Real estate news - finally

The market is nearly moribund, but some property is still moving.

26 Meadowcroft Lane, a 3-acre parcel asking $3.495 million, has a contract. It began in May at $4.5.

4 Laurel Lane

4 Laurel Lane, $2.695, is pending. Not much to say about this one, or I can’t think of anything, anyway. Plain vanilla.

21 Heusted

21 Heusted Drive, Old Greenwich, asked $1.250 million and is now pending. The listing claims 2014 construction and I suppose that’s true, though it was built on the foundation of the wreck that was here previously. Living quarters were shifted above the flood waters, so that’s nice. Cheap construction, but cheap price, so ….

Everything old is new again, sort of

Is the Fourth Estate being shamed into actually asking hard questions about the circus in town?

Guilty!

Not a chance of that happening, but at least CBS’s White House correspondent has noticed, and even commented on what’s going on.

CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett on Wednesday said House Democrats were not exhibiting a "minimum standard of fairness" with their failure to question a law school professor summoned by Republicans for the impeachment hearings.

"It's worth pointing out that as the public watches what just happened they would say, ‘Wait a minute, there was another constitutional scholar there also who disagrees, but never got a question,'" Garrett said on CBS's Special Report.

Democrats should be asking the scholar, George Washington University's Jonathan Turley, about his opposition to impeachment so there could be a "competing set of opinions," Garrett said.

"The Democrats' reluctance to even bring that into the conversation—I know Trump supporters will say, ‘See, they're not even interested in an opposing point of view. They want a singular, repetitive accusation against the president, that everything has been proven, and it's all impeachable,'" he continued.

"I think for Trump supporters, they will look at it and say, ‘that doesn't seem fair,' and it reinforces the president's argument, whether you think his conduct was proper or improper, that this is not being done on a basis that achieves a modicum or a minimum standard of fairness," Garrett said.

I haven’t wasted a single second of my life watching this farce, nor do I intend to, but the Democrats and their media scribes certainly seem determined to prove that everything bad that’s said about them is true.

Notice she said nothing about pigs — there's more work to be done

LBJ prepares to unleash stealth missle

Hillary denies she’s a lesbian.

During one of his congressional runs, LBJ is said to have directed his campaign workers to spread the rumor that his opponent fucked pigs. “But Lyndon”, his campaign manager protested, “that’s not true!”. “I know”, our future president replied, “I just want to hear the son of a bitch deny it.”

So who put Howard Stern up to getting Shrillary to deny her inner yearnings? Personally, I suspect that the lady is abstinent in all matters of sex, regardless of gender or species, but it’s interesting that she’s coming out as a straight. Running again? You bet.

But Michelle’s gonna take it.

And Epstein didn’t kill himself.

Way up on Quaker Ridge, a new listing

One Quaker Ridge Lane, a 1925 Mediterranean, new today for $1.695 million. I can’t speak to the price, though the house is going to need a lot of updating, and expansion possibilities will be limited due to it sitting on just 2.4 acres in the 4-acre zone.

But the passing of its owner is poignant because she really was the quintessential “old” back country Greenwich citizen, and there aren’t many of the breed left, more’s the pity. They’re going, and their type won’t be back again.

Here’s an excerpt from her obituary:

Muriel Adelaide Putnam Smith, wife of the late Everett Smith, Jr., age 97, died peacefully at Greenwich Hospital on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019.

A lifelong resident of Greenwich, Muriel was the daughter of the late Frenelia and Eben Fiske Appleton Putnam also of Greenwich. Her father, known in his day as “Mr. Greenwich”, was a local businessman who founded the Greenwich Gas Company, the Greenwich Water Company, and owned the Pickwick Arms Hotel. Muriel was a direct descendant of General Israel Putnam. She married Everett Smith, Jr. of Scarsdale, NY on Sept. 20, 1947 at Christ Church in Greenwich. Her husband, Everett, was active in local civic and governmental activities and represented Greenwich in the State Legislature. Together they owned and operated Quaker Ridge Stables for many years.

Muriel attended Greenwich Academy, graduated from Miss Porter’s School at Farmington, CT, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York School of Professional Art. Early in her career, Muriel worked for Vogue Magazine and Colliers Magazine.

During World War II, she was a volunteer at the local Draft Board of which her father was the Chairman. In the 1960s, she ran “The Beauty Kick” an exercise studio very popular with the local ladies (and their husbands!). During her long life, she was a former board member of the Round Hill Guild, The Greenwich Exchange for Women’s Work, and a longtime volunteer at the Greenwich Hospital. She was a member of the Putnam Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution since 1936 and Daughters of American Colonists. For many years, she was instrumental in receiving and caring for homeless cats in Greenwich and other animal causes.

She leaves three children: Eben Putnam Smith and spouse Kathy Guck of Mt. Pleasant, SC, Pamela Putnam Smith and James Hoffman of Branford, CT, and Everett Smith III and spouse Elizabeth Claiborne of Greenwich and seven grandchildren: Kelly Taylor of Lahore, Pakistan, Tara Sarosiek of Brentwood, TN, Kristen Smith of Seattle, WA, Hilary Smith of Washington, DC, Ashley Smith of Greenwich, Everett Smith of Greenwich, and Harrison Smith of Dallas, TX. She was predeceased by her granddaughter Elise Putnam Smith. Muriel has four great-grandchildren Hudson, Cameron, Lily, and Oscar.

Spec home's sale price reported

8 Buckthorne Lane (off Parsonage), has closed at $3.5 million. Builder paid $1.750 for the lot in September 2016, paying $100,00 over its asking price, and has had this project on the market since April 2018, when he started at $4.995. There was probably some small profit eked out at this final price, but once again. it shows that “winners” in bidding wars rarely are.

(Doing the math here, the builder seems to have used the old rule of thumb of “a third, a third a third”: 1/3 for land, 1/3 building costs, 1/3 profit and overhead when setting his initial sales price. Did he really plan on getting every penny of that? As it turned out, he got two of those thirds, the land and building costs portions, but failed to collect the final third to cover profit and overhead. That’s no way to run a railroad, or any other business.)

Tesla owners discover the cost of virtue (Thank you, Holden, I'd missed this)

‘Bet they wish they had gas!’ Chaos in California as Tesla drivers are stranded for hours in a half-a-mile-long line to charge their cars on Black Friday

• Shanon Stellini was travelling through Kettleman City on November 30 when she stumbled across around 50 of the electric cars waiting in line for a recharge

• The stagnant procession reportedly spanned back more than half a mile

• ‘Bet they wish they had gas’, quipped Stellini’s partner in a video she captured of the backlog - but for the drivers stranded it was no laughing matter

• The Supercharging station's 40 charge points was still not enough to meet the overwhelming demand of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend

• To make matters worse, simultaneous re-charging slows down the speed of for everyone – stalling a process that can already take up to 75 minutes

I’ve pointed out, several times over the past couple of years, that there’s no such thing as a five-minute fill-up with these Eveready Bunnies, and anyone planning a trip had better add in a 4-hour recharging stop along the way. And just wait until the Green Eels kill off the petroleum industry and add millions more battery toys to our highways.

Of course, that’s part of the plan: kill off cars. Collectivists want us all in cities, where we can be better supervised and controlled.

And long into the night. Driving to Granny’s? Pack your PJs!

Apparently the ol' "tell a gazillionaire he can't have something" tactic still works, even in a down market

Nothing more fun for a seller than two people with deep pockets wanting the same thing

433 Riversville Road, discussed here previously, has sold for $4.5 million, well above its $3.750 asking price. A beautifully restored 1900 house on 13.5 acres (subdividable into three lots, though I hope that won’t happen), it was priced “aggressively” by listing agent John McAtee; I don’t know whether he knew of two different buyers circling, or just thought a low price would act like blood on the water, but either way, it worked.

Well done.

When I want an objective, dispassionate opinion on the Constitution, Pamala Karlan is not who I'd call

Thief, thief, thief! Trump! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!

But that was the point in brining her in to testify in the first place. Yesterday, Ms. Karlan dragged Trump’s 13-year-old boy into the circus. She’s an all-hater, all-the-time opponent of Trump, and has been since at least his election. Vile woman.

“I came in from the airport yesterday and I got off the bus from Dulles down at L’Enfant Plaza and I walked up to the hotel and as I was walking past what used to be the old post office building and is now Trump hotel," Karlan told an audience in 2017. “I had to cross the street, of course.” 

Fellow panelist, Neil Siegel, asked: “Are you staying there?”

“God, no! Never!” Karlan responded. 

On Wednesday, Karlan drew ire from the White House, the Trump campaign and even First Lady Melania Trump after using 13-year-old Barron Trump’s name to illustrate her point that President Trump can’t rule like a king. 

"The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron," Karlan told the committee, prompting chuckles across the room.

A perfect, if unintended lesson in solar power, politicians, and the New Green Eel

And the perfect accompanying illustration (which the portland herald didn’t use, for some reason)

Governor’s residence solar project comes in at double the cost, half the efficiency, and three times the “payback period”. And the latter, a 29-year-payback estimate, is for a system with a 20-year life expectancy.

Gov. Janet Mills’ much-touted Blaine House solar project is a powerful symbol of the state’s new climate-change leadership and pledge to become carbon neutral by 2045. But as an energy investment, its value to taxpayers is debatable.

The $63,000 solar-electric installation wound up being so uneconomical as a business venture that only one vendor bid on the high-visibility but money-losing job, picking prestige over profit.

Special considerations at the Blaine House also precluded the state from negotiating a more beneficial agreement in which someone else would finance and own the project, as is common with solar installations at government and nonprofit institutions. To maintain security and access to equipment at Maine’s executive mansion, the state bought the system outright, with funds from the Bureau of Real Estate Management.

State ownership eliminated the opportunity to lower the purchase price by taking a key, 30 percent federal tax credit. It extended the project’s estimated investment payback to 29 years, nearly three times longer than for solar arrays at a typical business.

In addition, the project’s revised design generates only half as much power as initially specified, taking a smaller bite than expected out of the building’s $12,000 annual electric bill.

Despite these modifications, the Mills administration says the project’s economic benefits should be viewed in broader terms.

“The length of the payback period is not and should not be the only measure of the project,” said Lindsay Crete, the governor’s press secretary.

Crete noted that the project already has offset more than 1,400 pounds of carbon emissions, equal to planting 36 trees. Although the Blaine House isn’t heated with oil, Crete added that the panels will annually offset the equivalent of burning 43 barrels, or 1,806 gallons of oil, with clean, renewable energy.

“When all these factors – the reduced consumption of and reliance on fossil fuels, the increased consumption of homegrown clean, renewable energy and, additionally, the very real demonstration of Maine’s long-overdue embrace of renewable energy – are taken into consideration, the state is satisfied with this project and believes it is a sensible, forward-looking investment that moves Maine in the right direction,” Crete said

Good. I have friends at Point 72, and I expect good tickets

He paid $12 million for a dead shark in formaldehyde, so why not a billion for a rotting baseball team?

Greenwich’s own, Steve Cohen, is buying the Mets. Greenwich has always had a connection with the Mets, both players, like Tom Seaver, Lee Mazilli, Tim Teufel, et al, to owners like M. Donald Grant’s son, so Cohen is just continuing that tradition.