Maher Avenue – Barbarians at the Doors
Some years ago a local real estate columnist wrote about what a wonderful place the Mahr Avenue neighborhood (next to Brunswick) was for trick-or-treating. He unleashed a monster. Today, it seems, every Back Country and Westchester County resident loads her kids into the SUV and drops them off to pillage the area. My brother Gideon and his significant other, Suzie, simply shut off their lights and flee; those who stayed behind did not fare well. One neighbor reported that she served 1,100 (I kid you not) bandits. Bad enough were the parents carrying infants and toting adult “gift bags”; the worst were kids who, surveying what this beleaguered homeowner offered, demanded, “what else you got?” This situation will cure itself, of course, as more and more homeowners follow Gideon and Suzie’s example and thus diminish the attractiveness of this area as a source for looting, but what a shame; what had been a great neighborhood tradition has descended into a mire of greed and bad manners.

14 Buena Vista Drive
After writing about multi-million dollar homes, it’s always refreshing to discover a starter home under a million (okay, that’s ridiculous, but …) that’s worth mentioning. Pete Fina, Weichert, has listed a Dutch Colonial on Buena Vista Drive for $839,000 that I think is well priced and, in fact, a bargain. Buena Vista’s a really nice street in Glenville; quiet and filled with kids. This house has four bedrooms, two baths and is already rough-plumbed to accommodate a master bathroom, which I’d do, as a new owner. Not much of a yard, given its 0.11 acreage, but what are you going to do? It is, as they say, what it is, and I liked it.

Greenwich Shellfish Commission
When I was a very young kid I used to dig for steamers at the Riverside Yacht Club beach. That ended around 1963 when the health Department got around to sampling our local waters and was apparently horrified at what it found. Ooops; no wonder I turned out the way I did. But time, and pollution control marches on and in 1986 Lucy Jineshian, Dan Barrett, Bill Crane and Scott Wakeman (and Sue Baker, soon after), began a long campaign to reopen our waters for shell fishing. This band of volunteers spent more than five years procuring water samples and delivering them to the state health authorities before finally achieving their goal. The Shell Fish Commission recently hosted a twenty-year anniversary celebrating those efforts at, fittingly enough, The Riverside Yacht Club. A grand time was had by all but I’m writing this to remind, or inform you all that clams, mussels and oysters are waiting for your taking at Tod’s and other locations around town. You need a permit ($15, at Town Hall or Sportsmen’s Den) and implement of destruction like a rake or fork, a bucket, a size ring so you don’t grab under-sized clams and probably a pair of rubber boots. That’s it. It’s a great way to get outside on otherwise dreary winter days and it’s something kids especially seem to enjoy doing with their parents. Beats standing on the sideline of a soccer field, in my opinion.

What to be a volunteer warden? Call the Commission at 622-7777 (or check out greenwichct.org/shellfish/shellfish.asp (hey, I didn’t come up with such an awkward address) for additional information, including clamming locations, tide charts (you’ll want to do this at low tide, duh) etc. I can’t vouch for the payment wardens receive but you do get a nifty hat, much improved over the original, and it offers other benefits. I was speeding through Damarascotta, Maine late one night when I was pulled over by a trooper. I couldn’t immediately locate my driver’s license so I proffered my clam warden’s card instead. “Clam Warden, eh?” he said, “well slow down!” Yessir. I can’t guarantee this trick will work in an inland location but heck – better than nothing.

And Speaking of Waterfront
Anne Simpson just listed a fantastic piece of it at 20 Shoreham Club Drive in Old Greenwich for $6,900,000. Great house but even better views so my guess is that (a) it will sell quickly and (b) it’ll be torn down and replaced by some 10,000 sq.ft. eye sore. Well, what do you expect to happen to a house built as long ago as 1984? The thing’s obsolete!

Book Party!
I’ll be signing copies of “Greenwich Meantime" at Arcadia Coffee House Monday, December 11, 7:30 – 9:00. Food, wine, fun, I hope.