DSK's Temporary Digs Become an Instant Tourist Trap
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is only supposed to stay at downtown New York's 71 Broadway for a few days, but even so, the temporary apartment owned by the security company that he's hired has become a visitors' destination. Looky-loos snap photos from tour buses, and throngs of media crowd the outside. The apartment is now the focus of a media circus that finds itself just a little lost after last week's breaking news about Strauss-Kahn's arrest, bail hearing, and release from Rikers Island jail.
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According to the Associated Press this morning, "On Sunday, open-top buses passed by, with cameras pointed at the luxury high-rise in lower Manhattan where Dominique Strauss-Kahn was holed up with his wife, Anne Sinclair." The AP went on to describe the reporters' vigil there. "A crowd of international reporters and onlookers is gathering around the clock outside the 21-story Empire Building at 71 Broadway, across from Wall Street."
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Meanwhile, the New York Daily News did some math and came up with the angle that Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, must be paying for the apartment and round-the-clock security that is keeping him out of jail per his bail agreement:
The former International Monetary Fund chief is out on a $6 million bail package but only on the condition he pony up for a $200,000-a-month security detail to monitor his every move.
That would amount to another $2.4million a year. But the 62-year-old Parisian pol - who was widely expected to become France's next president - is estimated to only be worth $2 million on his own.
So despite a $500,000-a-year job setting global economic policy, Strauss-Kahn's life at large is primarily financed by his wife Anne Sinclair's massive family fortune.
Today, people who work near the downtown apartment have taken to Twitter to gripe about the cluster of cameras blocking their way. A common refrain: "There goes the neighborhood." Often, that's followed by a photo like this one from Abraham Lustgarten:
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It's going to be a long week or more on lower Broadway as Strauss-Kahn and his team look for a more permanent housing arrangement. His next court appearance, an arraignment, isn't scheduled until June 6.
