"Anything for our replacement voters." For this they've shut down the TSA and paralyzed air travel for millions of citizens.

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Hundreds of Muslim delivery drivers who congregate outside an East Village mosque have transformed the area into a noisy, violent, trash-strewn junkyard while driving businesses and residents out, fed-up locals said.

At least three businesses near the Islamic Council of America Madina Mosque on First Avenue and East 11th Street have shut down in recent months, as longtime residents say the city has ignored their cries for help.

The Post witnessed no less than 100 deliverymen last week pouring in and out of the mosque, with hundreds of electric bicycles piled along the curb, fouling the tony neighborhood where a three-bedroom townhouse just sold for $14.8 million. 

“I lived on that block for 13 years, it was very, very different,” said Francisco, 40, who moved to Stuytown in October with his 2-year-old child and wife because of the chaos. “The block itself changed incredibly since the second those guys came in.”

The city’s second oldest mosque operated for decades without incident, but things began to change about two years ago. Residents described a perfect storm of a surge in migrants, the city’s installation of bike corrals on the block, and the ever-growing popularity of delivery apps.

The drivers, who are mostly migrants from Islamic African nations, flock to the house of worship, which is under renovation, five times a day for prayer. But they also mill about near the side entrance, gab on their phones, scarf down food from a halal truck, and toss trash where they please — attracting a veritable army of rats, said locals.

Two men even set up an al fresco barber shop offering fresh cuts and shaves. During the warmer months, as many as six barber chairs are active all day, locals said. Some of the men also bathe outside.

“It’s insanity. . . . Its not fair to the residents who live there,” area landlord Christine Renzi, who estimated she’s lost six residential tenants and one commercial tenant in the last two years because of the mayhem, told The Post.

And it’s getting worse.

“Tenants have been attacked by delivery drivers. They’re washing their clothes outside. During the summertime they actually shower outside,” Renzi said. 

>>>>

There have been 105 inspections for rat activity on the block in the last five years, according to NYC’s Rat Information Portal — far outpacing neighboring blocks, including the entirety of nearby Tompkins Square Park.

Rats regularly crisscross the sidewalk, even during the day, because of the trash problem, according to Francisco. “Got to the point where we wouldn’t walk on the sidewalk,” he said.

The problem feeds on itself, with the huge corral of e-bikes preventing the Department of Sanitation from properly cleaning the area, Renzi said in her complaint.

The e-bikes also take up parking spaces, forcing motorists to double-park. On Tuesday, an ambulance with sirens blaring was stuck behind a double-parked car for nearly 10 minutes, said Renzi.

Yet Democratic City Councilman Harvey Epstein and Community Board 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer have done little to get the bikers off the corner, and instead have pushed for more parking stations for the e-bikers — and even shifted some blame to residents.

>>>

Three storefronts on the corner of First Ave. have shuttered for good — including a Black Seed Bagels, Uz Grill House, and vintage shop Revampd, which closed its doors last month.

“I had really high hopes. I invested a lot,” Revampd co-owner Mary Fadrowski told The Post. “The fact that the bikes are there making us look like ‘Sanford and Son’ is what blocked the money.”

“It was shocking to see so many people just hanging on the street. It was scary,” said a 27-year-old shopper who was only there to patronize Revampd. “If I wasn’t looking for Mary’s store I would avoid the block completely.”

Chris Ng, the owner of Bananas restaurant on First Ave, has repeatedly reached out to 311 over the course of a year.

“I have not heard back,” Ng said.

Damn it, this finally came on the market, and I'm still scratching lottery tickets

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Three residences, 9 acres, incredible property. 326-338 Stanwich Road, $14.995 million.

I guess the owners purchased two adjoining properties and combined them into one lot. I had the pleasure of touring one the two smaller homes (below) years ago when it was on the market and I’d have moved in that day if only my New Millionaire’s Handbook” had sold in the numbers anticipated by my publisher and myself. Ah, well ….

Report from March 2025, but it appears on Powerline today

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AI:

In March 2025, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon announced an initiative to "decolonize" its collections and the narrative surrounding William Shakespeare

. This decision followed a 2022 research project with the University of Birmingham which suggested that the traditional portrayal of Shakespeare as a "universal" genius was used to promote British cultural superiority and white supremacy.

Key Changes and Objectives

  • Reframing Greatness: The project recommended the Trust stop presenting Shakespeare as the "greatest" writer and instead view him as part of a global community of equal and diverse artists.

  • Addressing "Harmful" Content: The Trust identified that some artifacts and archival materials may contain language or depictions considered racist, sexist, or homophobic.

  • Inclusive Experience: The goal is to create a more inclusive museum experience by moving away from strictly Western perspectives and highlighting the impact of colonialism.

  • New Perspectives: The Trust plans to introduce exhibits focusing on plays with colonial themes, such as The Tempest, and include input from Indigenous and postcolonial scholars.

Public and Critical Reaction

The move sparked significant debate, with critics describing it as an unnecessary "rewrite of history" and an attack on British cultural heritage. Others argue that Shakespeare’s themes are universal and that decolonizing his legacy misinterprets his work through a modern political lens. Despite the controversy, the Trust stated it intends to remain "radical" in its approach to updating historical interpretations.

Here’s Grey News!

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Excellent article in, unexpectedly, Greenwich Time, written by their own Robert Merchant.

Why everything looks gray now, from Connecticut homes to new developments

By Robert Marchant, Staff WriterMarch 20, 2026

Take a drive through Connecticut and one color stands out — or rather, fades into the background: gray.

From the REI sporting goods stores in Milford and Norwalk to Heights Crossing in Darien and the new Delamar Hotel in Mystic, neutral palettes abound, evoking an overcast Connecticut day with leaden skies. Once famous for barnyard red, the region’s landscape has shifted toward shades with names like "antique pewter,” “sea wind” and “iced marble.”

For the past decade, architects, designers, influencers and real estate agents have been painting the world gray — or its close relative, “greige,” a blend of gray and beige. In a 21st-century twist on Henry Ford's famous line about the Model T — they could be in “any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black” — gray seems to be only color in the paint box for many developers and home builders. 

Architectural and design pundit Kate Wagner has dubbed the era the “age of gray supremacy,” while others have described it more broadly as the “graying of America.” 

“In the past decade, gray was everywhere,” said Shawna Feeley, a Westport designer. “And before that, we were doing gray walls, gray floors — just everything gray.” Though, she notes, a backlash is beginning to take hold: “It has turned the corner.”

So, what’s behind the ubiquitous neutral color scheme?

Architects and builders say gray has universal appeal, and few people actively dislike it. That makes it a safe bet, especially in real estate, where agents often recommend neutral tones to attract the widest pool of buyers. Television, too, has played a role. For years, home renovation shows on channels like HGTV have promoted gray as the go-to solution for modernizing older properties.

Gray also has a lot of fans in the fields of construction and design.

Toll Brothers, the national building company working on a large townhouse development in Stamford’s Waterside neighborhood, cited a desire for “a cool, neutral palette” in its filings with City Hall. Design drawing called for “pearl gray” on the Hardie board siding and a “charcoal gray” roof, raising concerns among city planners about how much gray is too much.

“Maybe have a couple of other building colors?” asked Vineeta Mathur, Stamford's principal planner. “It’s all the same white and gray colors.”

Ray Mazzeo, a planning consultant for the project, defended the design as “understated and elegant,” reflecting a consumer preference for neutral colors and gray tones. 

Consumers do seem to have a taste for gray and muted colors. Sherwin Williams, the paint manufacturer, has tracked color trends over the past century. Bright hues dominated the earlier part of the 20th century. In the 1970s, brown and beige were big. A pronounced shift toward gray began in the 2010s. In the current decade, five of the top 10 exterior house colors are shades of gray, according to the paint company’s marketing department.

Duo Dickinson, an architect based in Madison, traces the trend back even further. Earlier in his career, clients wanted their kitchens to be “all white everything, all the time.” About 40 years ago, Dickinson said, there was a shift toward gray — influenced by European fashion trends.

“In the late '80s and '90s, those gray tones were super big in fashion — shiny gray fabric," Dickinson said. "Gray became hip. It was fashion first, and then the architects had this palette of materials to make exterior buildings with. There’s an aesthetic, descended from high modernism, of gray, aluminum and glass exteriors. It’s chic and cool, like an Armani suit.”

Gray’s versatility is another factor. It can lean warm or cool, pair with almost anything and hide wear better than stark white. “Real estate agents push common applicability; there’s no ‘turn-off’ with gray,” said Dickinson, who writes regularly on architecture and has appeared on HGTV as a commentator.

Feeley, a designer who lives in Fairfield, said a group mentality can take hold among builders and real estate brokers. 

“Realtors and (speculation) builders, they get very comfortable with cookie-cutter trends," Feeley said. "What worked once — like a Hollywood movie that was successful — they make six more of them. They stay with a trend.” 

>>>>

The popularity — and unpopularity — of gray paint has also been topic of debate on social media. 

“No one actually loves grey; it’s just that no one hates it,” one post said.

Victoria Taft's weekly "West Coast, Messed Coast" column is up

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(May, 2022 — She went on to become governor)

Winner!

— of most corrupt state of the West Coast, Messed Coast™. 

The unfortunately-named Tina Kotek, the governor of Oregon, rammed through a bespoke bill to pull a switcheroo on the initiative-petition-signing opponents of a massive gas tax increase. That switcheroo completely turned Oregon law on its head and pulled a bait and switch on voters. But her path to getting there was even more traitorous and torturous. 

Kotek signed the massive tax increase earlier in a special legislative session but only after waiting until the last minute to deprive opponents the ability to collect enough signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot. 

Opponents got the signatures in record time, however, and qualified the tax repeal for the November ballot.

Knowing the repeal would pass, Kotek then attempted more political chicanery by issuing a press release to stop her own tax increase. 

Then she tried to stop the gas tax by attempting to repeal the entire bill, which would stop and/or moot the November vote on the legally qualified initiative. 

Then came her effort to get the initiative moved to the May ballot. Kotek got Democrats to sponsor a bill to pull the date switcheroo. 

In the meantime, a Democrat appointed judge (what other kind are there in Oregon anymore?) ratified the moves by the lawbreaking Democrats. 

And now Kotek has signed the bill into law, changing the date of this particular initiative.

I'd say this is the most corrupt practice I've seen in Oregon, but that's not true. Indeed, the other most corrupt practice also occurred this past week when, at Kotek's prompting, Democrats produced a bill allowing secret meetings by lawmakers. The move completely blows up the Oregon open meetings law. 

Kotek's party also "disconnected" Oregon's tax law from three of Trump’s 2025 tax cuts in the Big Beautiful bill.

The Religion of Pieces (Update: John Cleese has a suggestion for improving relations between the Islamists and the rest of the world

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An excellent book by Raymond Ibrahim compiles letters and speeches from various Al Qaeda terrorists that were delivered to Arabic-speakers and entirely different from those released to a gullible western audience in English. Denounced as a fraud by CAIR and other defenders of Islam, it gives a true picture of who these people are and what they plan for the non-believers. Spoiler alert: they don’t to intend to stop with Israel and the Great Satan.

The Al Qaeda Reader

…. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of these works is how grounded they are in the traditional sources of Islamic theology: the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet. The founders of al-Qaeda use these sources as powerful weapons of persuasion, reminding followers (and would-be recruits) that Muhammad and his warriors spread Islam through the power of the sword and that the Koran is not merely allegory or history but literal truth that commands all Muslims to action.

In addition to laying bare al-Qaeda’s ultimate motives, The Al Qaeda Reader includes the organization’s propagandist speeches, which are directed primarily at Americans, Europeans, and Iraqis. Here, al-Qaeda’s many "official" accusations against the West are meticulously delineated, from standard complaints such as the Palestinian issue and Iraq to wholly unexpected ones concerning the U.S.’s exploitation of women and the environment.

Taken together, the Theology and Propaganda sections of this volume reveal the most comprehensive picture of al-Qaeda to date. They also highlight the double-speak of bin Laden and Zawahiri, who often say one thing to Muslims in their religious treatises ("We must hate and fight the West because Islam commands it") and another in their propaganda directed at the West ("The West is the aggressor and we are fighting back merely in self-defense").

UPDATE — The Minister of Silly Walks weighs in

New listing on Londonderry. I'm not wild about the front, but great views, and even the laundry room is a useful addition

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41 Londonderry Drive, $3.495 million. It might seem silly to mention a laundry room, but with five kids, my parents added one, and it was in constant use (partly because when father finally relented and permitted a (small, b/w) television in the house, he insisted that it be placed in that room. We kids spent a lot of time there, but we all learned to read like madmen before that, and we’re still readers today, not viewers).

There was a time, not so long ago, that I could have told you with confidence what price a particular street could support; that time is not now

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25 Dialstone Lane, Riverside, $5.575 million, under contract. Began at $6.195 in May, 2025.

Other activity reported this morning:

53 Lockwood Avenue, Old Greenwich, Pending, 7 days. Guide price $3.250 million, purchased July, 2019 $2.235 million