Goodness, I hope none of the Greenwich Invisible ladies and their spouses were there


CNN — 

Thousands of activists from around the world are expected to descend on Egypt on Thursday for a “Global March to Gaza,” a movement aiming to break the Israeli blockade that has pushed the territory to the brink of famine.

Some 4,000 volunteers from over 80 countries will join the protest, according to organizers. They will land in Cairo, take buses to the city of Arish in northern Sinai, and then march around 30 miles through the desert peninsula to the Egyptian side of the Gaza border at Rafah. Organizers told CNN the activists will sleep in tents along the route and are expected to arrive at the border on Friday but do not plan to enter the war-ravaged enclave.

It is coordinating with activists and individuals from 50 countries who are flying into the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on June 12, so that they can all march to Rafah together.

Some of those activists are affiliated with an umbrella of grassroots organisations, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Codepink Women for Peace in the United States and Jewish Voice for Labour in the United Kingdom.

So how’d it go? Let’s just say they received a warm — hot, actually — welcome. It really is no mystery why no Middle Eastern country will allow s Palestinians in

'It's So Beautiful!' WATCH: Western 'March to Gaza' Leftists Mess Around in Egypt & Find Out in Real Time

(Those are civilians, including the woman beating them with her shoe)

UPDATE: They should be grateful they didn’t reach Gaza:

Hamas Kills 8 Workers For U.S.-Backed Gaza Aid Program In Bus Attack, Others Feared Kidnapped

The attack comes as Hamas continued to threaten aid workers and civilians receiving food from the U.S.-backed program.

Posturing Pukes

Rivians have become the favorite of the elite eager to show they support electric vehicles but not Musk. 

Over the past year, a striking shift has occurred in the Hamptons, Palo Alto and other high-end enclaves: Teslas — and being in any away associated with Elon Musk — are out. Rivians and Lucids are in for those looking to signal their environmentally conscious bonafides.

“Everyone is dumping their Cybertruck — they are desperate to find someone to take them away,” Matthew Ammirati, founder of the Bridgehampton Motoring Company which works with high-end car collectors, told me.

Rivian’s electric trucks are gaining traction among wealthy buyers simply because they have no association with Elon Musk (and by extension Donald Trump). This despite their premium sticker prices: R1T pickup trucks start at $70,000, while R1S SUVs start at $75,000 — roughly three times more than a base-model Tesla.

According to Rivian, the company has more than 100,000 people on the waitlist for their new R2 model that launches in 2026 — an indication that the cars are about status, not urgently needing a ride.

“On the high end, Rivians have become front and center,” Dan Ives, the Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering the Technology sector at Wedbush Securities, told me. “You’re seeing a lot more Rivians in East Hampton.”

Rivian has even invested in a new charging station-store combination in the Hamptons, only the third of its kind globally. (The other two are in Joshua Tree and Yosemite)

The embrace of Rivian and Lucid vehicles, however, is really only possible for a handful of wealthy buyers given their penchant for breaking down so frequently. 

“Rivians and Lucid are a nightmare from charging, insurance, accident — it would win most likely to get a car stuck on the beach,” Ammirati said. 

“He and his family have multiple back-up vehicles for when their Rivian breaks down” But the symbolism!

Travis Ketchum, who runs a software firm and reviews cars on the side out of Seattle, Wash., switched from a Tesla to a Rivian last year because of the politics rather than the quality of the car.

While he doesn’t regret it, he acknowledged that it has come with a number of setbacks.

“It’s often months before your car can be seen [for repair at a dealership] and it’ll be there days before people start working on it,” he said. He and his family have multiple back-up vehicles for when their Rivian breaks down

Price cut for distressed property on Cutler Road

85 Cutler Road, listed at $3.250 million in March, has been marked down to $2.750; it’s still got a ways to go.

The property’s been in the process of being foreclosed on since 2023, and that action may have been concluded, to the extent that these things are ever final. The owner paid $2.2 million for it in 2007 ($3.394 million, current dollars) and took out a $1.7 million mortgage from, who else, Washington Mutual. WaMu’s gone now, but not the mortgage: $1,688,467.18 of the principal remains unpaid; looks as though the first few monthly payments were made and then … pfft. Total debt now, as asserted by the holder of the mortgage and confirmed by the court, is $2,704,447.56.

High and dry on Valley Road — in this case, that's not a good thing

232 Valley Road, built on spec in 2017 was on the market from July to November 2018, beginning at $2.999 million and dropping to $2.45 and finally shuffling off to that great builder’s graveyard in the sky. Now it’s back, and priced at $3.999. The price has changed, but not the topography, and that’s a problem.

There was a deal reached on this property in April ‘22 that went as far as pending status that June, but things fell apart, and it was returned to the active roster that July. That listing expired in November 2022 and the house has stayed off the market until today, at this new improved price. Good luck with that.

Who would ever have expected this?

no one to see here, move along, move along

Require landlords, not renters, to pay a broker’s fee, and surely those landlords will simply eat the cost rather than pass them on to tenants, right? Right? No one on the City Council ever worked a real job or studied even basic economics, so results like these continue to astonish them.

End of broker fees drives up rent in NYC overnight. Will renters leave the city?

Keeping as close an eye as anyone on New York City's luxury rental market, Douglas Elliman broker Keyan Sanai is convinced that landlords will be hiking rents by hundreds of dollars a month as a result of a new law on broker fees.

Will that prompt a new stampede to suburban markets like Connecticut? No chance, Sanai says, noting sky-high occupancies in New York City today, five years after the COVID-19 pandemic drained apartment buildings in what turned out to be a short-lived outbound migration.

Under the new Fairness in Apartment Rentals Expenses Act that took effect in New York City on Wednesday, landlords must cover fees that tenants had previously been paying brokers for available rental listings. Landlords that fail to do so can be forced to pay restitution by state regulators, and can be sued for noncompliance.

Sanai, a Manhattan-based broker for Douglas Elliman, says many listings on Zillow's StreetEasy website and others suddenly became more expensive overnight as the new rules took effect — in the midst of the prime lease season that runs through September.

"The data's there — 1,000 listings fell off StreetEasy within 24 hours," Sanai said. "Every single landlord is baking it in, in some capacity. The question is, what percentage are they baking in?"

While renters will save moving costs up front by not having to pay a broker fee, Sanai believes that they will pay more over time as rents reset to higher rates, particularly those who stay more than a few years in the same apartment. Still, he believes the vast majority of New York City renters will just pay more rather than contemplate a move out of the city, noting occupancies have stayed high despite overall rent inflation and other costs of living in the past few years.

Manhattan had the sixth hottest rental market in the country heading into the spring and summer apartment hunting season, according to Rent Cafe analyzing data from Yardi Metrix. The Stamford-Bridgeport corridor was tied with Brooklyn for eighth place on the study.

"There's a couple of things you can bet on with absolute certainty," Sanai said. "You can bet on the fact that New York City will always come back."

Sanini will be proved wrong about the city’s prospects if the voters put a socialist/communist in office, as seems likely; at least, that’s what “the Experts” say, and when have they ever been wrong? Still, stopped clock and all that, and their prediction seems at least plausible, because how much punishment is the middle class willing to endure?

Socialist NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani will trigger mass exodus with tax hike plot to pay for $10B policies, experts warn.