Ivanka’s family on wrong foot with neighbors
washington» Residents of a posh Washington neighborhood say Ivanka Trump and her family don’t make for very good neighbors, taking up much of the parking on an already crowded street and leaving trash bags at the curb for days. A big part of the complaint: a huge security presence, with even a trip to the playground requiring three vans.
Neighbors of Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children have groused that sidewalks have been closed, public parking overrun and that the family and their staff haven’t learned the trash pickup schedule outside their $5.5 million home.
“It has been a three-ring circus from the day that they’ve moved in,” Marietta Robinson, who lives across the street, told The Associated Press.
The house in the Kalorama neighborhood was bought in December by a company with ties to a Chilean billionaire. The company is renting it to Kushner and Trump, who moved in just after the inauguration of her father, President Donald Trump. Both work in the White House as advisers to the president.
Residents of the enclave of four- and five-story townhomes and elegant single-family properties about 2 miles north of the White House are accustomed to VIP neighbors. Former President Barack Obama and his family have lived there since he left office, and the Secret Service closed off their entire block to traffic. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought a home there, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also moved in recently.
Yet no one has raised the ire of the community like the Trumps.
Some in the neighborhood have also complained about the family’s rental arrangement. The company that owns the house didn’t obtain a rental license for two months, securing one just last week after it was warned by city regulators.
The Secret Service has sole responsibility under law for protecting the family, but neighbors have noticed what they describe as an unusually large and aggressive security presence. Ivanka Trump arrives and departs in a four-vehicle motorcade, Robinson said.
“There are more of them than I have ever seen,” Robinson wrote in a letter to Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and other city officials. “Frequently several of them are milling outside of the house at all hours having conversations and staring meanly at anyone in view.”
The letter — which also complained about parking, trash and noise — spurred the city government into action. On Friday morning, District transportation crews were outside the house, removing “No Parking” signs.