Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
We've been having fun with videos in the comment section for my post on 66 Cherry Valley Road, but Sensei, as always, has come up wth this one, from Australia. The winner.
44 Glen Avon Drive, $4,662,500. The sellers paid $4.475 for the house when it was newly-built in 2004, so no home run here, but not a terrible loss, either, unlike some other areas of town. That's due in part to Glen Avon's (deserved, in my opinion) popularity.
I was a little surprised to see that the cedar roof, installed in 2003-2004, has already been replaced. I know that cedar roofs have a short lifespan despite their high cost, but 14 years seems like an unusually brief existence. Reader, what's your experience with these things?
And if you come bck tomorrow, the odd are in your fvor that we'll have another fairytale for you
As readers know, I have a low regard for conspiracy theories, mainly because the reasons the world is going to hell are pretty much staring us in the face. But I can't honestly blame anyone following the Las Vegas massacre story from taking refuge in any conspiracy theory, no matter how wild and zany. Almost a fortnight from the moment when 58 people were gunned down at a country-music festival, officialdom has so bungled the case that almost every single one of the most basic facts about the act are up for grabs.
Earlier this week whichever branch of the Keystone Kops is running this show (apparently the Feds) completely reversed their timeline of the case. Previously we were told that Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos had gone up to the 32nd floor to investigate an "open-door" alert and was a hero because his intervention had distracted the perp from killing even more people - and fortunately, even as Mr Campos was taking a bullet in his leg, the cops were already pounding up the stairs.
We're now told that that timeline was, in fact, back to front. Instead, Jesus Campos was investigating the door alert before the massacre even began. At 9.59pm, Paddock responded to Mr Campos' arrival by emptying 200 rounds into the 32nd floor corridor. Which seems a tad excessive. Paddock then apparently took a leisurely six-minute break before going over to the window and beginning his massacre. Which seems a tad excessively relaxed. What was he doing? Having a nice cup of tea? Calling down to room service? Your guess is as good as the coppers'.
But, at any rate, it seems someone else was on the scene - maintenance man Stephen Schuck, who was also forced to take cover from those 200 rounds:
As Mr Schuck says above, when the shooting began, he used his radio to call in what was happening - including the precise location of the room from which the shots were coming. That was six minutes before Paddock began firing on the crowd. So in theory the police could have gotten there in time to prevent, if not all, then many or most of the deaths at the concert.
But they didn't. Instead, Paddock fired on the crowd for ten minutes and then, despite having apparently prepared for a siege, decided to call a halt and shoot himself.
The Mandalay Bay resort is now disputing the police's revised timeline. They say that officers were already in the building when Campos radioed in that he was shot and, within 40 seconds, both police and hotel security were on the 32nd floor.
So that's three timelines. We're now told:
Police say the current timeline will be revised again by Friday.
I'll bet. While we're waiting, I'll confess that I dislike the current preferred jargonizing whereby the Sheriff announces that they're "working" various crime scenes. I don't know quite what's involved in "working" a crime scene but one would assume it includes at minimum securing the crime scene. Yet apparently not. Last weekend, Paddock's home in Reno was burgled. Just consider that for a moment: On Sunday night someone pulls off the worst single-shooter massacre in American history - and yet it's insufficient of a priority to the multiple federal, state and local agencies investigating it to prevent the supposed perpetrator's property being broken into under their noses.
That seems odd, don't you think? Sometimes, in unusual cases, sleepy small-town two-man police departments find themselves a wee bit overwhelmed, and sloppy things happen. But how can it happen with these resources in the most prominent investigation in the country?
It is unclear to the Keystone Kops what was taken from the Reno home. Of course. Since Day One, this entire case has been about what's missing, and what's missing seems to be getting larger. There appear to be four photographs of Stephen Paddock - three from many years ago, and a fourth that shows him with closed eyes. That's quite unusual in the age of Facebook and selfies. But it seems even more absurd for a guy who spent much of his time in a town where humanity is under closer scrutiny than almost anywhere on the planet. Long before computers and the Internet, Vegas casinos had cameras everywhere filming their patrons for the benefit of unseen eyes in the back office concerned to know what their customers are up to at every moment and from every angle. Yet there's only one solitary image that approximates to how Stephen Paddock looked on the night of October 1st?
Where's the footage of him bringing those bags into the hotel? When, come to that, did he check in to the Mandalay Bay? By now, this ever shifting, reversible "timeline" should at least have a verifiable starting date, shouldn't it? As "empty" as Paddock was a week and a half ago, he's getting emptier, and blanker: We're asked to believe that he made "millions" playing video poker - which is as likely, as Ann Coulter put it in an excellent column, as making millions by smoking crack. If, in the all but statistically impossible event he did manage to relieve the casinos' machines of millions of dollars, he would certainly not be additionally enriched by free hotel suites and complimentary $500-a-glass vintage port, as his brother claims.
Surely his wasn't the only contract with that provision
In fact, he has an excellent argument that he was wrongfully fired by Miramax
Serial sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein's contract with The Weinstein Company (TWC) included a clause that allowed for his sexual harassment as long as he paid the costs of settlements out of his own pocket, TMZ reported Thursday.
According to Weinstein's 2015 employment contract, as seen by TMZ, if he got sued for sexual harassment or any other "misconduct" resulting in a settlement or judgment against TWC, as long as Weinstein paid the company what the company paid out, plus a fine, he was good to go.
The contract reportedly states: "You [Weinstein] will pay the company liquidated damages of $250,000 for the first such instance, $500,000 for the second such instance, $750,000 for the third such instance, and $1,000,000 for each additional instance."
According to the contract, a payout by Weinstein constituted a "cure" for the misconduct and no further action could be taken.
In other words, TMZ explained, "Weinstein could be sued over and over and as long as he wrote a check, he keeps his job."
Nothing like a flat roof in a connecticut winter
GT's out with an "article" profiling a back country contemporary up at 66 Cherry Valley Road, currently priced at $10.888 million. I've always felt a pang of guilt about this property because back in 2003, when it came on the market at $18 million, I wrote about it in a newspaper column that was running at the time. I scoffed at the price, and the design, and mentioned that it adjoined a pond so choked with algae that the seller should be expected to throw a lawnmower into the deal. The owner was so incensed that he called, not me, but his own listing agent, and tore his ears off for a full half-hour, or so I'm told. That poor guy, new to the business, was sufficiently traumatized that he quit the business, permanently, immediately after his client hung up. Sorry, pal.
I don't know where that young man ended up, but a new agent was assigned to the property and she eventually sold it 9to her own client) in 2005 for $11.4 million. No mention in the sales report whether a lawnmower was included.
In any event, those buyers have been trying to unload it since 2010, starting at $13 million and barely budging as the years crept by. Personally, I'd put more faith in a substantial price cut than a glowing article in Greenwich Time, but perhaps that's just me.
Though I'll always admire him for goosing Peter Tesei during their debate
Frank and I are friends, but I really haven't spoken to him in the past couple of years: I keep my real estate license with him, and that's about it, so I don't know his side of the story. I do know that one of the reasons we haven't communicated much is that he was always traveling to Hartford. I'd have thought the mileage for those trips would have been a justified expense, but again, I don't know the story. I do know that Frank served as the unpaid Lottery Commissioner for years, driving to Hartford many times a week, so why someone in Hartford is now complaining about mileage reimbursement is, to me, a mystery.
When the leaves Are down, you can see Long Island sound
28 Windrose Way. The former Carl Bennett estate (of Caldor's, for those with long memories, and reputedly one of the kindest gentlemen of his era). Dropped $700,000 today, to $8.250 million. The heirs priced this at $17.950 back in 2009 before finally selling it to this owner for $6.5 in 2011.
These sellers tore down the original house (built in 1985; how soon our current housing stock becomes obsolete) but otherwise haven't done much. Presumably, their plans to build new were scrapped.
Decent lot, but not high enough to offer the spectacular view down Long Island Sound that its location would otherwise suggest, and the land mass to its right is one the market as one, perhaps two building lots, so there will be neighbors.
Still, it's Mead Point, and that's worth a lot.
Hey, big spender
BOE candidate debate was held last night. This quote from one of the two Democrat "contenders" (they're automatically given a seat at the table), Kathleen Stowe, illustrates exactly what's wrong with our town's spending. Speaking of the proposed New Lebanon School, Stowe recommended that we go full-steam ahead with the$37 million project, regardless of whether the state will contribute $23 million.
Stowe, an investment banker, agreed money for the New Lebanon project should be released by the town right away.
“It should be up to the standards for the rest of Greenwich,” she said. “We can build it. We’re Greenwich. "
Music halls, swimming pools, police and firemen palaces, money's no object - we're Greenwich.
Mark Twain summed up the situation a long time ago:
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards.
- Following the Equator; Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar
step on it!
The founder of an Edgecomb school who in 2015 won a $1 million prize Global Teacher Prize has been charged for a third time with shoplifting, this time allegedly stealing a $28 dog leash from Ames True Value in Wiscasset.
Nancie Atwell, 66, of Southport received a summons for theft and violating conditions of release on Friday, according to Wiscasset Police Chief Jeffrey Lange.
Security personnel at the store on Route 1 reported to police that while reviewing security camera footage, they saw Atwell take the leash.
Atwell founded the Center for Teaching and Learning in 1990 and has written numerous books about education methods. In March 2015, she traveled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to accept what is known as the “Nobel Prize of teaching.”
No mention of whether she'll be running for political office.
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