Bravo, Washington Post web design team and reporter Philip Bump. Bravo.
I believe they may have just invented "squarefootshaming," in this interactive feature that allows you to compare the space in your "mansion/apartment/shack/house" to his La Jolla megamansion, a gluttonous expanse of manse in one of the toniest and expensive seaside nabes in the mainland United States. "Humiliate me," reads the button you click to be squarefootshamed in comparison.
The Boston Globe explored Romney's post-2012 real estate boom earlier this week, including a look at that house, all 11,206 square feet of it in La Jolla, Calif. It's a beautiful property, in a beautiful location, that we would not begrudge anyone for owning — although if that owner then started railing against income inequality, we might then raise one eyebrow, just a bit.
We realized, though, that we don't really know how big 11,000 square feet actually is. In order to get approval to build the home (it was an upgrade from a smaller version), Romney's architect had to submit plans to the state, in part because it abuts the coast. Thanks to those plans, we can see exactly what the joint looks like — and, more excitingly, just how big it is.
"How big is Mitt Romney's California house? Here, compare it to yours." [washingtonpost.com]
