Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
35 Mooreland Road
35 Mooreland Road, which started off in 2017 asking $11.250 million, is currently asking $8.395, and reports a pending sale. Its sister house, 37 Mooreland, by the same builder, started at $11.950 in 2017, and sold last October for $8.4, so this sale price seems in accord with 37’s price.
I have a suspicion that both these houses will be valued in the mid-sixes down the road, but what’s a Wall Street bonus for, if not to blow on indulgences?
From that paper’s international edition, this editorial cartoon. I used to ask my Jewish friends why they supported the anti-Semites running the Times; I’ve given up.
Here’ a wise writer’s take on this:
What the Times should have said was:
‘We ran a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon. At a time when anti-Jewish violence and incitement is at levels not seen since 1945, we chose to place gutter racism on our pages. We did this because plenty of our editors share the prejudice of this cartoon; if in doubt, look at our unsigned editorials.
‘We’re so soaked in this that none of us thought that it might be an error to publish a cartoon with clear precursors in fascist, communist, Arab nationalist and Islamist propaganda. Rather than explain this away in the passive tense, we’re going to name the editors who signed off on this cartoon, and fire them.’
Of course, the Times will do none of this.
Drugs are suspected of being involved
Florida Man assaults mattress, claiming his girlfriend is hiding a lover inside
Oquendo locked [his girlfriend] into the bedroom with him and reportedly stabbed the mattress with a bed post and ripped it apart with his bare hands in an effort to find the man, according to a Facebook post by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
She was able to escape and call police. Oquendo was charged with domestic violence related false imprisonment and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Oquendo told deputies that he was fighting the man inside the mattress and holding him until police arrived at the Fort Walton Beach home. He claimed the man had gotten away.
The police reported no injuries.
65 Clapboard Ridge Road, reduced today to $7.895 million. Owners paid $10 million for it in 2007, and the owners before them paid $7 million in 1999 ($10.681 in current dollars). Town still appraises it at $10,514,680, so a reduced tax bill should be waiting the lucky buyer.
This 14,000 sq.ft. building is located on lower Clapboard Ridge, so it has location going for it. Otherwise, not much.
Phi Zappa Crappa
The fraud that is education. How colleges are ripping off a generation of ill-prepared students. In fact, that fraud begins in pre-K.
Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the nation’s “report card,” was released. It’s not a pretty story.
Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.
The atrocious National Assessment of Educational Progress performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math.
For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level.
It’s grossly dishonest for the education establishment and politicians to boast about unprecedented graduation rates when the high school diplomas, for the most part, do not represent academic achievement. At best, they certify attendance.
Fraudulent high school diplomas aren’t the worst part of the fraud. Some of the greatest fraud occurs at the higher education levels—colleges and universities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of white high school graduates in 2016 enrolled in college, and 58 percent of black high school graduates enrolled in college.
Here are my questions to you: If only 37 percent of white high school graduates test as college-ready, how come colleges are admitting 70 percent of them? And if roughly 17 percent of black high school graduates test as college-ready, how come colleges are admitting 58 percent of them?
…..
Colleges also set up majors with little analytical demands so as to accommodate students with analytical deficits. Such majors often include the term “studies,” such as ethnic studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and American studies. The major for the most ill-prepared students, sadly enough, is education. When students’ SAT scores are ranked by intended major, education majors place 26th on a list of 38.
The bottom line is that colleges are admitting youngsters who have not mastered what used to be considered a ninth-grade level of proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Very often, when they graduate from college, they still can’t master even a 12th-grade level of academic proficiency.
….
How necessary is college anyway? One estimate is that 1 in 3 college graduates have a job historically performed by those with a high school diploma. According to Richard Vedder, distinguished emeritus professor of economics at Ohio University and the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, in 2012 there were 115,000 janitors, 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, and about 35,000 taxi drivers with a bachelor’s degree.
85 Pecksland Road is new to the market, priced at $3.995 million. The town’s appraisal is $4.195, so on its face, the price seems reasonable, but does anyone still want a dated 1900 house on Pecksland?
Not long ago, that would have been a ridiculous question. The house was owned for the past fifty years by a very successful Greenwich family, and there certainly would have been a large buyer pool willing and able to take this off their hands, but today? We’ll see.
30 Park Avenue, selling price, $2.850 million, asking price, $2.795 It was listed March 4, and had contract within a week.
Park Avenue is great street, with friendly neighbors and an easy walk to the school, the train and Village shopping. My only quibble, and it’s not the seller’s fault, is the one car “FARport”. These things re built so as to permit a house itself to have usable space within the limits imposed by our Floor Area Regulations. In the twenty years since we imposed these on ourselves, no one has been able to persuade me that allowing a door on a carport would adversely affect the neighborhood.
The bicycle thieves from Stamford appreciate our thoughtfulness, but who else?
No. Just … no
Certainly the “women of color” of the party are already bitching about white men participating in the upcoming primaries, and if they and their like-minded peers seem likely to sit this one out, it’s not wildly implausible to envision a coup on the convention floor or, more likely, in one those smoke filled rooms. Dumping Bernie in favor of Joe, or vice versa, would trigger chaos, but Michelle is hugely popular with Democrats, and could probably step in and be welcomed by the ranks.
And with no record of accomplishments, good or bad, to attack, and a fawning, adoring press to boost her, she’d be hard to beat.
The owners of 17 Sabine Farm Road, a 2001 build on 2.67 acres, paid $8.2 million for it in 2006. They put it back on the market in April, 2018, asking $8.1 million. As of today, you can have it for $6.250 million, and probably less.
35 Beechroft Road dropped its price to $4.5 million today. It was purchased for $4.995 in 2006 and put back up for sale year ago January at $5.385, with the result you see today.
To my taste, the house is pretty plain-vanilla, and I can understand why it’s not setting off a buyers stampede, but it still provides another example of the mid-country’s failure to regain the prices of 13 years ago. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if it ever will.
Be notified of new posts! Sign-up here:
Want to comment without registering?
