October 15, 2004
Le Grande Avenue
I wrote about these condominiums awhile back, predicting that they’d do well even though Le Grande is very much a street “in progress”. They have, selling almost as quickly as they are completed, at prices approaching $1.5 million. That’s impressive. Up on East Elm Street, just a block from Le Grande, the Rose Arbor condominiums, a bit more upscale with private elevators and the like, are also selling quickly, for $2.7 million and up. There is a lot of down-sizing going on, I suspect, by home owners who don’t want to give up their creature comforts.
Mediation
Back when I hunted wicked stock brokers for a living I mediated a number of cases to quick, efficient solutions. It’s not a difficult process: the parties sit down with a trained mediator and, after hearing both sides, the mediator separates the parties and conducts a sort of shuttle diplomacy going from room to room until he or she has hammered out an agreement. Other municipalities have set up mediation programs for everything from domestic matters to environmental disputes. It occurs to me that Greenwich might be well served trying to resolve some of its zoning squabbles in the same way. Mediation is non-binding; if no settlement is reached, nothing said in the mediation can be introduced as evidence in a later court proceeding. But, in my experience, mediation never failed. The parties get a result they can live with which is not often the case with a judge-imposed “solution. Mediation is far cheaper, too, so perhaps someone on one of the RTM’s land use committees might want to look into setting up a trial program.
Real Estate Signs
New comers to town may wonder why Greenwich, unlike most towns, has no “for sale” signs blighting the landscape. It’s a good story. Signs were never used in town until the late Eighties when the chain store Realtors swept into town and began sticking them everywhere. Betty Moger, of Cleveland Duble & Arnold, led the charge against them but the signs most colorful foe was the late Rene Anselmo. Rene (he was responsible for the thousands of daffodils you see each spring along North Street, the new playground at Hamilton Avenue School and literally dozens of town improvements, all erected at his expense and very much without the town government’s permission) thought the signs an abomination. His answer was to cruise the streets in his Bentley convertible, collecting the signs in his back seat, posts and all, then returning home to call the offending Realtors to tell them where they might retrieve them. For this he was arrested, again and again, until finally our local Assistant State’s Attorney, Steve Weiss, announced that he had better thiings to do than prosecute a multi-millionaire with good taste. The signs disappeared along with some of the chains that had sponsored them. When, for instance, was the last time you saw a mustard-blazered Century 21 Realtor darkening our streets? Best Rene story, perhaps apocryphal, was that he was confronted at his house by a Greenwich patrolman who’d been sent to arrest him. “I was just sitting down to lunch,” Rene is supposed to have said. “Why don’t you join me and we’ll go down together.” So they did.
Fish Tales
It’s October, so millions of tiny bunkers are swarming into our tidal creeks and being pursued by bluefish and striped bass . If there’s anything more fun than fighting a bluefish on light tackle I haven’t found it yet and am not inclined to look. I’ve been using a two inch lure these past few years that more or less resembles the live bunkers, but your best bet is to visit Mike Noyes at the Sportsman’s Den at 33 River Road (just before the I-95 underpass) in Cos Cob. 869-3234. Mike has been separating fishermen from their money for as long as I can remember but, in exchange, he and his crew dispense the very best, most accurate information on where the fish are and how to catch them. They also run great courses on, say, saltwater flyfishing, and have charter services available if you’d like to go that route. Grab a pole, check for high tide and hit the docks. Don’t own a house on a tidal creek? Call me – we’ll talk (Sean, you can borrow my canoe). Alternatively, you’ll find public access at Tomac Landing in Old Greenwich. The end of Steamboat Road will also work but tends to be crowded; Tomac’s yours alone, usually. And did you know that you can get a (free, I think) fishing pass from Parks & Rec that will permit you to stay in Tod’s after sunset? Good spot for flyfishing is just to the east of the guard booth, around the rocks and eel grass. But hurry; the next cold front will push the fish south, and you’ll be left waiting for ice fishing season to begin.
I wrote about these condominiums awhile back, predicting that they’d do well even though Le Grande is very much a street “in progress”. They have, selling almost as quickly as they are completed, at prices approaching $1.5 million. That’s impressive. Up on East Elm Street, just a block from Le Grande, the Rose Arbor condominiums, a bit more upscale with private elevators and the like, are also selling quickly, for $2.7 million and up. There is a lot of down-sizing going on, I suspect, by home owners who don’t want to give up their creature comforts.
Mediation
Back when I hunted wicked stock brokers for a living I mediated a number of cases to quick, efficient solutions. It’s not a difficult process: the parties sit down with a trained mediator and, after hearing both sides, the mediator separates the parties and conducts a sort of shuttle diplomacy going from room to room until he or she has hammered out an agreement. Other municipalities have set up mediation programs for everything from domestic matters to environmental disputes. It occurs to me that Greenwich might be well served trying to resolve some of its zoning squabbles in the same way. Mediation is non-binding; if no settlement is reached, nothing said in the mediation can be introduced as evidence in a later court proceeding. But, in my experience, mediation never failed. The parties get a result they can live with which is not often the case with a judge-imposed “solution. Mediation is far cheaper, too, so perhaps someone on one of the RTM’s land use committees might want to look into setting up a trial program.
Real Estate Signs
New comers to town may wonder why Greenwich, unlike most towns, has no “for sale” signs blighting the landscape. It’s a good story. Signs were never used in town until the late Eighties when the chain store Realtors swept into town and began sticking them everywhere. Betty Moger, of Cleveland Duble & Arnold, led the charge against them but the signs most colorful foe was the late Rene Anselmo. Rene (he was responsible for the thousands of daffodils you see each spring along North Street, the new playground at Hamilton Avenue School and literally dozens of town improvements, all erected at his expense and very much without the town government’s permission) thought the signs an abomination. His answer was to cruise the streets in his Bentley convertible, collecting the signs in his back seat, posts and all, then returning home to call the offending Realtors to tell them where they might retrieve them. For this he was arrested, again and again, until finally our local Assistant State’s Attorney, Steve Weiss, announced that he had better thiings to do than prosecute a multi-millionaire with good taste. The signs disappeared along with some of the chains that had sponsored them. When, for instance, was the last time you saw a mustard-blazered Century 21 Realtor darkening our streets? Best Rene story, perhaps apocryphal, was that he was confronted at his house by a Greenwich patrolman who’d been sent to arrest him. “I was just sitting down to lunch,” Rene is supposed to have said. “Why don’t you join me and we’ll go down together.” So they did.
Fish Tales
It’s October, so millions of tiny bunkers are swarming into our tidal creeks and being pursued by bluefish and striped bass . If there’s anything more fun than fighting a bluefish on light tackle I haven’t found it yet and am not inclined to look. I’ve been using a two inch lure these past few years that more or less resembles the live bunkers, but your best bet is to visit Mike Noyes at the Sportsman’s Den at 33 River Road (just before the I-95 underpass) in Cos Cob. 869-3234. Mike has been separating fishermen from their money for as long as I can remember but, in exchange, he and his crew dispense the very best, most accurate information on where the fish are and how to catch them. They also run great courses on, say, saltwater flyfishing, and have charter services available if you’d like to go that route. Grab a pole, check for high tide and hit the docks. Don’t own a house on a tidal creek? Call me – we’ll talk (Sean, you can borrow my canoe). Alternatively, you’ll find public access at Tomac Landing in Old Greenwich. The end of Steamboat Road will also work but tends to be crowded; Tomac’s yours alone, usually. And did you know that you can get a (free, I think) fishing pass from Parks & Rec that will permit you to stay in Tod’s after sunset? Good spot for flyfishing is just to the east of the guard booth, around the rocks and eel grass. But hurry; the next cold front will push the fish south, and you’ll be left waiting for ice fishing season to begin.
posted by Chris Fountain at 8:57 AM
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