Riverside contract

22 Indian Head, contingent contract, last asking $2.350 million. It sold for $2.1 in 2017, so the owners are doing well, presumably, after such a short ownership. The house sold for $2.4 million back in 2004, afterwich it was expanded from 4,000 to 6,000 square feet and put back up for sale in 2008 for $3.399 million, with regrettable results.

The addition made this conventional cape into a dog’s breakfast of a house, and these subsequent sales have reflected that, but the location’s good, and if you can figure out the layout, I suppose it works. For Riverside at $2.3-ish, it makes sense.

Does UC Berkeley really have a sailing team and, these days, does it matter?

Freddie Camillo announces for First Selectman, promises a better dog park and an unneeded Eastern Civiic Center

even with a flag in the background … no

We probably get what we deserve

Camillo said his priorities on the campaign trail would include parking, which he said has long been a problem, especially downtown. He opposes building new parking garages, but said other solutions could be explored with town-owned land in the area.

A longtime volunteer with local sports leagues, as well as a former chair of the town’s Board of Parks and Recreation, Camillo also touched on the need for more and better fields as well as improved facilities. He acknowledged the budgetary costs of possible upgrades and the impact on taxpayers.

He said he would continue to explore public/private partnerships in town, which could make a big difference in projects such as a new Eastern Greenwich Civic Center and a new Cardinal Stadium at Greenwich High School. Camillo said he wanted to avoid the kind of “piecemeal” construction that happened at the Dorothy Hamill Rink, which needs to be replaced.

I’m positive that there’s not a single person who has ever met Fred who doesn’t like him, but while that distinguishes him from Peter Tesei, does it qualify him to run the town? I think not. We need someone mean enough to tell Riverside and Old Greenwich that there’s no justification for a new civic center — sell off the property and put it on the tax roll — and inform the rest of the town that we don’t need a new high school stadium, or another parking lot. The ability to say “no” is a powerful thing, and I don’t think Camillo has it.

Sometimes, bold moves are needed

55 Zaccheus Mead Lane, on the market since June, 2015, when it started at $3.750, has dropped today to $3.1 million. It’s an attractive property — check the pictures — but a 1960 brick ranch isn’t high on buyers’ wish lists right now, and the past four years have demonstrated that.

I’d cut lower.

“House is not in the flood zone. Seller continues to work in taking other parts of the property out of the flood zone.” Not helpful.

Bummer, if you're on the way to catch your flight

Trump grounds all Boeing 737-8s. Judging from a report in the WSJ about pilot complaints, Boeing seems to have a problem here, but I’ll admit to some surprise that a president has the authority to do this.

But Pal Nancy and I flew on one to Denver and back last Thanksgiving via Southwest, and given developments, I wound’t be comfortable doing so today.

There’s going to be chaos at the airports, though.

Pending in Old Greenwich

12 Shore Road (pretty much on the Stamford border), asking $2.799 million, is under contract. Built in 2010, it was listed for $3.5 million back then, which was sort of silly, and after being rented out for a spell, finally sold to these owners in 2014 for $2.5.

Perfectly nice house on a tidal inlet, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I wish the new owners joy of their purchase, just as I enjoyed raising a family on a similar body of water on Riverside’s Ole’s Creek.

It will be interesting to see what affect the foreclosure next door has on this one

44 Mooreland Road

Back on the market, 44 Mooreland Road is asking $12.995 million. A remnant of the failed bright star Antares Development team, this house was built by one of the partners — Jim Cabrera — while his partner Joe Beninati built on No. 42, next door.

Two different styles of house, of course, but No. 42 just sold out of foreclosure for $6.530 million in December (after asking something like $23 million, at one point). Will that sale damage this one’s price? Stay tuned.

Don’t know if it makes a difference, but the town had No. 42 assessed at $12 million, and No. 44 at $9.

42 mooreland

But at the right price, there's still a robust market

30 Park Avenue, Old Greenwich, listed for $2.795 million just seven days ago and is already reported as pending, meaning no contingencies. Sold new in 2011 for $2.5, so not a bad deal at all for the seller — if not quite rent-free living, reasonably close to it. And for a house that lacks a garage!

Riverside listing

28 Welwyn Road (off Indian Head), new to the market at $4.495 million. My initial surprise at this price is tempered, slightly, by discovering that was purchased by one of local celebrity financial wizards for $2.850 in 2009, and who am I to question genius?

Still and all, Welwyn doesn’t strike me as prime territory.

Price cut on Byram Shore Road

75 Byram Shore, a beautiful two-acre waterfront property, now asking $14.250, down from its 2017 price of $18.8. The town appraises it at $9.6 million, and I imagine there will be a mutual meeting of the minds, eventually.

The late owner, Robert Zimmer, was a remarkable man: WW II bomber navigator, POW, and founder of the “Mens’ Wearhouse”.(It was his son, not he, who promised us, perhaps euphemistically, that we’d “like the way we looked”). Greenwich does attract great people, and that’s what makes this town so special.

The fraud that is recycling, known for decades, is finally coming to light

Pure, adultured bull shit

Atlantic Magazine admits the truth — it’s all a feel-good charade.

MY pen pal John Tierney of the NYT has the scoop (and it was he who debunked this nonsense some twenty years ago)

MARCH 9, 2019

RECYCLING IS STILL GARBAGE: Fiscal realities are finally persuading towns to junk their recycling programs, as the Atlantic reports sorrowfully. Alana Semuels nicely analyzes the fatal economic flaws of recycling but ends with a bit of green sermonizing:

Americans are going to have to come to terms with a new reality: All those toothpaste tubes and shopping bags and water bottles that didn’t exist 50 years ago need to go somewhere, and creating this much waste has a price we haven’t had to pay so far.

Actually, we’ve already paid the price by building landfills with with expensive liners and other environmental safeguards. And we’ve paid a lot more for recycling programs that were never necessary. Yes, those water bottles do have to go somewhere — and there’s plenty of room for them right back where they came from, in the ground. Why are greens horrified by the prospect of a plastic bottle made from petroleum being buried in a landfill? The plastic poses less of an underground threat  than the petroleum did. It’s much better environmentally (and cheaper) to put plastic bottles in a local landfill instead of shipping them  off for recycling to Asia (the only place with any market for them), because some of those bottles end up in rivers that send the plastic waste into the Pacific Ocean.

Eric Boehm at Reason has a much savvier take on the scrapped recycling programs:

Like most other civic issues, recycling programs should be judged by their costs and benefits. That means an honest assessment of the costs and benefits, one that leaves out the social signaling of environmentalism and the feel-good effects of putting an empty Coke bottle in a plastic bin that’s painted blue instead of black. There is no need to recycle all the things all the time, and the market seems to be sending towns and cities a powerful signal about the benefits of calling trash, trash.

Who could have ever predicted this?