assistance, and who over time become surly with entitlement to public assistance?”

I didn't have access to the interview, but apparently Baier far exceeded the expectations of many of us (UPDATED)

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'I'm Speaking': Bret Baier Interviews Kamala Harris

Admittedly, the comments in the X post below are from conservatives, so their crowing that Kampalla was “destroyed” may be taken with a large dose of salt, but all, even self-admitted non-Baier fans, applaud his tough questioning. So good for him.

She doesn’t look too smart in this clip, and Baier, unlike any of the milksops who’ve “interviewed” her previously, does ask a hard follow up question.

UPDATE: Sheesh, this one’s even worse — although I doubt her supporters will agree. The battle lines — Trump-NoTrump — were drawn years ago; all that remains to determine the outcome is voter turnout and vote fraud.

One of these has a cross, one has a star of David, and all three lack a functioning brain

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A sale in Chieftans (with apologies to the indigenous people this land was stolen from)

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23 Chieftans Commanders Road closed today at $3.450 million. The seller paid $2.4 for it in 2013 ($3.286 million in current dollars), so she made out reasonably well — better, certainly, than her predecessor, who paid $3.050 in 2003 and after extensive renovations tried for $4.250 in 2005. Thwarted in that attempt, she kept trying over the years, before finally selling it at the aforementioned $2.4 in 2013.

The Chieftans development has always underperformed the general Greenwich market since it was built out in 2000-2005, but they’ve been selling for better prices recently.

Transfer the (remaining) agencies out of D.C. and into to the hinterlands — then salt the earth

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inauguration day 2025, washington, d.c.: trump clean-up crew sets to work

‘They’re so vindictive’: Why some federal employees are fearing Trump 2.0

… Federal employees throughout the executive branch are panicking at the thought of another Trump administration.

Former President Donald Trump has pledged to “demolish the deep state.” His running mate, Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, has said Trump ought to fire “every civil servant in the administrative state.” It’s not just campaign-trail bluster. In the waning days of his first administration, Trump sought to make it easier to fire federal employees — a move that was quickly reversed by the Biden administration.

Workers in some agencies are particularly distraught about a possible Trump return. The former president and his allies have singled out certain agencies — including those that issue environmental rules — as prime targets, should he return to office in January.

It’s “in the back of everybody’s mind” that a Trump administration might purge the federal workforce, said one employee at the National Science Foundation.

“People are worried, but anybody who has half a brain is existentially afraid for the safety of democracy,” that person said. At the moment, “people are very concerned with their day-to-day jobs” and are “working to make sure they can get a lot of good done now.” [“Working to make sure they can get a lot of good now” — the Deep State is burrowing deep. ]

Feds’ fears about Trump are justified, said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat whose district is packed with government employees.

“Federal employees are rightly concerned about what a second Trump presidency will mean for them and, by extension, for the American people they so dutifully serve,” Connolly said.

Do it do it:

Trump “has pledged to fire or relocate more than 100,000 federal employees who live and work in the D.C. region. He has repeatedly and shamelessly mocked the work of career experts and scientists, going so far as to scrub references to climate change from government websites. He has even promised to abolish entire government agencies that do not sufficiently bend themselves to his whims,” Connolly said.

Contract up (nearly) in Banksville

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7 Cherry Blossom Lane, new construction priced at $6.895 million has a contract. This will come as a disappointment to the would-be sellers of No.4 Cherry Blossom, which is still languishing at $8.350 million after starting in April at $9.650 and taking a price cut just last week. It’s a safe bet that this buyer looked at both houses before choosing the newer, more attractive model — scorned wives everywhere will know the feeling.

A hurricane-proof town? Really? It seems so.

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‘Hurricane-proof’ Florida town Babcock Ranch escaped Milton’s wrath virtually unscathed

A Florida community built specifically to withstand powerful storm-force winds made it through Hurricane Milton with barely a scratch — never even losing power as the tempest ran roughshod on the Sunshine State.

Babcock Ranch, a town about 15 miles northeast of Fort Myers, bills itself as “the Hometown of Tomorrow” on its website, a claim bolstered by its ultra-resilient structures and high-tech solar farms which ensure uninterrupted power for its roughly 10,000 residents.

Every structure in the town is built to withstand winds up to 150 mph, and its 150-megawatt solar farms and sophisticated underground electricity transmission systems kept the juice flowing even as over 3 million were left without power statewide as the storm blew through last week.

To mitigate flooding, 90% of the community is built on preserved wetlands which naturally collect excess rainwater.

This helps ensure floodwaters won’t encroach as the town balloons in size to its planned 19,500 homes.

Opening to residents in 2018, the community about the size of Manhattan saw little more than a few downed trees and traffic lights during Hurricane Milton, and even took in around 2,000 Floridians seeking shelter.

“When Governor DeSantis made the announcement that Babcock Ranch was open we saw a very big surge in evacuees,” Syd Kitson, a former NFL player and co-founder of the town told the New York Times.

…

Babcock Ranch showed off its storm-hardened infrastructure during Hurricane Ian in 2022, weathering the Category 4 storm with minimal damage, even as neighboring communities were battered to the tune of $115 billion in losses, the outlet said.

“Mother Nature is going to rule every time,” Kitson said. “But what we try to do is mitigate as much of that risk as possible and make our community as resilient as we can.”

Homes in the community — which boasts two schools, numerous parks and around six million square feet of commercial space — run from just under $300,000 to over $4 million.

Kitson said the town is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2035.

Skeptic that I am, I wondered, reading this, whether Ft. Meyers itself was outside of the hurricane’s path, but no: I looked it up, and the town got hammered.

So I’m impressed. It seems that technology and smart planning can actually help when people insist on living in hurricane zones, and that seems to include all of Florida,

No surprise here

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U.S. — In a tense exchange with Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, ABC news anchor Martha Raddatz argued that the tragedy of September 11th had been way overblown since it only involved a handful of buildings.

"They only hit three buildings, and you're calling this a major issue?" asked Raddatz, incredulous. "You realize I can literally count on one hand how many planes were hijacked. Stop making 9/11 out to be such a big deal."

….

At publishing time, Raddatz had sat with her mouth agape for thirty minutes after Vance asked if January 6th was therefore not a big deal since only one building was involved.