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  • Another Icon of the Counter-Culture Likely to Fall

    As if the hostile takeover of the Chelsea weren’t bad enough, now developers are going after another monument of the counterculture, this time the birthplace of Hip-Hop, 1520 Sedgwick Ave. on the outskirts 23flierspan_cityroom of the Bronx, where D.J. Kool Herc spun records back in the early 70s.  (NYT, Cityrooms Blog, "Tenants Might Buy Birthplace of HipHop" by Jennifer 8. Lee)  Though not quite of the Chelsea’s significance, the building is still a monument to a part of New York’s life and legacy that’s being swept under the carpet for the sake of the almighty dollar.  It’s also an outpost of affordable housing in a city that’s increasingly becoming merely a shopping mall for the super rich.

                There are some other parallels to the Chelsea as well.  The building is being bought by real estate mogul Mark Karasick for a reported $14 million, which is well beyond the $5-$6 million that housing advocates quoted in Lee’s article estimate it’s actually worth based on rental streams.  It’s comparable to the mystery as to why BD Hotels, a company that buys hotels, would agree to simply manage the Chelsea, a 15hiphop337 no-win situation where all they accomplish is to make themselves look like scum for desecrating an iconic institution.

    As Lee’s article makes clear, Karasick knows that there’s only two ways to make money off of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue: either to throw out the rent-stabilized tenants, or to flip the building for a profit.  As for BD, the underlying motive is more difficult to fathom.  They are charging less for rooms than Stanley was, and their claims of high occupancy are almost certainly exaggerated.  We know of a few rooms that seem to have been warehoused for months after the long-term tenants vacated them.  (Stanley would have cleaned them up and rented them in 24 hours, tops.)  Add to that the huge increase in the size of the staff, and it’s hard to imagine that that this corporation is making more money than Stanley was.  Probably BD is looking for Img_1766 some sort of eventual ownership role in the hotel.  Are they trying to drive down the price by bankrupting
    the hotel?

    Whatever the particulars, there does seem to be some sort of financial scheme afoot.  Remember, Born and Drukier don’t care to put in a hard day’s work and pull down a regular salary.  These guys are after the big bucks. – Ed Hamilton

  • Development: Damn the Torpedoes!

    This week’s Chelsea Now has articles on two huge new destruction/construction projects.  But while reading the articles I couldn’t help noticing that neither of the projects seems to make any sense from anything but a development-at-all-costs perspective.  In the first, the proposed new St. Vincent’s complex in Greenwich Village, two huge buildings will be torn down so that two even more monstrous skyscraper can be tossed up.  But the real kicker is that, since they plan to make a large portion of the new buildings into condos for rich people, the hospital will actually wind up with less space!  Though it wasn’t mentioned in the Chelsea Now article, I remember reading somewhere that one of their main concerns was to modernize their facilities, but surely it would cost a lot less to simply upgrade the old buildings.

                It pisses me off that St. Vincent’s want to screw up the Village, but even worse is what Vornado wants to do to the Penn Station area, which involves tearing down Madison Square Garden and the Penn Hotel, and maybe even Macy’s, and altering the old Post Office in some ungodly way as yet to be determined.  For one thing, everybody’s crying that the city needs more hotel rooms, to the point where landlords are converting their buildings into hotels illegally, and here developers are going to demolish a huge hotel, which, though it may not be as luxurious as it once was, is actually somewhat affordable.

    But the most ridiculous part of the whole “New Penn Station” project is that it is being sold to the public as a way to redress the much-lamented demolition of the old Penn Station, which has been used as a rallying cry by preservationists for four decades now.  Perhaps, in the end, we’ll be getting a new Penn Station to rival the old, but that’s rather like believing in Santa Claus, now isn’t it.  (What we’ll most likely end up with are a bunch of non-descript glass towers.)  So tell me once again how tearing down more iconic buildings is supposed to make us feel better about the loss of Penn Station?

    Where development in this city is concerned, it’s full speed ahead, and logic and common sense be damned. — Ed Hamilton

    Public Hearing on St. Vincent’s/Rudin Luxury Condo & New Hospital Development Plan
    at PS 41 (116 West 11th Street, west of 6th Avenue)     Tuesday, January 22 at 6:30 pm
    For more information visit the GVSHP website.

  • Featured Events

    Jan. 14, 5:30 – 7:30
    Opening reception for photographer Gary Schoichet ‘s exhibit "Infamous 5th Floor Men’s Locker Room" at the former McBurney YMCA. Free, Wine & Cheese
    McBurney YMCA, 125 West 14th Street, NY NY

    Jan. 23, 8:00 & 10:00
    991052748_m_2  Jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin will perform songs from her recent CD release, "A Morning in Paris."  The CD has been receiving great reviews.  For the first time ever, Sathima’s daughter, the hip hop artist Jean Grae will perform as a guest artist with her mother. $15.00
    Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Ave., (Between Grove & Bleecker) NY NY 

    Brendan At The Chelsea–a new play by Janet Behan uncovering the final days of Brendan Behan’s stay at the Chelsea Hotel in New York.  From the press release, "It’s Sixties New York, in that legendary Behan bohemian bolt hole, The Chelsea Hotel. Arthur Miller is just across the hall, the sound of Ornette Coleman is drifting down from the penthouse and the symphony of 24th Street is rising up and in through the open window of Brendan Behan’s room… He’s broke, hung over and way past the delivery date of his latest book, the first line of which he has yet to write. He was told to stop drinking or he’d be dead in six months – that was two years ago…."
    Starring Adrian Dunbar. Directed by Adrian Dunbar and Rosalind Scanlon.
    Riverside Studios, London from 15 January 2008

  • Friends of BD Plan Evictions at Riverview

    The only historical fact listed on the Hotel Riverview’s web site is that the Titanic crew stayed there during the inquiry into that disaster (“detained” is how they phrase it, making it sound like the place was being used as a prison”).  (The Chelsea Hotel housed some of the Titanic survivors as well.) But until just recently you could get a single room there for only $30.47 per night, plus hotel tax and a $5 key deposit.  If you were willing to splurge you could get a room with a TV Riverviewhotel_3 for $32.90.  All that is set to end—along with, eventually, all semblance of affordable housing in Manhattan–now that hoteliers Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson have bought the place.  So if you were thinking of moving there after you get kicked out of the Chelsea, think again, hapless Bohemian!  The Riverview will be a boutique hotel as well!

    The apparent lack of history is telling.  Because the Riverview, on Jane Street in the West Village, is not so famous as the Chelsea (The building was originally the Seamen’s Institute of the American Seamen’s Friend Society) the scoundrels who bought the place are apparently moving full speed ahead to evict the long term tenants and discharge the hotel staff.  (This is reported in Hotel Chatter, though someone wrote in to say they may keep some staff.)  Whereas the media and public reacted with outrage at the possibility of a similar fate for the Chelsea, at the Riverview there will be no such relief in store.

                (I can add a little bit more to the Riverview’s history.  In addition to playing host to any number of penniless writers and artists, the Riverview has a less tenuous connection to the arts: it’s the former home of the Jane Street Theatre.  I saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch there, and also Eddie Izzard—a former Chelsea Hotel resident back in the 90s.)

                Oh, did I mention that Goode and MacPherson are associated with BD partners Richard Born and Ira Drukier?  The fearsome foursome joined fiendish forces to bring us the nauseating Maritime Hotel in the Meat Packing District. — Ed Hamilton

  • Ching Ho Cheng in Yishu: Chelsea Hotel Artist is Subject of Revival

    This month’s Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art features an article on the painter and Cloud_2 former Chelsea Hotel resident Ching Ho Cheng (January 2008, by Jonathan Goodman).  Two of the pictures of Cheng’s work (The Cloud and Alchemical Process ) that appear in the issue were taken at the Chelsea.
                Some of the longer term residents of the Chelsea will certainly still remember Cheng.  A friend of former Chelsea luminaries such as painter and good witch Vali Myers and poet and photographer Ira Cohen, Cheng traveled widely in Europe, but always returned to the Chelsea while in New York.  Born in 1946, Cheng came with his family to New York at the age of five when they fled the communist revolution.  He studied painting and sculpture at Cooper Union and had his first New York solo show at the Gloria Cortella Gallery.  A fixture on the downtown arts scene of the 60s and 70s, Cheng was friendly with such stars as David Bowie, Lou Reed and the members of the Rolling Stones.
                As discussed in the Yishu article, Cheng had an eclectic style reflective of the wide open nature of the time in which he came of age.  From his early psychedelic works, some perhaps drug-inspired, he progressed to gouache works of “painted light”, and then on to more abstract works involving techniques of  purposely tearing and oxidizing paper to introduce notes of chance and spontaneity into his work.  (Of particular note for fans of the Chelsea are Cheng’s series of gouache paintings, seemingly abstracts, that in reality depict various representations of the window frame in his apartment at the Chelsea Hotel.)
                Viewing himself as an outsider and a creative rebel, Cheng drew on Tibetan Mysticism and the art Alchemicalprocess_2 of ancient and aboriginal cultures.  I’ll bet he had some pretty good conversations along these lines with Vali and Ira as well!

    (Another interesting factoid is that Cheng helped underground filmmaker Rosa Von Praunheim shoot his film Tally Brown, New York, about Warhol superstar Tally Brown here at the Chelsea.  I was unaware of the Chelsea connection of this brilliant, unorthodox filmmaker.)
         Sadly, at the height of his creative powers, Cheng died in 1989.  His work lives on, however, as does his memory in the collective consciousness of the Chelsea.

    [Thanks to Cheng’s sister, Sybao Cheng-Wilson, for providing us with a copy of the Yishu article, as well as further details about this remarkable Chelsea Hotel artist.  Most of the details about Cheng’s art are pulled from Goodman’s article.  To learn more about Ching Ho Cheng and his life and art check out his website at www.chinghocheng.com. Copies of Yishu are available at the Asia Society.]

    Vali Myer painting of herself and Ching Ho Cheng
    Valicheng

  • Anton Perich Film Features Richard Bernstein in the Grand Ballroom ca. 1974

    Filmed in 1974 in artist Richard Bernstein’s room (Room 600, the Grand Ballroom on the first floor of the Chelsea Hotel, which was recently chopped up and turned into office space by BD Hotels) Perich captured a typical Chelsea scene: artists talking about their work. Perich’s film features interviews with Bernstein, filmmaker Shirley Clarke and others. Bernstein talks about his inspiration for a print he had recently completed of the famed hangout, Max’s Kansas City’s backroom. Jewelry designer Elsa Peretti and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes discuss the death of Candy Darling.  Victor Hugo stole the show.

    "Night at Hotel Chelsea," Anton Perich, 1974.

  • Will Lou Reed Join the Crowd and Sue the Chelsea?

    I called someone living at the hotel yesterday and was put on hold.  In the past, when they put you on hold you would get this nice pleasant voice telling you all about the glorious history of the Chelsea Hotel, “one of the most famous hotels in the world,” and its past residents and their contributions to the arts.  Yesterday it was a bad recording of The Velvet Underground.  Well, at least they have something to do with the Chelsea, as Nico lived here.  But I’m sure once Lou Reed hears about this he’ll sue the hotel for using his music without permission, and then we’ll just get some canned, generic muzak crap like they have at the Pod Hotel.  What’s wrong with telling people about the hotel.  We’ve got an impressive history, and people who are calling might want to know about it.  Hell, it might even make them want to stay here.  I can see that BD is hell bent on erasing all traces of the Chelsea’s individuality and turning it into a sterile, corporate chain hotel, but that doesn’t even make good business sense. — Ed Hamilton

  • Child-Unfriendly Hotel

    Concerned parents should check out this article about where to find a child friendly hotel.  One place you can forget about is the Chelsea where we have a anti-child policy in place barring unsupervised kids from the lobby.  It’s a shame because the Chelsea Hotel in the old days was welcoming to all age ranges. Animal lovers too should forget about this place.  We used to have a dog named Gingy who would ride the elevators between floors and cats that would climb the fire escape and come in to visit you in your room, but alas those days are gone. Animals lovers should look somewhere else when scheduling their trip to New York City.

  • Capitol Fishing Tackle Seeks to Reinvent the Old Chaos on 36th Street

    A tribute to our favorite tackle shop, Capitol—an early casualty in the war between the Chelsea Hotel and the BD usurpers—appears in last Sunday’s issue of The Independent.  Thanks to Keith Elliott Capitolfishing for keeping the issue in the news, and for pointing out that Capitol’s customers might just as well include tattooed weirdoes and 6-feet women—no doubt from the Chelsea—as actual anglers.  (The weirdest was no doubt the Sultan of Brunei—I wonder if he stopped in to ask Stanley about the rates.)  I’m also glad to see that he notes that Capitol has successfully relocated—to a spot near Macy’s at 132 West 36 Street>—hopefully putting this whole distasteful Chelsea nonsense behind them.  Good for them.  Too bad the rest of us can’t do the same.

                Elliot does make a couple of mistakes, however.  For one, he says that the acupuncture shop, as well as other unnamed shops, were forced out.  Actually, the acupuncture shop is still there; the only two storefronts that are vacant were both part of Capitol, which is thus far the only store that has actually been forced out.  (We have heard plenty of rumors, however, as to what BD plans for the other spaces—acupuncture, guitar and tattoo parlors don’t seem to figure in their plans.  But we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.) — Ed Hamilton

  • Illegal Hotels and Welfare for Landlords

    A recent issue of the Village Voice highlights the matter of illegal hotel conversion, whereby landlords clandestinely transform apartment buildings filled with long term tenants into transient hotels for businessmen. This was an issue brought into the public consciousness by Chris Lombardi of Chelsea Now in an ongoing series about such buildings as the Execu-stay on 24th Street in Chelsea. Now that the Voice has finally jumped on the bandwagon—and it’s about time, really–maybe we can get some legislation to stop this abuse. But the Voice article (“Motel Sucks” by Maria Luisa Tucker, 12/26/07) is a good piece of journalism, and I just want to point out a couple of things that it demonstrates.

    Market Rate Tenants at Risk

    The first is that, in this run-away real estate boom, market rate tenants are at risk as well.  People who are paying market rate for their apartments tend to resent those of us who are “lucky” enough to have rent-stabilized apartments (actually many of us originally moved into what were at the time depressed neighborhoods, taking apartments that might otherwise have stood empty), and to sneeringly tell us that if we can’t afford to live in the city we should just move out.  Well, surprise: looks like you can’t afford it either.  Landlords and developers don’t care about your community, even if you are paying top dollar: they are more interested in cashing in now.  You are basically just a pain in the ass to them, always demanding heat, repairs, etc.  And when the market goes south they can just bring in a whole new crop of market rate tenants.  All tenants are in the same boat, and we need to set aside our differences if we are to survive the tide of destruction that’s washing over our city.

    Landlords on the Dole

    The second is that, there are ways to fight back—even if you’re a market rate tenant and think your fate rests with the whim of the landlord.  The tenants at One bank Street found that their landlord had taken advantage of the city’s J-51 tax-abatement program, and hence was required to extend rent-stabilization protection to all tenants! Many of the landlords of these buildings have profited from such social programs designed to prop up the housing market when it was far less profitable.  Of course now that the market is wildly profitable, landlords want to opt out of these programs as quickly as possible, trumpeting their inalienable property rights, the inviolability of the free market, blah blah blah, and acting like tenants are the ones who are taking handouts.  But hey, my freeloading landlord friends, it turns out you were the ones on welfare.  And now it’s time to pay the piper–and the piper is the public. — Ed Hamilton