No free rent for you!
Mayor Bloomberg, the first mayor in more than a half century not to live in Gracie Mansion, today called on his successor to follow his lead as a money-saving gesture to taxpayers.
The mayor’s startling advice was accompanied by a stern lecture about the cost of providing such free housing.
“You know a lot of people want to be mayor,” said Bloomberg. “You don’t have to give them extra money as a housing allowance.”
He argued that with the mayor in residence, city agencies and non-profit groups would have to find other spaces in which to hold their events instead of Gracie.
The added costs would then be passed on to taxpayers.
Bloomberg felt so strongly about the matter that he even took on former Mayor Koch, a longtime ally, for describing Gracie as a perfect home for the city’s leader.
Gracie became the official mayoral residence in 1942.
“Ed Koch, who I respect and love, he said it’s a great house and it is a great house,” said Bloomberg. “I just disagree with him. It’s a great house for everybody and not just one family. And it should be used as we use it now. There are events every day at Gracie Mansion, throughout the whole house. If a mayor’s family is living there most of that house — a good half of it — is just not available.”
Bloomberg said when he first took office he put the school chancellor’s house on the market because no municipality in the country was providing that type of perk. A survey of mayoral residences turned up only three “in small cities” where housing came free with the job.
The mayor, of course, is a billionaire who lives in a townhouse on the Upper East Side valued at about $16 million.
“How does he feel about the White House?” asked an aide to one mayoral contender.