And she deserves it why?

Gimme that!

One oldster wants her place on the water and wants it right now! 

“I am so sorry Mr. Malkin wrote the way he did,” said Senior Center member Cristina Pica, 83. “We deserve waterside property just as much as anybody else.”

I wasn’t aware that taxpayers owed anyone an obligation to provide them with waterfront property so if, as Ms. Pica claims, she “deserves it as much as anyone else”, I choose to understand that as an admission that she doesn’t deserve it at all. But brace yourself, Bridget, there are big plans for still more spending on this band of oldsters hanging out causing trouble on the Avenue:

Senior Center officials say the current space is not adequate for the needs of a growing senior population. The Senior Center has about 7,000 square feet of usable program space, and will need 23,000 square feet more to expand its programs to meet the needs of seniors, according to a survey conducted several years ago. Sam Deibler, director of the Commission on Aging, said even if the building were to undergo costly renovations, there still wouldn’t be enough space.

Can’t we just drain the Byram pool and store these people there?

Steal of the week

 

9 Wallsay

9 Wallsay Way, Riverside, $2.2 million. Brand new, it sold in 2007 for $3.1 million. Directly on the harbor, it does have traffic noise – more from Route One than I-95, surprisingly, but this is a beautiful house and at $900,000 less than peak market price, buy some ear plugs and enjoy it.

Less impressive, perhaps, is 19 Harkim in Baliwick, sold for $1.575. Purchased for $1.095 in 1998.

And 189 Riversville sold for $960,000. Last sold in 1995 for $620,000.

11 Grimes

A price reduction on 11 Grimes Road in Shorelands (Old Greenwich) to $2.575 makes it pretty attractive, I think. Sold for $2.775 million in 2005 when it was two years old, offered at $2.875 in October of last year and now down to 2003 levels. A decent house, recent construction, and right down the lane from the Shorelands beach. Walk to the school and train, ride a bicycle (or if you’re young and stupid, jog) to Tod’s – a location central to the good stuff of Old Greenwich, and Shorelands which, while a bit crammed in for this curmudgeon, is popular with young families precisely because of that close proximity of neighbors – open the door, let your children run and with luck someone will adopt them and pay for their college education before returning them.

July contract, September sale

138 Pecksland asked $4.995 million, sold for $4.675. Sellers paid $4.325 in 2002 and performed a complete renovation. Including those renovations, it appears that the buyers nabbed this at a 2002 price. Deducting transaction costs, it appears that the sellers pretty much tossed in all that renovation for free.

You know things are slow when a real estate blog has nothing but price reductions to comment on

12 Byfield Lane

Still, there it is. 12 Byfield Lanehas cut its price from $11 + million to $10+ million. It’s a spectacular house, but the builder is asking an awful lot for this particular street and, at least so far this year, I’m not detecting a great demand for huge, over-the-top-expensive houses. We’ll see.

And in Riverside, 36 Dawn Harbor has taken another $300,000 off and is now offered at $6.675 million, down from the original $7.350. There was a sale for even more than this on Dawn Harbor but that was some years ago and it was direct waterfront. That was then and there, this is  here and now. I remain skeptical.

Nothing’s selling

Unless you count a $3,500 condo rental that’s reporting an accepted offer. But among the 600+ houses currently for sale and not selling, here’s a price cut of some interest:

297 Round Hill Road

297 Round Hill Road reports a price cut to $4.995 million. This house provides a nice snapshot of the vicissitudes of the Greenwich Market over the past ten years.

It sold for $4.5 million in 2003. I liked it then-charming, quirky and sort of a farm house feel. The buyers gussied it up and transformed it into what I felt was a typical back country interior designer’s botch-up, but that’s obviously what people wanted because someone paid $5.7 for it in 2006.

Those buyers didn’t do so well – they offered it for $7.250 in 2008, just in time for the failures of Bear Sterns and Lehman, and finally sold it 646 days later in 2010 for $5,212,500.

A year later the latest owners began the process of reselling it but adopted the curious strategy of pricing it for more than they’d paid, and set its price at $5.699 . If they thought the market had improved between 2010 and 2011 the market has dissuaded them; thus today’s price cut.

Democrats hate Israel, but keep the votes of American Jews

Here’s Dollar Bill, speaking for Greenwich Democrats and seemingly the National Democratic Party itself, on Israel:

Obama gave a good kick in the pants to Bibi, called his bluf\f, and said no time for you. Good. It’s about time he stood up to his bullying. Bibi’s nothing but trouble, If Israel wants to gin up a war with Iran,, they should go fight it (and pay for it) themselves, and stop dragging us into their costly never ending confilcts with the Muslim world, which soil our reputation and bring us nothing but grief, loss of life and treasure. . Of course, the Mittster is primed to be Bibi’s lapdog, should he be elected, as his foreign policy wigs are all warmed over neocons who dragged us into the last debacle in Iraq, and have learned absolutely nothing from their failures …..talk about an apology tour, Mitt and Ryan are the tourguides par excellence

And here, just hours after Dollar Bill weighed in, is the White House’s response to their angry Jewish base:

White House denies rejecting a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister.

Now if Dollar Bill can see the truth, and applaud it, how can American Jews be so blind? How can they be so easily bought off and placated by an out-right lie from their President? No, this isn’t Germany in 1936, but the same pattern of suspension of disbelief and a hopeful denial of what’s happening right in front of their eyes seems familiar.

Old and in the way

UPDATE, cognitive dissonance department: Aging Diane von Furstenberg wants no Republicans in her stores. This Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor who got rich by marrying a prince and assuming his name so she could sell dresses to the 0.1% crowd now wants to restrict her sales to rich Democrat ladies only? I wonder if Dollar Bill’s wife will still be welcome?

All the news we see fit to print

Daniel Drezner: Why isn’t the killing of our Ambassador to Libya front page news?

I suppose the final straw for my relying on the Times for objective reporting (yes, I’m a slow learner) was the night, years ago, when I heard on BBC radio that the US Navy had finally succeeding in knocking down a missile in a test of Star Wars. I wanted to learn more and scoured the next morning’s paper for details. Finding none, I concluded that the news had broken too late for inclusion in that edition but I was sure they would report it the next day, since every failure before then, and there had been many, had been duly assigned front page status.

Well, they never mentioned it. Not the next day, or the next, not even buried on A4 or even in the Sunday “Week in Review”. “Holy Duranty”, says I to meself, “these guys are skewing the news!”

Never read Pravda again.

Drudgeaposition

Trader Joe’s coming to North Stamford

 

Cheap wine, ladies, so stock up!

Renting the old Border’s Bookstore up in High Ridge Road (near the Merritt Parkway, for those of you who, like me, rarely travel so far from lovely Greenwich). I’ve never found anything at the store that would justify a trip to Darien and I doubt I’ll be lured to north Siberia, but many people like their products, so fire up your Prius and head north! (but not yet, it’s set to open next March).