Next time our power goes out let’s all camp out at Bruce Spaman’s house

Greenwich tree warden claims that CL&P cannot cut down any trees without his specific, tree-by-tree approval. And any that are cut down must be replaced by a new one.

The ridiculous thing about this is that people, including our local pols, all shriek when the town loses power, and blame CL&P. Can’t have it both ways, although being Greenwich, we insist that we can, and deserve to.

Something to remember next time Greenwich politicians propose banning sex offenders from our parks and beaches

 

Tod’s Point, post ordinance

Ruined lives: children labeled “sex offenders” for life.

The report begins with Jacob C., who was 11 years old when convicted of one count of sexual misconduct in Michigan for touching, not penetrating, his sister’s genitals. He was not allowed to live in a home with other children, was eventually put into foster care and was placed on a sex registry that was made public when he turned 18.  He struggled to graduate from high school, and was shunned because of his registration status. And when he enrolled in college, he said, campus police followed him everywhere. He dropped out.

Now 26, the report says, Jacob’s life continues to be defined and limited by a conviction at age 11.

Another case in the report: “In 2004, in Western Pennsylvania, a 15-year-old girl was charged with manufacturing and disseminating child pornography for having taken nude photos of herself and (posting) them on the internet. She was charged as an adult, and as of 2012 was facing registration for life.”

Sex offender laws, the report says, “that trigger registration requirements for children began proliferating in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They subject youth offenders to registration for crimes ranging from public nudity and touching another child’s genitalia over clothing to very serious violent crimes like rape.”

Registries can also include “people who have committed offenses like public urination, indecent exposure (such as streaking across a college campus), and other more relatively innocuous offenses.”

The trouble with these and other “let’s do something, anything at all” laws is that they sweep into their orbit far more people than all but the harshest proponents intended. But once on, game over.

Obama, GM: We heart China!

Your tax dollars at work: GM sending capital ($11 billion and counting) and technology to China so Chinee-made cars can be sold over here to Americans. For this we taxpayers were soaked and non-union auto workers screwed?

 Last October, Mr. Obama chided Mitt Romney at a presidential debate by saying, “You know, if we had taken your advice, Gov. Romney, about our auto industry, we’d be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China.”

Welcome to ObamaLand, suckers.

Sales activity

Four sales, 2 accepted offers.

11 Cardinal Road

11 Cardinal Road sold for $2.125 million, after starting out 643 days ago at $2.395. Nice house, busy road (my mistake this is away from the main road)

15 Shore Rd

15 Shore Road, Old Greenwich, $1,005,000, asked $1,050,000 twenty-six days ago.

525 River Rd

525 River Road (the east side of the Mianus River Road), $1.660 million, asked $1.999 million 326 days ago.

22 Nimitz Place

22 Nimitz Place, Havemeyer, $875,000 in a bidding war – asked $869,000. Nine days.

18 Cat Rock

18 Cat Rock, accepted offer. Priced at $675,000, which probably explains why it spent just 18 days on the market.

28 Leeward

And 28 Leeward Lane, Riverside, found a buyer even faster than that: 5 days, asked $3.195 million.

Time to move on

 

Do not talk! Strictly keep the military and state secrets!

White House: Benghazi happened “a long time ago”. Of course, thanks to the lies of Hillary Clinton and the continuing cover-up by the administration, we still don’t know why the White House ignored warnings of a pending attack, refused to increase security at the embassy and then denied permission for a Special Forces team to rescue our ambassador and his staff. Obama has responded to the American public’s inquiries by using the exact words a previous occupant of the Oval Office addressed to his intern: blow me.

Accepted offer on Brookside

111 Brookside

111 Brookside, asking $3.8 million. A beautiful old (1900) house on 2 acres in the R-12 zone and thus a fantastic amount of land so close to town. $3.8 sounds impressive, and it is, of course, but this house started at $5.9 million in 2010, the depth of the real estate crash here in Greenwich. That wasn’t a price I’d have recommended, nor was it met with enthusiasm by the market.

Home again

26 Twin Lakes Drive (Gilliam Lane, Riverside) is back after a year’s absence, fresh off a rental and asking $3.899 million, $300,000 more than what it didn’t sell at last time. Nicely renovated, but the market didn’t think it was worth paying $3.950 for it in 2011 and didn’t like it during the ensuing year as it slowly dropped to $3.599. Given two recent sales on this street in the past 6 months, I’d say that these owners are going to be disappointed again, but that’s just my opinion – a buyer who absolutely has to live in Riverside may disagree. Certainly nothing wrong with the street now that the Fountain boys have been shooed away, but a 1960 house, renovated or not, still shows the age of its design.

If Lockwood & Mead’s official logo were different, I’d consider it

Truth in advertising

NYC realtor offers agents 15% increase in commissions if they’ll tattoo themselves with company logo.

20% if the kids are inked as well?

Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to gain but new chains (and a T-Shirt)

Happy May Day!

Free to FWIW readers!

I believe Walt’s little woman said the same thing about him

“I had no idea he was gay!” Jason Collin’s fiancé expresses surprise. 

“It’s very emotional for me as a woman to have invested 8 years in my dream to have a husband, soul mate, and best friend in him. So this is all hard to understand.”

Mrs. Walt adds, “I care about Walt  tremendously and only want the best for him. I want him to be happy for a lifetime and stay true to who he really is, inside and out.”

As do we all, of course.