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Stay out! The gates at Gracie Mansion have not allowed tours since Bill de Blasio and family have moved in. Photo: AP
Gracie Mansion might be dubbed the “People’s House” — but the only folks enjoying the taxpayer-owned landmark these days are the de Blasios.
No public tours have been allowed at the circa-1799 Upper East Side manse since Hizzoner and family moved in nearly six months ago.
The red carpet has remained rolled up despite promises in June, when the de Blasios began moving from their Park Slope home to the new digs, that tours would resume in September after they were settled.
“What’s he hiding? Why is he not letting people in?” wondered neighbor Rose Rafferty, 75.
“We do pay his salary and it’s not his house,” she fumed. “It’s a shame he’s not opening it up for the adults that elected him and more for the children of the adults that elected him.”
The latest revelation comes after The Post reported the mayor ordered the installation, without permits, of a 10-foot-tall fence inside a 6-foot-high brick wall to keep the public’s prying eyes from his yard. City Hall said the barrier was for security reasons.
The mayor’s need for seclusion is a far cry from when Mayor Rudy Giuliani lived there with his family. Back then, public tours were available every Wednesday and Thursday morning, according to 2001 press reports.
In the Bloomberg years, when the mansion was empty, access increased — with two days for school tours and a day for public visitors every week.
“I would like to take my kids there,” said father-of-two Sammie Arthur, 45, a Brownsville resident who works on the Upper East Side. “I find it troubling that if I’m able to go to the White House in Washington, DC, I should also be able to go to the mayor’s house in my own city.”
The Gracie Mansion Conservancy voicemail says the tour program is “temporarily unavailable” and will resume in the spring.
City Hall confirmed Saturday that tours had been suspended and will resume next year, but its explanation was murky.
“Staff is working on a new program that is more representative of all of New York,” said mayoral spokesperson Rebecca Katz. She did not elaborate on what was meant by “representative.”
The Conservancy’s Facebook page hasn’t been updated since late September.
“There’s no more tours,” said an NYPD cop working the security detail at the mansion Saturday.
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