LAND SURPRISE ON VINEYARD

Page Six: NY Post ^ | 5-10-03 | Richard Johnson

[Pharmboy]

"LATE SHOW" host David Letterman is one of several millionaires who was able to buy oceanfront estates on Martha’s Vineyard from the Nature Conservancy, which is dedicated to stopping such development. Two years ago, the Nature Conservancy, which buys raw land and holds it in perpetuity to preserve fragile ecosystems, bought the 215-acre Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown for $64 million. The purchase was hailed at the time as 'an important victory for conservation on Martha’s Vineyard,' part of the Conservancy’s campaign to save America’s 'Last Great Places.'

[Pharmboy]

Limousine Liberalism, front and center. I was there when he "interviewed" Hellary. He's a phony.

[Leisler]

The islands are the Obersalzberg for rich leftists.

[Flyer]

holds it in perpetuity

Perpetuity - A length of time determined by the ability to make sweetheart deals.

[VadeRetro]

Limousine Liberalism, front and center.

Our American Aristocracy! Our Camelot elite! The vision didn't die with the Kennedy brothers.

If these are our elites, God help the peasants!

[Pharmboy]

ping

[#3Fan]

There's no honor among theives.

[Pharmboy]

The peasants now have the Internet. Haw Haw!

[RicocheT]

The Nature Conservancy has been pulling this bait and switch all over the USA. Here the seller was in the know and got top dollar.

Usually, the seller thinks the Nature Conservancy is the final buyer and gives them a low price out of wanting to save the environment. Then, the Nature Conservancy resells part or all at a much higher price to developers or the privileged few who get to build within the conserved area. Or the Nature Conservancy swaps the whole parcel for another elsewhere that they deem more attractive for conservation. The losers are the schmuck seller and we taxpayers.

[Hugin]

Back in 1999, Letterman tried to buy all of Herring Creek Farm for himself, promising he’d only build six 'eco-friendly' houses on the site and donate more than half the land to an agricultural nonprofit group. Public outcry scotched the deal, as did another attempt to develop the property.

With its excellent reputation, the Nature Conservancy was able to close the deal.

This is typical of how the Nature Conservancy scam works. They get people to donate or sell for less than market value property they love by making them think that they plan on maintaining it in perpituity. They also work behind the scenes with environmental groups and government agencies to prevent landowners from building or otherwise using their property. Then they step in pretending to be white knights who will buy the unusable property and protect the environment. Then they develop it for a huge profit, but the eco-freaks won't say anything about it because they are the "good guys".

They are nothing but lowlife leftist lawyer sharks.

[Rocky]

Yeah, the Left was just looking for a little Lebensraum.

[isthisnickcool]

Aren't these the morons that Paul Newman supports?

Bet they have done deals like his before?

Another "nonprofit"? Yea, sure....

[doug from upland]

Best landscam since Whitewater and Flowerwood Farms.

[esopman]

Genau!

If only more knew the detailed history of the pre-war years of Das Dritte Reich. The parallels between our elite left and the elites of that era are stunning - right down to the nature of their moral/sexual/financial decay and corruption. The blinding irony is that the elite left sees Bush as the Nazi, where, in reality, they are the very precursors of tyranny and would comfortably sip their Chablis at Berchtesgaden - were they returned to that time...

[Finalapproach29er]

Isn't this criminal fraud? Can't anybody be prosecuted? Can the non-profit status be revoked? Any lawyers on this thread know?

[LNewman]

Sorry I read the sleeze ... off to the showers with me.

[elbucko]

Obersalzberg for rich leftists.,

Well said.

[tet68]

Hillery! "Welcome to my new home, let me show you how
the living room window retracts into the wall.
There! What a beautiful view of Ft. Marcy Park."

[Tacis]

I hate to see one of these really, really sleazy non-profit, liberal thefts where Robert Redford dosn't get a chunk of the loot.

[elbucko]

The blinding irony is that the elite left sees Bush as the Nazi,...

It's the same old con as a robber calling their victim a thief with the victims wallet is in the robbers pocket. The trouble is, the cops are always too dim or too corrupt spot the scam. In this case, the cops are the media and the lawyers in the states AG's office.

[Agamemnon]

Like Orwell intimated: Some pigs are more equal than others.

[elbucko]

I hate to see one of these ,.... where Robert Redford dosn't get a chunk of the loot.

Me too! LOL!

[Think free or die]

I saw something similar here in the Philadelphia area. After the Nature Conservancy acquired a large parcel of land near the nature center, a new townhouse development soon followed on a portion of the land. When I questioned it, they justified the sale by saying that this was how they raised enough money to maintain the more delicate and important properties. That was about 15 years ago. Until that time, I had supported the organization; no more.

It also seemed to me that they took too little care in monitoring the "protected" properties. A tenant organization was quite abusive to the environment on a TNC property I was monitoring. Nothing happened when I reported the issues. It was a girl scout camp which served a largely urban and minority population. I assumed at the time that the Conservancy was unwilling to take up controversial issues with their politically correct tenant, even though its purported goals of habitat protection were in jeopardy. I no longer believe anything I hear from the Nature Conservancy.

[RecklessConservative]

Meanwhile the enviro whackos are telling some farmer in Michigan that thier cows aren't allowed to walk thru a creek.

[Ditter]

Hummmmmmm I'm glad to know this.

[beckett]

The first really stinky scandal I have ever seen associated with Letterman's name. I am just flabbergasted that he would let himself be involved in something that at first blush looks very underhanded and sneaky.

[RippleFire]

bump

[Walkingfeather]

I say someone should have their tax exempt status revoked... and be taxed for the shell game they just played.