Selling like hotcakes: 40+ already under contract

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Even as the legal battle between developer and the Greenwich P&Z drags on in court, construction has started at 275 Mason Street Chilston Court, estimated completion date 2028, and another unit, 275 No. 41, priced at $7.995 million, is reported under contract.*

As a condition for its approval of this project, the P&Z has required that 24 of the 74 units be set aside for “moderate income” buyers, and those units must be essentially the same size, with the same finishes, access to all building amenities, and share a common entrance with their multi-million dollar neighbors. I think I understand the dynamics here: the P&Z is pretty much powerless to block an 8-30g project, brought to us by Hartford Democrats, and has essentially said to the developer, “okay, if you’re going to cram a seven-story, over-sized monstrosity on us, you’ll have to jack up the price of the full-priced units to subsidize the cheap ones”.

That’s not a problem for the developer, because the people who comprise the intended market for these things don’t concern themselves with petty cash, and if they have to pay $10 million instead of, say, $7 million, well, O death, where is thy sting? Proof of this price indifference is shown by the fact that the project is already 40% sold, even as the jackhammers and bulldozers are still digging holes in the ground.

I’ll lose no sleep over the plight of these buyers, and wish them well; I do wonder at the fairness, however, of essentially passing out free luxury condominiums to 24 lucky people while others in their same income range must content themselves with much smaller, much more spartan quarters in Old Greenwich Commons or Windy Knolls and pay far more for the privilege. How does that make sense?

He’s building $10 million [and $19.99] condos in Greenwich. Even he didn’t expect this response.

GREENWICH — The record price for a condominium sale in Greenwich stands at $6.7 million, paid for a residence at the Modern on Field Point in central Greenwich.

That record appears likely to be broken — perhaps many times over — as a new luxury condominium development takes shape on lower Mason Street.

Prospective buyers have been putting down deposits for homes at Chilston Court, where developer Joshua Caspi said many units are priced at $10 million or more.

“We have more than a dozen units in that range, $10 [million] plus,” said Caspi, who is developing 78 units now under construction at 275 and 290 Mason St.

The response has exceeded his expectations.

“I didn’t expect the strong response," Caspi said at the project's sales office. "We're getting close to selling almost half the project," he said, with 40 percent of the units under contract.

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275 Mason Street Unit 41

And when their therapists are done, send them over here, where there's even greater need

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If The Atlantic were actually concerned about the rise of Germany's AfD, it wouldn't publish such glowing articles about it

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As 9/11 approaches, media historians prepare

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Toronto Sun Columnist: New Memo Tells CBC Journalists Not to Refer to 9/11 As a Terrorist Attack

This is one of those posts that this editor was about to scroll by, thinking it was clickbait. The government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was instructing its writers, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, not to call them terrorist attacks? Are they being sensitive to their "newcomers," hoping there's no Norm Macdonald-style backlash? This is an opinion column written by The Toronto Sun's Brian Lilley, and he says he's seen the memo.

This week, I received a memo — presumably confidential — addressed to CBC News staff. It is authored by one Basem Boshra, who is the “Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at CBC News.” In Boshra’s memo, reporters are editors are told this:

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

Boshra states that all in bold letters, italicized, as if to emphasize the point. To make clear it is a directive, not a suggestion.

It goes on. “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes,” it reads, again in italics. There is no recognition in the CBC memo — none — that “hijacking that leads to passenger jet crashes” is not a protest, or a vote. It is a terrorist act, full stop.

EVERGREEN:

Land acknowledgements are back in the news again, and just because they're such fun, let’s indulge

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This is now:

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the land on which we reside, now known as the Town of Marblehead, is the ancestral homeland of the Naumkeag Band of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket tribes. They lived here under the leadership of the Great Sachem Nanepashemet. Since time immemorial, the Naumkeag people maintained this land and surrounding water with the utmost respect, preserving it for future generations and treating it as sacred ground for the burial of their dead. They had an organized and thriving community before the arrival of European settlers. The Naumkeag people suffered great loss of life during King Philip’s War and the small pox plagues, and the surviving members were dispossessed of the land. Although we are unaware of any Naumkeag descendants living in Marblehead today, we honor the Naumkeag people of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket tribes, past and present, as the original stewards of this land and pledge to include their history in the history of our Town.

And this also is now:

Native Land has an incredible map that you can use to find out on which land your wedding is taking place: https://native-land.ca/

In addition to learning on which nation’s territory your wedding is taking place, it’s also important to take the time to learn how the nation names are properly pronounced.

Here are some common areas in British Columbia, their corresponding First Nation(s), and pronunciation.

Pal Nancy and I had intended to include a land acknowledgement ceremony in our own wedding years ago, but, unfortunately, the blanket I’d given the shaman as a downpayment for his services turned out to be infected with smallpox, and the poor fellow expired just as he was raising his drumstick to begin. Don’t know how that terrible mistake occurred.

Murphy

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“One of (Senator Murphy’s) hallmarks, and one of the marks of his future legacy, is that he is considered a bipartisan worker, who works across the aisle, It is a special, special quality that he has.”

Murphy's response treats that as radioactive. He acts like the only possible motive is partisan sabotage rather than the simple principle that only citizens should decide American elections.

…. When a senator can't defend open rolls without inventing motives, it reveals how little confidence they have in their own position. RNC Research highlighted the clip, and it lands because it exposes the emptiness. Americans want fair elections. They want systems that work. Dodging the question only deepens the distrust Democrats claim to fear. If the harm in a list of eligible voters is nonexistent, just say so. Murphy couldn't. 

That silence speaks louder than the conspiracy theories he reached for instead.

… worried about that) and much more about MATCHING BARCODES of the outer and inner envelopes in a mail ballot package.

Here is why that's the problem for them. If surplus mail ballots collected from people who aren't voting by mail are somehow voted on behalf of OTHER PEOPLE, it becomes readily detectable that a ballot was repurposed from its originally intended voter to someone else on the voter rolls. The "no-match" condition means that ballot was taken from the originally intended voter or it was given away.

Either way that's how fraud can be easily detected. Keep in mind, the barcode matching requirement does not require any personal information that isn't on the outside of an envelope, and it doesn't prevent states from using mail to conduct elections, so the hysterical reactions are confirmation they know the gig is up.

Well, dang. Dolly Parton is gone from this earth

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Just learned (saw it here, thank, you EOS) that Dolly Parton has died at 80. Such a story that woman had, such a person she was. Here are my two favorite songs that she wrote:

First, a memory from her childhood:

Then the song she wrote to her mentor [but not lover] Porter Wagoner, when she left his band to go out on her own to stretch her wings and become the woman she knew she was:

UPDATE: Here’s another side of this admirable woman:

Shocker: Riverside listing sells at just list price

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11 Hearthstone Drive, $5.995 million. Built on land/with teardown that was listed at $1.890 and sold for $2,210 million in August 2024. Not all that long ago, the thought that Hearthstone would become a six million dollar neighborhood would have … surprised me.

It’ll be interesting to see the changes, if any, in Riverside School as its student body transitions to one comprised solely of the children of multi-millionaires.