[Janet Yellen: Neighborhood Wrecker? Original photo by Flickr user ehpien]
It's not easy being the Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. But as if having one of the most powerful and difficult jobs in the country isn't enough, Janet Yellen has also made a different set of powerful enemies: her neighbors. Wall Street Journal chronicled some of the problems that the other residents of her gated Georgetown community of Hillandale have with Yellen and more specifically with her security team. They take issue with everything from the way that they dress, to the security measures that they take, to the abundance of fast food that they eat. Take a look at some of the most memorable lines from the piece below.
· 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.
· 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."
· Neighbors seem especially put off by the aesthetics of the security detail, in particular their blue uniforms and—in the words of one resident—"doughnut bellies."
· Security trucks, it continued, "weighing approximately 7,000 pounds each" sit idling on the street for "approximately 22 minutes daily" at each Yellen morning pickup.
· "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 the newcomers. Is this really necessary, he wonders, to protect an unarmed economist from Brooklyn?
· They mounted on the roof a camera that looked like a streetlight on an interstate and proceeded to monitor—and disgust—the neighbors.
· "Bob Mueller, who you would think would have a much more dangerous job dealing with terrorists all over the world, had people who were businesslike, didn't socialize and waited for him outside the gate," says one unhappy resident, sitting in a living room decorated in chintz, silk topiary and family silver. "Now we have this group, overweight, wearing the most ridiculous blue uniforms with the most ridiculous blue caps, and they have guns that are visible."
· "We need to put in proper safeguards. How are we going to feel if somebody leases to the Taliban?" -William Shawn
· Security Detail for Fed Chairwoman Irks Neighbors [WSJ]
· Janet Yellen's Security Detail Has 'Doughnut Bellies,' And Other Great Details From The WSJ Piece On Hillandale [DCist]
Loading comments...