NYT op-ed admits what the other Democrats won't tell you: "Defund the police" really does mean what it sounds like; "Yes, we mean literally abolish the police”

Plain English

We said what we meant and meant what we said. Yes, it’s “just” an op-ed, but as its firing of Editorial Page editor James Bennett made clear last week, the Time will only publish opions it itself approves of and endorses. You can’t trust the Times’ reporting, but when the editors speak, it’s a good idea to listen, and learn what the enemy’s up tp.

California ends Uber, Lyft, declares the drivers to be subject to employer/employee laws and regulations

Say goodbye to all that

That was always the intent and the target of the state’s anti-gig law AB5, and the tens of thousands of jobs it killed in arts, music, nursing and free-lancing were just bonus collateral damage.

I have many friends who are self-employed, including some who drive for Uber and Lyft and not one of them wants to work under a boss and with fixed hours. That doesn’t matter, of course, because while they may not want the state, the state wants them.

I suppose twelve years on the market is enough for any house

808 North Street, currently priced at $6.5 million, has a deal pending. I’m only guessing, but I don’t see it closing at a number that doesn’t begin with a six.

The owners bought it (from Stanley Cheslock, who has his own problems up on Taconic) for $11.3 million in 2005, and have been trying to sell the place since 2008, when they started at $12.490.

The only answer to this is to refuse to respond to calls for assistance, and see if they don’t start singing a different tune

“do I know there’s a guy with a gun in there? no, but if you hum a few bars I can probably fake it”

Boston’s Berklee School of music bars cops from entering its buildings, even to use the bathrooms.

The president of Berklee College of Music is being slammed for banning police from school buildings after Boston cops were allowed to use the bathrooms hours before protesters ripped up the city.

Berklee President Roger Brown said in a letter to the school community that allowing the officers inside on Sunday, May 31, perpetuated “feelings of oppression, silencing, and marginalization.”

Brown, who is stepping down from his post at the Boston music school next year, added: “Let us assure you, this should not have happened, and going forward, it will not happen again.”

He explained in the letter, obtained by the Herald, that Boston cops staging at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street two Sundays ago were allowed access to restrooms in the Berklee Performance Center. Outside, a peaceful protest was taking place at the State House over the death of George Floyd.

Brown added city police “have jurisdiction over the roads and other public spaces around our campus, but not inside our buildings.

“We have heard from many of you personally and across social channels of your hurt and anger that this access was permitted, especially as the facility is not currently open for students and members of our community,” he added. “Allowing police officers into the space was in no way meant to undermine Berklee’s support for Black Lives Matter.”

Related? Chicago cops napped on couches, made coffee and popcorn while rioters rioted. That’s probably normal behavior for Chicago’s finest, but the incident does provide a taste of what may happen in other cities when cops are second-guessed and disciplined for every action they take.

Stanwich Road contract

170 Stanwich Road, $3.795 million, 21 days on market. Owners paid $4.6 for it in 2001, so it would appear as though the buyers are doing well here; but are they? I wonder whether this new flurry of activity represents people finding bargains or if they’re going to get burned again as happened after the 2008 crash. A lot of us, and I was one of them, thought that by 2011 the worst was behind us and house prices had stabilized. We were wrong.

There’s one house a client of mine purchased in that period that comes to mind; he paid $7 million for a house that had last sold for $11, and it seemed like a solid buy, but today I’m not sure it would fetch much more than $3.5. I actually woke up in the middle of the night some months ago worrying about that, and the next morning Googled my client to see how he was doing. Turns out, very well; his VC firm has boomed since then, and Forbes now puts his net worth at a level that allows me to stop fretting about him and worry about clients who might actually notice $3 million disappearing from their pocket.

In any event, it’s going to take a few years before we know whether we’re witnessing a dead cat bounce or a real recovery. In the meantime, I’ll remain cautiously optimistic, and wary.

Regis unloads

And the final answer is ….

Regis Philbin has sold his house at 56 N. Stanwich Road for $4.015, down quite a bit from his 2008 purchase for $7.2 million. But at least it sold quickly, 88 days, which matches Philbin’s own years on this planet. Listing broker Joe Barbeiri must have listened to his client’s desire to just get rid of the place because he listed it at just $4.595 and got the job done. Good work, Joe.

In fairness to Regis, that $7.2 figure he paid in 2008 was on an initial 2006 asking price of $9.275 million, and he was probably lulled into thinking (not by Joe, who didn’t represent him in the deal) that he was getting a bargain. Oops.

And poor Regis — his experience with Greenwich real estate has not been a happy one. He bought his previous house at 38 Meeting House Road from Warner Wolf in 1992 for $3 million, renovated it and put it back up for sale in July 2008 at $5.9 million, finally selling it three long years later for the same $3 million. I was told from those who watched his show during that period that he often humorously moaned about the damn thing’s refusal to sell, which may explain why he cut to the chase so quickly on this one.

Anyway, I’m glad for his sake that he’s rid of a house he no longer wants, though I hope he’ll stay in town. I’ve never met the man but many in town have during his decades here, and I’ve always heard only very complimentary things about him. Greenwich can use all the nice guys it can get.

Quick sale in Riverside

46 Terrace Avenue, Riverside, hit the market March 1 at $1.695 million, was under contract in 13 days and closed today for $1.6.

This house has always sold well, no doubt because of its location and its relatively low price. the Mickster himself had the listing back in 2003 when the house was a wreck. He priced it at $899,500, sold it in a bidding war in 13 days for $902,042. The house was renovated and has sold repeatedly, for a nice gain each time except during the bad old days of 2009, when these owners picked it up at a nice discount. That history looks like this:

2003 13 DOM $902,242

2004 16 DOM $1.775

2007 34 DOM $1.925

2009 142 DOM $1.425

2020 13 DOM $1.6

That said, this is possibly the ugliest staging job I’ve ever encountered, yet the house still sold overnight. The market is hot.

Spec house under construction is also under contract

9 Fairway

9 Fairway Lane, off lower Stanwich, asking $4.5 million, reports contract after just 48 days. The builder bought 7 Stanwich lane, 2.83 acres in April 2019 for $2.675 and subdivided. His similar house at the old no. 7 address is also for sale at $4.350.

This is encouraging news for homeowners and builders alike.

The back 40

Original homestead at 7 Fairway

Is it the flu or are old listings finally selling for some other reason?

129 Dingletown Road, which started at $3.449 million in August 2013 is currently priced at $2.399 and as of today, has a contract. Hooray!

The house is an odd transformation of a carriage house, and though I liked it, I’m not surprised that potential buyers found its layout off-putting all these years.

Many years ago Pal Nancy and two college roommates lived at 127 Dingletown, which at the time and together with the carriage house at 129 belonged to the estate of one of the roommates’ grandparents. This carriage house was occupied by the roommate’s brother and his wife, and in all, I think there must have been six or seven kids in their 20s living in the two houses. I’m sure the neighbors were relieved when the property finally sold.

For further historical perspective, the reason all the grandkids and their friends were living there in the mid-70s and the place wouldn’t move. This property extended way up Frye Lake at the time and had a lot of acreage, though how much eludes me — 14 acres? 18? In any event, the entire parcel eventually sold for something like $600,000, the brother moved out to start a restaurant in New Haven, Nancy and her roommates moved to Locust Street, where one of them became engaged to my roommate, and introduced me to Nancy, and so it goes.

New to the market and fresh from the foreclosure desk

27 Cobb Island, complete renovation from mechanicals to windows to baths, kitchen, etc., asking $4.795 million. Originally built in 1993, it sold for $3 million in 2003 and then, just as the auction hammer was landing, for $1.750 in 2018. There’s always the I-95 noise issue to contend with here, but nice views, even kayak access to Cos Cob Harbor. I think this price is a bit of a stretch, but we’ll see.