As proprietors of the Chelsea Hotel blog, people call us from near and far with various odd requests related to the hotel. One woman was writing a book on Valerie Solanis and asked if we had any choice tidbits (we did), while some Japaneses documentarians wanted to know about an obscure recording that Harry Smith had made of Allen Ginsberg singing his folk songs (news to us!). Several Brits lately have been asking about Quinten Crisp. Most frequently it’s journalists asking for general info about the hotel, like the number of rooms, or else for details concerning the ongoing political situation (new manager soon). And everybody wants Stanley Bard’s phone number (don’t have it!)
But a voice messsage we received last night takes the cake: "Hi, I"m _______ and I need to get in touch with either Debbie or Ed. The front desk referred me to you because I have a pair of pants at the tailor next door that I need to pick up."
Why, not to fear, we’ve stored them neatly pressed, in our hall closet with the rest of the unclaimed clothing. Actually, the Balabanis closed their shop a couple of weeks ago due to rising rents, and moved back to Greece. Since I doubt they would have taken any sewing projects with them back to the Old World I fear that your pants, like the ardious rule of BD, have been consigned to the dustbin — or at least the sale rack of history.
So, no, we don’t know what happened to your pants, but if we ever find out, we’ll be sure to pass aong the information. Maybe you should ask David Elder as he’s the one who gave the Balabanis their walking papers.
Living with Legends
Hotel Chelsea Blog
-
-
Check out Chris Shott’s article in today’s NY Observer wherein he poses the question: who would be foolhardy enough to take a job managing the Chelsea? Somebody who’s never heard of the damn place, that’s for sure. He trots out a list of the usual suspects, such as Schrager and Balasz, but I suspect they know too much about the situation to get involved. (Stay tuned to the blog, we’ll know soon enough.)
Speaking of clueless, Shott also helpfully directs us to Star Lounge owner Charles Ferri’s website, which features, of all things, a proposal for a café & bar in the Chelsea Hotel’s lobby! Does he think that that he’ll be allowed to just waltz in, la dee da, and start slinging cranberry cocktails? He apparently hasn’t been paying attention, either to the legal issues, or to the attitude of the residents.Maybe he figures he can pay off Manny and get the El Quixote to forget their non-compete clause which bans other establishments from selling liquor in the building. He’s already said he doesn’t want residents in Star Lounge, and so I assume the same goes for the new lobby bar, but how are we supposed to avoid it?! (Note that Wifi is for “Café Members” only.) I guess we’ll have to tunnel out through the secret passageway to 22nd street –prodded along by the same helpful bouncers who already assaulted one of our number. Oh well–what me worry?–they already moved most of the comfy chairs out of the lobby anyway.
Another thing to consider is that, according to highly reliable sources, Ferri already owes a substantial amount of money to the hotel. If he can’t make enough to pay his rent on the Star Lounge, why on earth would minority shareholder Marlene Krauss want to give him the opportunity to owe more? Also, this idea of letting minority shareholder David Elder, his creditor, crash at his pad (and our sources tell us it was more than once) is also highly suspicious, and smacks of self-dealing on Elder’s part—exactly what he and Krauss self-righteously accused Stanley Bard of.
As for the name of the bar: no comment. Get an original thought, dude. Hey, is that a comment? I really thought I was going to be able to resist the urge. — Ed Hamilton
-
With David Bernstein’s time at the helm as general manager of the Chelsea Hotel scarcely a rumor and with hotel lay-about David Elder running off to California or god knows where at the slightest sign of trouble we thought Marlene needed some sort of device to keep the rumored incoming manager held accountable. In this age of rocket science, Internet gimmicky and wondrous marvels of science they have fortunately invented such a device. It’s complex and will require a team of technicians to operate and we simple bloggers hardly pretend to understand it. We simply present a picture.
On the other hand let’s remember that before all of the recent hullabaloo Marlene Krauss had two dedicated professionals working for her 12 hours a day six days a week and she didn’t appreciate it. Maybe she should take a temporary holiday from brainwashing infants with radio waves and come in here and run the show. We’ll show her where to get her time card punched.
-
Poor, poor, misunderstood, mistreated Glennon Travis. When he arrived at the hotel "the physical plan
and administrative structure of the hotel were in complete dissarray," and the "public areas and shared bathrooms were inundated with drug addicts and others who did not belong at the hotel." (When did he start exactly?) Nevertheless, he heroically performed his duties, increasing the number of transient rooms from 95 to 107 by throwing artists onto the street and providing employees with uniforms so they wouldn’t slog around in their messy street clothes. In return he was "physically threatened on several occasions and spit on" by the rambunctious ingrates at the Chelsea Hotel! Despite his constant requests, nobody will pay for an electronic key system, and the loathsome David Elder "effectively lives at the hotel" at no cost and routinely interferes with operations.
This is all to be found in an affadavit sworn out by Glennon in the ongoing case of BD NY Hotels vs Chelsea 23rd St. Corp. The courts are in the process of deciding what monetary damages, if any, should be awarded to BD to compensate them for their unceremonious termination.
Glennon also tells a hilarious story about how David Bard came to the hotel looking for some NY Giants tickets that had been sent to him. Not finding them in his box, he looked on David Bernstein’s desk. Discovering this highly suspicious activity, Glennon orderd Bard to cease and desist. So Bard went and got David Elder — ostensibly in charge at this point — and they came back and proceeded to search through Bernstein’s desk together to look for the tickets. Once again, Glennon sprung on them and ordered them to stop. This embarassed Elder, who took Glennon to a public area of the hotel and "stated that he wanted to make it clear that I should remember that I work for him."
Wow, a real clash of the intellectual titans here folks. It’s like Einstein vs I don’t know, Immanuel Kant or somebody. Later that day, Madame Currie — er, rather, Marlene Krauss — called and pretended to sympathasize with Glennon saying "Elder should not have threatened you like that," and also asking him to not to tell anybody from BD about her call. — Ed Hamilton -
Writer Paul Berger has a bang up piece about the Chelsea and its recent turmoil in The Guardian this week. Left out of the piece for reasons of space is the sad saga of long-time Chelsea resident Jann
Paxton who is dying of cancer and – apparently receiving no sympathy from Krauss and Elder — facing eviction from his rent stabilized apartment. For more about Jann read Paul Berger’s blog and Chris Shott’s recent article on the former singer/songwriter.
The Brits had another opportunity to learn about the Chelsea situation on Thursday when Ed was a guest on Big George’s late night radio show on BBC. George’s interview celebrates the rock -n- roll history of the hotel. Big George and his friend JoAnne were recent guests here at the Hotel and they are very concerned about the removal of the Bards from the Hotel. (Photo: Paxton’s Dog Ginger, by Paul Berger) -
Another thing that the court document we linked to earlier reveals is that Krauss & Elder are seeking a Certificate of Non-Harassment (CONH) a requirement if they want to do any major construction on the building. Harassment is defined as any course of action undertaken by a landlord to force a legal tenant to vacate his rent-stabilized apartment. This can include not making necessary repairs. So, in order to get the CONH, Krauss and Elder must repair all the violations for which they have been cited by the DHCR.
Of course, it’s great if they make repairs around this place, but that’s not Krauss & Elder’s primary motivation. What they want to do is make the minimal repairs necessary to get the CONH. After that, repairs will cease. So if you need anything repaired call 311 and report all the violations you can think of. Violations include: cracked plaster, peeling paint, inoperable fixtures, exposed wires, rotting floors – basically anything you would fix yourself if you owned the place. These violations can be in your apartment, or in the common areas. — Ed Hamilton
-
Well, Ha! Don’t that just beat all. The Hotel was apparently overbooked recently – due to an internet
glitch, or just the stupidity of Marlene Krauss and David Elder. Guests were showing up with reservations but there were no rooms, so the people at the front desk had to send them to other hotels – and make up the extra cost. Book a room at the Chelsea, end up at the Plaza. Can you imagine this happening to Stanley? You can bet he’d find them a closet some where in the Chelsea – and by God they’d like it too! -
Legends has just obtained the following court document in the arbitration hearing BD NY Hotels, LLC vs Chelsea 23 St. Corp. We link to it here in its entirety because it is a sworn affidavit from minority shareholder David Elder in which he states his intention to evict permanent tenants and turn their apartments into transient hotel rooms.
For the purposes of his financial calculations, Elder gives what he calls a “conservative” estimate to the effect that 20 of the 120 permanent units can be converted to transient use. (This is in addition to the 16 apartments secured by BD’s efforts to force out tenants.) Though this may not seem like a lot, remember, this is 20 of us (or maybe more, depending on how many live in these apartments.) So who will it be? The people who are behind on their rent? The elderly or unstable living in “cluttered” apartments? Those who have been luxury decontrolled? The people who haven’t yet hired a lawyer? Probably it will be a few from each of these groups.
What’s more, these are rooms that will never again house permanent residents – thus hastening the end of the Bohemian life style that has existed at the Chelsea for 125 years.
The other interesting thing that Elder reveals is that he and Marlene Krauss are planning a $15 million capital improvement project. Of course, money spent on certain types of capital improvements can be recouped by raising our rents (yes, this goes even for rent stabilized tenants), and presumably Krauss and Elder are hoping they drive some of us over the luxury decontrol threshold and/or make our apartments prohibitively expensive. — Ed Hamilton (Image: PAGE 2 of the )
-
A recent guest at the hotel writes:
Hey Ed,
The night after we ran into you in the hall, Joan came running in after using the computer downstairs with tears in her eyes. I’d never seen her look so frightened! I’m the coward not her. She said there was a silhouette of a man in the reflection of the door as she waited for the elevator. She looked away and when she looked back it was still there.
Then in the morning we got a silent phone call. But that could of been anything or anyone.
Just wondering if those sort of things have happened to you or anyone else you knew?
Be safe in your haunted abode!My money is on Larry the Hipster Ghost. Any other guesses.
-
Lets hope that this uninviting layout is not intended to be the permanent configuration of the lobby. In addition to removing a number of comfy chairs and the couch, our new slumlord David Elder – back from self-imposed exile in LA – has arranged the chairs so that no two comfy ones are side by side, making it hard for guests and residents to hang out and converse.
Elder’s lobby consultant must be a friend of Vellonakis – the jerk responsible for the anti-people parks that have sprung up around the city lately – since the new lobby design has the same effect: that of stifling the freedom of speech and assembly by making people want to move on. This adversely affects tradition of conversation and collaboration that has long existed at the hotel, not to mention the free and easy Bohemian lifestyle that people come from all over the world to experience and celebrate. Besides that, it’s hard on the elderly and infirm of the hotel, who tend to use the space as their living room.
Most likely, Elder simply doesn’t care who he hurts, and is only trying to impress Marlene so she’ll make him the manager. Unfortunately for him, she knows him even better than we do. — Ed Hamilton
(Update — a couple of chairs have now been returned because residents complained.)
Before — Comfy Seating Area
New Anti-People Area — No chairs and a hard bench
Living with Legends 
