bill de blasio's new york

De Blasio’s Empty House in Brooklyn Apparently Has 24/7 Security

In this Nov. 6, 2013 photo, Chirlane McCray and her husband Bill de Blasio leave their house in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Now de Blasio faces a crucial early decision: should he leave Park Slope behind to move to the mayor’s official residence, stately Gracie Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side?
Photo: AP/Mark Lennihan

The air-conditioned booth outside of the mayor’s place in Park Slope is occupied approximately 100 percent more often than the house it’s supposed to be protecting. According to the New York Post, the guardhouse is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, despite the fact that Bill de Blasio and his family moved full-time to Gracie Mansion in Manhattan months ago (unless they’re secretly sleeping in Brooklyn!?). “Taxpayers are shelling out at least $5,533 a week — roughly $277,000 a year — for the security, based on the NYPD’s average hourly wage,” according to some napkin math by the Post. Should the de Blasios decide to rent out the home, it might just come with a Michael Bloomberg–level perk. You don’t often see that on Craigslist.

Empty de Blasio House in Brooklyn Has Security