Stamford money pit finally sells — I like the house personally, but someone's buying a project

684 Westover Road, a 1920 house on six acres that started off on this selling adventure back in August ‘22 at $3 million, has sold for $2.2. Its listing makes no mention of recent renovations, and there’s probably a reason for that: the lack of photographs of the kitchen and baths hints at the problem, and I’m guessing that there’s a fair amount of deferred maintenance here.

It does look like an attractive house, to me, and the setting is appealing, but Stamford real estate values work against it: a buyer will have to put a (whole lot) of money into this project, with little likelihood of getting it back on resale.

Not unexpected news

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or have announced they are leaving, San Francisco in recent months. Retailers like Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth and now American Eagle are among those taking part in the mass exodus

San Francisco's dying downtown suffers another hammer blow as Saks Fifth Avenue bans window shoppers from coming inside

Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to 'appointment-only' this summer, according to KRON4.

Locals will have to pre-book appointments at the store located on 384 Post Street from August 28.

“Changing its customers’ experience” — I like that.

Customers can no longer walk in and browse the luxury items, according to a company spokesman. 

It comes as areas in San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery - so much so that local businesses are unable to recruit staff and residents have felt forced to flee.

The high-end luxury clothing company said it is looking for 'innovative ways to optimize (their) store experience to match luxury consumers' evolving expectations.'

It follows Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Palo Alto and Napa which have already become appointment-only stores in downtown San Francisco. [Someone needs to work on that sentence]

Layoffs are expected to impact Saks Fifth Avenue employees in Union Square, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

… The Saks Fifth Avenue Union Square store offers in-store personal styling, alterations and complementary beauty services.

Customers have been encouraged to book appointments on its website.

'We look forward to serving our San Francisco customers with this new experience,' a spokesman for the company said. 

This was entirely predictable and is entirely due to California’s Democrat-run legislature, with Governor Noisome atop, legalizing crime and homelessness. That’s not a problem for me; I haven’t been in the city since the mid-80s, when it was still a very pleasant city, and I have no intention of ever returning, but with nothing to draw shoppers to the downtown and corporate workers staying safe in their suburban homes and computer commuting, the death spiral appears to be spinning ever faster.

Nothing wrong with Ol' Joe, and Obama's just stopped by the White House to demonstrate that

what? what are you looking at?

Oops! This was filmed ten years ago, and Joe seems to have lost a step or two, but at least one pundit out there is convinced that the man’s not leaving his sinecure until they pry his cold, dead fingers from the Resolute desk, strap him (and Jill) to a gurney, and wheel him out.

Jim Treacher: “Joe Won’t Go:”

He’s been in Washington since before Twitter. Before CNN. Hell, before Watergate! He was lying to reporters when Obama was still popping his zits in Honolulu.

The old man is a damn barnacle. They’re gonna have to scrape him off, and it might just put a hole in the hull.

Joe Biden doesn’t know much anymore, but he still knows how power works. My money’s on the old bastard giving everybody two middle fingers till they close the casket.

Biden's handlers have conceded the Red Sea and the Suez Canal shipping route to the Iran-backed Houthis — maybe this will force Israel to do the job for us

Explosive drone from Yemen hits Tel Aviv apartment, killing man, wounding others

Houthis are our friends, but not Israel’s.

We won’t attack these drone launching facilities for fear of upsetting the Iranians, who are totally committed to building no atomic weapons — Obama and John Kerry told us so — but to Biden’s credit, he has approved the firing of 100 of our $2 million rockets and knocked down several of the Houthis’ $2,000 drones. Does that cost discrepancy seem, er, a drain on our already stretched military budget? It does to the Pentagon, but not to the White House: “C’mon, man, each missile costs us no more than forgiving 20 student loans. Missiles don’t vote, but baristas and bar tenders do. No joke.”

Once, we could have howled and pointed with derision at this proof that Russia has no rule of law; now we use our judges and prosecutors to set an example for them to follow

And I direct the jury to find the defendant trump guilty — evidence can be introduced at a later date

Russian Court Sentences WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 Years After Sham ‘Trial’

(Non-MLS) sale on Meadowcroft

Gideon has alerted me to the June 28th sale of 15 Meadowcroft Lane for $19.250 million. Three acres, built by Sound Beach Partners and impressive, if your tastes run this way.

NOYI — Not On Your Island

Mt. Desert Island

I’ll admit that this post is just a tad hypocritical: Greenwich residents haven’t been exactly welcoming to the idea of creating housing for local workers, so who am I to point a finger at those same Greenwichites trying to preserve the quaint atmosphere of their favorite summer vacation spot?

But here in town, our leaf blowers, domestics, school teachers and lawyers can always bus in from Port Chester, or wherever those people come from, and not disturb our tranquility, whereas the serfs of Maine don’t have the luxury of enjoying nearby apartments to shack up in, twelve per-unit; there just aren’t enough trailer parks in Ellsworth, 45-minutes away, to house them all.

So this effort by the better folk of summer to keep the sweaty-shouldered hoi polloi in their place and off the island during non-working hours seems short sighted: the very people expected to serve the rich their food, clean their toilets and tidy up after the children’s midnight beerfests on the beaches may just decide not to come to work for them at all.

Summer residents try blocking workforce housing project on MDI

A group of property owners in Northeast Harbor has filed a court appeal to try to overturn local approval of a workforce housing development.

The project, proposed by the local nonprofit organization Mount Desert 365, would create six housing units reserved for income-qualified year-round residents at the corner of Neighborhood and Manchester roads in the Mount Desert village of Northeast Harbor. The group of seven property owners challenged the town’s approval in the state’s Business and Consumer Court, but Justice Thomas McKeon ruled last month in favor of the town and upheld the town’s approval of the proposed development.

The appellants, all of whom are seasonal residents who own property near the planned development site, filed an appeal of McKeon’s decision on Monday with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, according to notices sent to the town and to Mount Desert 365.

“Mount Desert 365 is deeply disappointed by this new appeal,” the group’s executive director Kathy Miller, said. “It will add delays and expenses to much-needed year round housing. It will also add to the legal expense of the town of Mount Desert as it defends the planning board decision.”

Miller said that the town has spent more $55,000 total on the proposal, including on staff time when it was pending before the planning board and on legal fees that have come up since it was approved by the town. She said she doesn’t know what legal arguments the project opponents plan to make in the appeal.

Grady Burns, the attorney representing the project opponents, did not return messages seeking comment on Thursday.

Mount Desert 365’s roots date back to 2016, when the town decided not to allow local cruise ship visits in Northeast Harbor. Some local business owners and residents said that, if cruise ships were not going to be allowed, then something needed to be done to boost the village’s shrinking year-round population and economy. The organization was founded, with support from year-round and seasonal residents, to address the issue

Housing prices on Mount Desert Island and in coastal Maine have soared in recent years, making it more difficult for people with hourly jobs to afford to live on the island. Mount Desert 365, which owns the lot on the corner of Neighborhood and Manchester roads and others in Northeast Harbor, is hoping to develop the site and to put income-related covenants on the property so that year-round residents who work as teachers, firefighters, bank tellers or other service-related jobs can live there.

Miller said the project would consist of one existing house on the lot that is being renovated. Another single-family home and two duplexes would be built on the property, which would be owned in condominium fashion with each homeowner belonging to the property’s homeowners’ association.

Miller said the appeal to Maine’s top court could take up to a year to be resolved.

Well, dang

Bob Newhart is dead at 94. I was introduced to his comedy via the record “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart”, probably a couple of years after its 1960 release, but not much later: we were listening to Vaughn Meader’s “First Family” record at the same time, and the subject of JFK and his family stopped being funny on November 22, 1963. So, 1962-63, and my appreciation of the man continued on over the decades.

My all time favorite of his skits remains “Stop It!”. I don’t when it was first recorded, but it was a long time ago, I still laugh every time I see it.

"Journalists": Lickspittle Lapdogs of their masters

Four days ago, Time Released this copy of its coming cover:

Then this happened:

On Monday, Democrat house organ Axios ran a column headlined, “How photographers view the photos of Trump’s assassination attempt.”

Zoom in: Multiple photographers worried privately in conversations with Axios that the images from the rally could turn into a kind of “photoganda,” with the Trump campaign using them to further their agenda despite the photographers’ intent of capturing a news event.

• None would comment on the record for fear of losing future work.

• A photo editor and photographer from a major news outlet said the “amount that publications have been using Evan’s photo is kind of free P.R. for Trump in a way, and its dangerous for media organizations to keep sharing that photo despite how good it is.”

The editors heard the dogwhistle, and obeyed, thus:

More at Instapundit.

And an appreciation of the photograph and the man who took it can be found here.

A Natural: Photographer Who Snapped Now Iconic Trump Rally Shot a Pulitzer Winner.

From the House of Regrettable Design, a price cut

After 64 days on the market without an offer, the builder of the new structure at 17 Bramble Lane, Riverside, has dropped its price from $5.295 million to $4.995. I’m sure that will do it.

It’s an odd-looking house, but what it lacks in curbside appeal may be compensated for by its “character oak flooring”. I was unfamiliar with the term, so I looked it up: it turns out, it’s oak planks with knots in them. We used to call those “seconds”, but then, we also used to have master bedrooms, garages were referred to as garages, not “garaging”, and porte cocheres were reserved for David Ogilvy listings; life goes on, I guess.

Friends of mine sold this property to the builder in 2022 for $1,771,750 million (original ask, $1.650) and they, at least, did well: I don’t know what they paid for it in 1969, but I’m sure it was less than that.