••• The Olympic-level flip attempt at 210 Miramar Avenue (which Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi listed at $6.9 million, $3.3 million more than they paid just four months ago), was removed five days after coming on the market. Perhaps they rented it, or perhaps the optics didn’t feel right. Anyway, the striking house—made from two antique English barns—is still on the agents’ website, so presumably it’s available. UPDATE: The house is back on the market, so perhaps it was just a glitch.
••• While heading south on the 101, I saw a crew in Montecito cutting up a tree in the median and worried that it was this iconic one. But it was actually the scraggly ones below (as shot by Google Maps last year). I fear that all the trees will be sacrificed to the widening effort….
••• The $10.5 million pocket listing at 970 Brooktree Road sold for $8.7 million, which I believe is the largest sale this year.
••• Island Packers posted that it’s “currently working in cooperation with federal, state and county agencies to create a reopening strategy and protocols” for Channel Islands National Park. “Once a firm date has been set, we will announce when we will again be open for transportation to the National Park.”
••• The Los Padres Forest Association explained a new order from the National Forest:
—With these new fire restrictions, all campfires are prohibited unless you are within a designated developed recreation site or designated campfire use site. Where this gets a bit confusing is that all the developed recreation sites and designated campfire use sites are currently closed by a Regional COVID Order, which means that for the time being no campfires are allowed anywhere in the forest. This also means no campfires in the backcountry.
—Camp and cooking stoves are still permitted in the forest and backcountry.
—The aforementioned Regional COVID Order is set to expire May 15 so it’s possible that the developed sites will reopen at that time but it’s more likely that the closure order will be extended, we’ll see what happens in a few days.
—The Monterey Ranger District remains closed through May 15 as well and may or may not be extended, stay tuned.
••• Free rocks.
••• More proof of how crazed the rental market has become, especially for summer: 2143 Forge Road is now available for $38,000 per month. In 2017, it was just about half that at $19,500 per month. The increase can not be attributed to those ceilings suddenly coming into fashion.
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