Lincoln's Log

Two recent efforts by Greenwich police officers in support of their own caught my attention recently.

One is the organized bike ride in support of Sgt. Roger Petrone, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2007.

Click here for article

The other is this poster which caught my eye in Binney Park just before the fireworks. It’s for a fundraiser on behalf of officer Antonio Rivera. Both deserve our support.

Dave Roberson appears to be an impressive guy: MIT grad, aeronautic engineer with serious NASA chops, and a science fiction writer to boot. Dave sounds like a guy I wouldn’t mind sidling up to at a Greenwich cocktail party and pick his copious brain about a variety of topics. What is unclear to me is whether Dave knows anything about secondary education in the United States. Yet Dave, as chairman of the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee, is going to have a powerful voice in determining who sits on the Board of Education in Greenwich.

Ditto for John Raben Jr., another nice guy as far as I can tell from his profile on the Republican Town Committee web site. His J.P. Morgan resume may cause some to pause, but, hey, those of us in the newspaper industry aren’t exactly in a position to be throwing rocks these days.

All I know about Greenwich schools is what I read in the newspapers, and my experience from some reasonably terrifying days as a parent of a matriculating student. Neither one of these qualifications makes me a good candidate for deciding who should be on the school board.

And yet, we have these people – a cozy cabal of politically connected local denizens – who think they do. Isn’t it odd that the election to decide arguably the most important governing body in Greenwich – the Board of Education – is left to the whim and self-interest of a small group of citizens called the Democratic and Republican town committees?

Here is how it works in Greenwich: We have eight school board seats, staggered so that two seats come up for re-election every two years. Here is the best part: the DTC and RTC each come up with an undisputed candidate so both seats are uncontested. There is a secret Skull-and-Bones sort of handshake and everyone is happy that there will be no straying from the farm for another two years – no loudmouth one-off, hard-to-control pain-in-the-butt.

Stepford Wives? Welcome to the Stepford School Board.

And because the school board is assured there is no one on it that represents the constituency most in need of representation in Greenwich – the fast growing Hispanic students – we have the perfect storm that has led to Greenwich being compared to the public school systems in Bridgeport and New Haven.

The Greenwich Time had a terrific editorial on the issue today, calling the current system unacceptable, especially in light of the declining reputation of the Greenwich schools under the current school board.

Click here for article

We can’t have it both ways. If we want the school board to be a puppet of our elected politicians, let’s just do away with the charade of an “election.” Let’s adopt the Mike Bloomberg solution, which, by the way, has elevated New York City schools to some impressive highs. Let’s just have the first selectman appoint the superintendent and do away with the school board.

Let’s not have an un-democratic process and pretend we’re a democracy.

And who knows, Peter Tesei may surprise us. Maybe he’ll appoint the new harbormaster to be superintendent. At least we won’t be rudderless. That I can guarantee.

You don’t often see a swimsuit model in a photo shoot coming off the dock at OGYC (Old Greenwich Yacht Club), but there they were when former OGYC Commodore John Ehlers and I disembarked from the launch Pride on Saturday. Of course I could not resist inquiring into the particulars.

The photographer is Kristina Vartuli of Stamford who has a studio in Greenwich. The model is Neabell Diaz of New York. The makeup artist is Elise Brennan of New York. They were taking advantage of an usually dry day to build their respective portfolios.

After what seemed like eternity, construction of the sidewalk at one of the busiest corners in town – Shore Road and Sound Beach Avenue – finally appears to be nearing completion. Not sure why the town felt the expense was necessary to create the numerous crosswalks on Sound Beach Avenue or the stone wall at the corner …

A total of 19 single family houses were sold in Greenwich in May, compared with 21 in April, for an average price of $1,987,944, compared with $1,988,295, according to data compiled by William Raveis company.

Click here for data

Inventory has exploded, with more than 800 units on the market compared with 600 in December. The sales-to-list-price ratio which had been moving up four strong months in a row took a slight decline from April to May.

The market is still pretty soft. Let’s hope for better numbers in June.

Local congressman Jim Himes’s hyper-kinetic tweets are a treat.

Here are some recent ones:

On the typically delayed shuttle NYC-DC
2:36 PM Jun 8th from mobile web
Lieberman and Dodd aboard too, so 43% of CT delegation now stuck on tarmac.
2:39 PM Jun 8th from mobile web

Strange world. Gave keynote at Harvard Club dinner at Darien Country Club. It was there that an angry drunk nearly took a swing at me.
7:19 AM May 28th from web

Arrived in CT to find a home invasion happened across street. Seems no one hurt. Police everywhere and jumpy given history in CT.
2:27 PM May 22nd from web

Dropped by Lincoln Memorial last night around 11pm after Kennedy Center gig. There is no place like it. Sacred.
4:12 PM May 14th from web

Was at 1st Rose Garden ceremony just now to honor Teacher of the Year Tony Mullen from Greenwich. Education front and center, as it must be!
3:44 PM Apr 28th from web

White House bound to congratulate UCONN women with Hoops Player in-chief
12:26 PM Apr 27th from mobile web
After the formalities, the President took the UCONN women to the bball court to shoot baskets. Probably a first.
4:12 PM Apr 27th from web