Living with Legends

On Tuesday, Oct 21, eviction notices signed by Chelsea Hotel general manager Andrew Tilley were posted on the doors of a large number of residents, ordering them to pay up in three days or else face eviction proceedings.  These are all long term residents, some of whom have lived here for up to twenty years, and some of whom owe as little as a months rent.  In addition, some of these tenants are elderly and physically disabled.

Why a man who claims to be a friend to the tenants would move to carry out mass evictions on the eve of a depression is, quite frankly, beyond us.  This action comes in stark contrast to the reassurances Tilley gave us at our Tenant’s Association meeting in August.  Though promising no free ride, Tilley specifically stated that he would give tenants a phone call to discuss their bills with them if they fell slightly behind in their rent.  But these eviction notices were apparently posted without a call or even a friendly reminder—which could have been dropped in tenants’ boxes with a minimum of effort.  If  Tilley’s aim was to spring on vulnerable tenants and catch them unawares with a frightening legal ultimatum, then he has certainly attained his goal.

            The fact that these notices follow directly on the heels of an economic downturn is not likely a coincidence.  Tilley is on a fishing expedition, casting his nets widely.  Although he knows that most residents will be able to scrape together the funds necessary to stave off eviction, he is betting that a handful will not be able to do so.  When so many hardworking people have lost a good chunk of their savings due to the disastrous collapse of the stock market, Tilley’s opportunistic action is truly morally reprehensible.

            It’s probably not a coincidence either that this action comes at a time when we are starting to see increased activity on the construction front here at the hotel.  Tilley wants desperately to renovate, and minority owner Marlene Krauss—who herself may have taken a recent bath on the stockmarket—is squeezing him to come up with some of the funds on his own. — Ed Hamilton

     Because of the downturn in the economy caused by greedy developers and stockbrokers, travelers have been canceling reservations in droves, and hotel occupancy rates this month declined 11% over last year (see Crain’s). As Stanley predicted (I have him on video!), the real estate bubble has burst, and now his “eccentric” business practices are starting to look more and more like the wise strategy they always were. Renting out the rooms to permanent residents insures a steady stream of income in tough economic times. Hotels are already starting to discount rooms and offer more package tours in order to attract guests—but what the hell are we going to do here, where room rates were long ago slashed to the bone!? Marlene may be praying for those 17 tenants she forced out to come back yet! 
 The good news here is that management probably won’t be so dead set on getting rid of the retail tenants (such as suite 303 and the dentist’s office) anytime soon. (Though these tenants were told that their leases wouldn’t be renewed, they are obviously in a much better bargaining position now.) Our suggestion is that the doors of the hotel be opened to a few more permanent residents at market rates. Though I guess it’s a bit much to ask at this point that struggling artists be admitted, there are many high-profile creative types who would pay top dollar to live here. There has always been a high turnover of permanent rooms here, and so more rooms will come open in the future for transient use. It’s foolish to be dead-set against the possibility of ever renting to another permanent resident.
 So will Marlene change her ways, and start showing good business sense, rather than allowing the Chelsea to continue to bleed money? Nah, she’s too stubborn. And anyway, this is not really about money. It’s about punishing Stanley Bard. — Ed Hamilton

The New York Observer brings us word of a tenant uprising in Soho.  What, no stink bombs?! These people down in Soho must be amateurs.  Wonder if there was something more than water in those buckets? Seriously, though, we applaude anybody who has the guts to fight for their right to the peaceable enjoyment of their homes. We would advise them to watch out for underhanded tricks, however. 

One Observer commenter writes that back in the day, they used chicken livers to protest against noisy clubs in their neighborhood.

"When the first David Rabin / Will Regan club opened next to my loft 15 years ago, instead of dumping water, we tossed well aged chicken livers out of the night sky onto the howling line to get in (this after politely trying to get them to rein in their loud club). It worked.

Recipe – buy chicken livers. Leave in metal bowl on hot rooftop for 2 days. Wearing gloves, toss over the roof parapet. Feel a bit sorry for the patrons being showered by rotting flesh; then reflect upon your own months of sleeplessness / fruitless negotiation with slimy real estate lawyer who was only delaying. THEN perhaps the owners paid some heed. Though their current clubs are equally toxic."

We don’t know the exact details but, Star Lounge was reportedly broken into early Monday morning between 4 and 7 a.m.   (We saw the cops out in front of the club at around 9 a.m.)  It’s hard to care what happens to the place since they keep us up to all hours with their loud music and raucous street parties, but the Star is in our basement, and  as such, anyone who breaks into there could easily gain entry to the Chelsea itself. 

So where, you might ask was our rented security while this break-in was occurring.  Good question.  After all,  aren’t they supposedly guarding the door 24-hours a day?  We, as residents, have a right to know the answers to these questions.

Some German tourists write in to say: Keep the Chelsea the way it is! Don’t make it another soulless luxury hotel! It’s a shame they couldn’t have met the Bards.

Hello everybody!

First of all, sorry for my bad language! At our first sightseeing-trip ever to New York City from 10/01 to 10/06 we, my friend and his girlfriend, my wife and myself, stayed in the Chelsea Hotel/23rd Street. We didn´t knew anything about the history of the Hotel before, we booked it, because it was the cheapest we could get!

After five wonderful days with a lot of fun and amamzing impressions of the city,  we cannot describe, how we were stunned about the charism of the hotel. The whole building is an artwork full of history and its a performance of duty, to keep this spirit alive. There are so many  luxury hotels in bad style everywhere, so it bothered us not at all, that the rooms and the flloors aren´t as good as new! And as we were back in Germany, we informed us about the Chelsea in the Internet and read about the history an the famous people, who stayed there. We are proud, that we were a few days a part of it and look forward to come back soon. And we hope, that we see the "Old Chelsa Hotel" alive!

All the best to you guys and special greetings from Löningen, Germany

Daniel + Sonja

Andreas + Katrin

The office of the Welsh government, together with Aeronwy Thomas and Peter Thabit Jones, have designed a self-guided walking tour of Greenwich Village to enlighten people about Dylan and his life in New York. It is available as a printable PDF.  It goes without saying there are a lot of spots to stop and have a drink. 

Catrin Brace, who works for the Welsh Assembly Government in New York and who put the tour together said:

We have been very lucky to have the help of Dylan Thomas’ daughter Aeronwy Thomas in putting this tour together and hopefully, visitors will be able to gain a strong sense of the real man behind the “brassy orator” with “the lovely gift of the gab”, as well as giving people a real feel for the Greenwich Village of the 1950s