The Wall Street Journal published an interesting piece this weekend about how Janet Yellen’s security detail has ruined the calm and sanctity of her new neighborhood.
Yellen lives in Hillandale, an exclusive gated D.C. community where house prices exceed $3 million. The Journal says the community is governed by “50 pages of rules banning fences, motorcycles, certain paint colors, tree species and excess dogs and cats (no more than two total per household).”
But when Yellen moved in, the body mass of her security detail upset the community’s order.
via WSJ: “As neighbors tell it, earlier this year, the security detail protecting new Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen barreled through the cul-de-sac where she lives in oversize vans loaded with guns, cameras and takeout pizza. It established an ‘armed camp’ next door to [Hillandale resident Sallie Forman’s] townhome, according to a written bill of grievances presented by concerned neighbors deeming the uniformed police presence ‘uncomfortable for residents of various religious persuasions,’ such as Quakers.”
The community’s grievances against Yellen’s detail also said security trucks “weighing approximately 7,000 pounds each” sit idling on the street for “approximately 22 minutes daily” at each Yellen morning pickup. When Ms. Yellen leaves her home, a second truck then “speedily pulls out of the security driveway…all the while spilling fluid onto the street, which has now left a permanent stain.”
Hillandale bylaws, the Journal notes, “expressly prohibit car fluid spills in the common areas.”
The publication also said that “neighbors seem especially put off by the aesthetics of the security detail, in particular their blue uniforms”. One resident was particularly put off by the guards’ “doughnut bellies.”
Residents also feel that even though there is more security with Yellen’s presence, they won’t be any safer.
“These characters are only here for Janet Yellen. They’re not going to be distracted by robbers, rapists, or any other thing. Besides, these guys couldn’t catch a thief if their lives depended on it,” said one neighbor.
According to the Journal, some Hillandale resident believe the price of security just got too high.
“The government is paying $5,000 or $6,000 a month or more to rent a whole townhouse in Georgetown to put cops in,” says international attorney William Shawn, who lives down the street from Yellen. “Is this really necessary, he wonders, to protect an unarmed economist from Brooklyn?”
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