Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
The official narrative of the AGW crowd demands a belief in rising sea levels. The reality often conflicts with this narrative. In this case the prospect of one of the devaluation of prime real estate in one of America’s priciest markets threatens the investment of those who most ardently support the original narrative, creating a crisis of conscience; do I acknowledge the facts or stick to my ideological guns and continue to deny that which may threaten my financial position?
Boston is a waterfront city. Atlantic ocean style waterfront. Groundwater is the result of saturation levels of existing sub-soils via percolation from rainwater runoff and infiltration of seawater from adjacent bodies, like bays, estuaries, wetlands, etc.
If the sea level were indeed rising as it has been claimed, then the conditions present in this article could not exist. Thus the need for a counter narrative to explain away the disparity between theory and reality. Or feign ignorance. Or simply lie.
“It’s pretty hard to trace where the water table goes or what effects it,” Mr. Dewey said.
Like that.
Some of Boston’s Priciest Real Estate Is Sinking Into the Earth
In 2011, developer Koby Kempel paid $2.5 million for a red brick, former carriage house in Boston’s coveted Beacon Hill, one of the priciest neighborhoods in the country. Famed for its cobblestone streets and historic row houses, Beacon Hill has been home to former Secretary of State John Kerry and many other notable Bostonians over the years.
When Mr. Kempel bought the circa-1900 house on Beaver Place, the underground wooden pilings supporting the foundation had been rotting for years, to the point where the building’s walls were “almost floating,” he recalled. “The only thing that was holding the building [up] was the fact that it was connected to the adjacent buildings. It was almost leaning on those party walls.”
Mr. Kempel said he spent several hundred thousand dollars repairing the pilings before he was able to carry out his plan of renovating the rest of the house.
Some of Boston’s most expensive real estate is built on wooden pilings.
