Screeches the Associated Press. This is unheard of. This is horrible. This is irresponsible.
This is thinly (very thinly) disguised class warfare – and raging hypocrisy.
Conn. home 20-times larger than average
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain isn't fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view.
It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home.
At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America.
The average U.S. home measures about 2,500 square feet — up from 1,995 square feet in 1988 — according to the National Association of Home Builders. But while houses are getting bigger, rarely are they built as big as the new Chase house.
"What you're talking about is mega homes," said Gopal Ahluwalia, the home builders association's vice president for research. "There are few homes larger than 50,000 square feet."
The brick and stucco colonial can be seen easily from the road. But the Hartford-based businessman, who plans to vacate a comparatively tiny 8,900-square-foot home when he moves, doesn't want too many people to know about it. He refused an interview and had a freelance photographer seeking permission to photograph the house for The Associated Press cited for trespassing.
We have hyperventilating from the left!
"Do you actually need to have that amount of space to live a good life?" said Susan A. Eisenhandler, a sociology professor at the University of Connecticut. "There are homeless people. There are impoverished people. There are serious social concerns, and we're not addressing that."
When the scandalized moralists from the AP (and the good professor) denounce the enormous – and growing – energy consumption of the Gorezilla, we may have something to talk about. For now, leave the man and his family alone. You have no – zero – right to intrude on his decisions. You really have none when you are silent about one of the biggest hypocrites pontificating today. Al Gore is devouring 20 times the national average of energy – and the AP is picking on a private citizen.
Don’t forget John Edwards and his 28000 square foot home. And I’d like to see Nancy Pelosi share her home in San Francisco with the poor and the homeless who seem to populate that city.
Why the uproar? Building a home with the majority underground is the energy effecient way to go. The natrual temp. below ground is 55 degrees year round. Its much easier to heat / cool that area with a 20 degree temp swing than the above ground level where temps can run from 5 degrees to 100 degrees as seasons change. Shall we ask Breck Gurl what his square footsge % above & below grade are?
Apocalyptic screechers ought not be semi-literate. “Enormity” has nothing to do with physical size.