The demolition of Bob Dyan’s room, 211, was carried out based on falsified permits, and far exceeded the scope of those permits in any event. Who do we blame? General Manager Andrew Tilley! Tilley will say that the falsified permits were applied for before he became manager, which is true, but the illegal “construction” occurred on his watch. Obviously he must have known that the permits were for bathroom and kitchen renovation only, since he was the one employing the contractors, and presumably, since he’s responsible for what goes on in the hotel, he would have checked in to see what they were doing a couple of times. But even if he was totally clueless and hence just an incredibly lousy manager, he couldn’t have failed to notice when the DOB officers came into the hotel and slapped a Stop Work order on the building! And he had to have known that when the construction workers came in the next day and casually took up where they had left off, this was in blatant disregard of the Stop Work order.
Tilley also has a code officer on the staff now, in Larry McLaughlin (how much are they paying this guy? Housekeeping staff are being laid off, you know), and you’re telling me this guy wouldn’t have informed him that the work exceeded the scope of the permits?! Far from trying to stop the “construction,” Tilley seems to have been desperate to allow it to proceed, possibly because he was hired to renovate the place (albeit presumably in a legal manner) and the tyrannical minority shareholder Marlene Krauss was breathing down his neck. And so we have to ask, now that he’s failed in this renovation attempt and hence has outlived his usefulness to Marlene, how much longer will Tilley be sticking around? Will he be able to overtake BD Hotels? The scorecard reads:
Stanley Bard: 50 years
BD Hotels: 8 months
Andrew Tilley: 5 months and counting
Adding insult to injury, the destruction of Bob Dylan’s room was carried out in a slipshod and negligent manner, with workers breaking the place up with sledgehammers with no regard for the consequences to the health and safety of the residents of the building. Dust was broadcast throughout the building because the incompetent workers didn’t bother to cover vents or, apparently, to take any other obvious precautions such as damping the dust down. In one resident’s apartment, three floors up, white dust hung in the air and thickly coated every surface in the kitchen, living room, and bedroom, forcing the resident to flee the apartment out of concerns for his health. (I was in the room for five minutes, tops, and I was coughing all night!) The clean-up for this room alone reportedly cost the hotel $3000!!! (Tilley has reportedly threatened to evict people for less.) And Manager Arnold Tamasar told another resident that the dust went all the way to the tenth floor! How could Tilley not have known that this was going on?
“I want to work in a cooperative manner with residents to restore this place,” Tilley told Chelsea Now, vowing to “refurbish and renovate the hotel while preserving the heart and soul of the building.” Instead, he sprung this half-assed “renovation” on us unawares, rushing willy-nilly to trash a beloved historic room before anyone could get wind of it and try to stop him. Tilley came to the hotel without doing his homework, thinking he was going to turn this place into another Hard Rock theme hotel. Tilley is an outsider, with none but the shallowest understanding of the history of the hotel, and, as recent events demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt, he absolutely must not be entrusted with its legacy.
(But hey, maybe he’ll let us hang our paintings in the rubble-strewn wreckage of Dylan’s apartment!) — Ed Hamilton
Living with Legends 
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