NEW YORK (AP) — Once more, Gracie Mansion will be home to the mayor of New York City.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio ended weeks of speculation by announcing Wednesday that his family would move to the mayor’s official residence.
De Blasio and his family were debating whether to move to the Manhattan mansion or stay in their beloved Brooklyn neighborhood.
“We’ll miss Brooklyn, but we are incredibly gratified to the people of New York for the opportunity to live in the Mayor’s residence,” de Blasio said in a statement posted on his transition team’s website. “It is an honor we accept with thanks.”
No one has lived in the mansion since Rudolph Giuliani left office in 2001. Mayor Michael Bloomberg remained in his opulent Upper East Side town house during his 12-year administration, though he oversaw extensive renovations to the mansion.
De Blasio, his wife and their two children have long lived in Park Slope, a progressive neighborhood that helped shape the mayor-elect’s political identity.
During the early days of the mayoral campaign, he strongly hinted that he would move to Gracie Mansion if elected. But he and his wife wavered in recent weeks, citing the pull of home and concerns over their 16-year-old son Dante’s commute from the Upper East Side to his Brooklyn high school. Their daughter attends college on the West Coast.
The media peppered him with questions as the family mulled the decision while many of his neighbors urged him to stay in his modest row house. Police had said they could safeguard the home, much like they did Bloomberg’s town house, but de Blasio cited “logistical and security concerns” as the main reasons for the move.
De Blasio takes office Jan. 1 but said the family would “phase in” the move over the next few months. He added that the family would keep their row house and would frequently visit their old neighborhood.
The mansion — which has eight bathrooms, as opposed to just one in their Brooklyn home — will be the site of many of the mayor’s meetings and social gatherings.
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