Part of Westport’s Most Expensive Real Estate Sale Demolished

12 thoughts on “Part of Westport’s Most Expensive Real Estate Sale Demolished”

1. Juxtaposed with the devastation in the South and so many with nothing, this is grotesque.  We’re seeing both the best and the worst of Westport this week.

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2. Do you know that this family didn’t also donate to help the families in the South? If they have enough to do both, should we really pass judgment?

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3. njohnston,

   What am I missing?  A family is renovating their home, and this is the worst of Westport?  (Shouldn’t the perv teacher win that prize?  Or the system that kept him employed?)

   It must be nice being you.

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4. It’s so sad that there are a few Westporters (writing above) who can’t see that when there is such devastation down South that having a $14 million teardown (oh yeah, only “part” of the house but it sure looks like a lot was torn down) is a topic of disgust and dismay by many in Westport.  Doesn’t matter if they sent a huge contribution ($15 million would be nice)—it’s the idea of extreme consumption in a lovely town like Westport.  Yes, they can do what they want with THIER (sic) property, but our town is the loser.

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5. Your comments are really out of line NJ. You should not pass judgment on these people for doing whatever they want with THIER property. You then make some vague comparison with the Katrina disaster and rebuke these people for spending money the way they want. Way to go.

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6. Anyone who is “disgusted” by someone renovating their expensive home needs a perspective renovation. I’ll assume, NJ and Heart, that you’ve both moved out of your lovely Westport homes and donated them to Katrina refugees. It’d be “disgusting” to live in such a nice place when people are suffering, no?

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7. Wow!!!  I was going to have the floors in our kitchen refinished, but I guess that I really shouldn’t.  Just out of curiosity, when is the proper time to renovate one’s home?  Do you wait until 6 months after any tragedy has occured?  What if you have already started renovations and a tragedy occurs?  Do you stop work and only resume after the 6 month waiting period is up?  I don’t want to offend NJ and Heart, and I want to be certain that I am not the one that makes this town a “loser”.

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8. First, the people in the Gulf Coast are not refugees – they are survivors, and Americans.

   Second, it is simply an observation that we have such extremes; hundreds of thousands of people who are now homeless in our country, yet we live in a town where many people feel that 10,000 square foot per person in their family isn’t large enough….seems a little gross, no?  It’s not a question of people having the right to live in an extraordinarily extravagent way, it’s more about shifting our perspectives and priorities about what is important in life.

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9. So how does one “shift perspectives and priorities” in this case? What is the appropriate waiting time before continuing a renovation?

   “Seeming gross” is in the eye of the seemer; it’s well within your right to feel that way. But when one starts condemning others for not having the same perspective as you, we have a problem. Especially when one cannot offer a definitive rationale as to why one’s perspective should trump others’.

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10. How can you all miss the obvious irony of this situation?  Surely you can see the difference between refinishing your floors and largely demolishing the most expensive house, in one of the most affluent towns in America because it isn’t large and luxurious enough.  It’s a question of values, made all the more salient when so many have lost everything.  “Let them eat cake” comes to mind.

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11. All I want to know is who is defining “large and luxurious enough”.

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12. To Jeff K.,

    I am not condemning people who have a different perspective – I think it is fair for all of us to ask ourselves as human beings, Americans, who are often so proud of ourselves, are we on the right track, or are we missing something?  I’ve grown up in Westport, and I LOVE Westport, but it’s a fair question to look at the way we live, and ask when is enough, enough?  It’s hard to imagine that I’m in the minority when I struggle with how to teach my daughter how lucky she is to live here and have every advantadge in the world available to her.  I don’t want her to feel guilty – just grateful.  And beyond grateful, I pray that she feels compassion for those who don’t have enough, and that she will help share the gifts she has been given.  This catasrophe is only the beginning of the story.  My prayer is that it can bring us together to help work on solutions – not foster us bickering over semantics.

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