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  • Chelsea Hotel Blog Response to Patti Smith

    Thanks Patti, for responding.  If you are worried about the building being leveled, you can put your mind at rest – it’s landmarked and can’t be torn down.  As for management efforts to save and restore the building there aren’t any.  Instead they are gutting the rooms.   We are worried about who the rightful tenants are going to turn out to be – obviously not the more than 30 who are being evicted and as for the artist-in- residence program, there are already plenty of those here. 

    We are glad that you aren’t taking compensation but you should not let the Chetrits use you for propaganda purposes.

    If you want to give a concert for us great,  but chose a neutral venue, one where Chetrit will not be sponsoring you. 

    We still think you should cancel your event in the ballroom.

  • Patti Smith Responds via a Publicist with an Official Statement about the Chelsea Hotel

    Her response, which still leaves a lot of questions, is published in full below.  Since when can a landmark building be leveled?  Patti, have you actually looked at the "renovations"?  The historic rooms have been gutted.  And, in case you haven't noticed, there are already a lot of artists in residence here and a lot of them are facing eviction proceedings. 

    HOTEL CHELSEA

    My current involvement with the Hotel Chelsea began some
    … months ago when I heard rumors that the hotel would be
    leveled. I was devastated and entered in a dialogue with the
    architect, through a mutual friend.

    He assured me this was not the case and every effort would
    be made to save and restore the building, which was greatly
    deteriorating. Having witnessed the demolition and
    redevelopment of much of our city I was at least hopeful
    that the hotel would stand.

    Since then my few efforts on behalf of the Hotel have been
    unofficial and uncompensated.

    My dialogue has continued with the architect. My personal
    objectives have always been:

    — To offer uncompensated advice as to the aesthetics
    of the renovation project.

    — To council all concerned to develop positive
    communication to the rightful tenants.

    — To be available in the future, without fee, in
    participating in the development and preservation of the
    artistic cachet of the hotel.

    — To participate in the development of a possible
    artists-in-residence program.

    My small performance for the tenants was my own idea. My
    hope is that we might have a nice evening and the
    opportunity to communicate directly.

    I am an independent person, not owned or directed by anyone.
    My allegiance is to the Hotel itself, and I have done
    nothing to tarnish it. It is very difficult for me to
    embrace change, but my great hope is to witness the Hotel
    Chelsea find a strong and positive place in the twenty-first
    century.

  • Patti Smith Sings for Chelsea Hotel Developer Joseph Chetrit

    The Bard family has been good to Patti Smith, helping her out at two difficult times in her life.  The first time, in the late sixties when she was a struggling, unknown poet, Stanley Bard gave her and her friend Robert Mappelthorpe a place to stay so they could get out of the drug and vermin infested Allerton Hotel.    The second time, in the late nineties, after the tragic death of her husband, Stanley came through with an Pattismithnotliveapartment yet again.
           It is with great sadness, therefore, that we reprint the following invitation, which showed up in our Chelsea Hotel mailbox just yesterday.       

                Patti must not know that the person sponsoring her upcoming event, Joseph Chetrit, is the same developer who took Stanley Bard’s beloved Chelsea Hotel away from him and his family.  And surely she is unaware that this is the same Joseph Chetrit whose demolition crews recently gutted over a hundred historic Chelsea Hotel rooms.  Finally, if she hasn’t been in some way deceived, we know there’s no way in hell Patti would give a concert in support of a man, Joseph Chetrit, who is presently trying to evict almost thirty Chelsea Hotel residents using both housing and Supreme court.

                We love Patti and her music, and we would love to see her concert, just not under these circumstances.  And so we call on Patti, now that she knows the truth, to cancel this event.

  • Chelsea Hotel Owner Joseph Chetrit Has a History with Rats

    Joseph Chetrit is starting to look like the Pied Piper of Hamlin: wherever he goes, the rats follow.  It seems that in 2007, they even followed him home!  Imagine waking up in your beautiful mansion in Englewood, New Jersey to find one of these fearsome critters staring you down!  Chetrit and his family were understandably upset, and Chetrit even initiated a lawsuit to force Local 79 to remove the 15-foot monstrosity.  It apparently Bigratatchelseahoteldidn’t occur to Chetrit that the obvious solution was to STOP EXPLOITING NON-UNION WORKERS!!! 
                The workers have families too, Mr. Chetrit.  The union maids, bellmen, engineers, and clerks of the Chelsea Hotel all have families.  You remember them, don’t you?  They were locked out of the hotel and you still refuse to pay their severance.  The non-union construction workers who are gutting the hotel, some of whom are reportedly only making $8 per hour, also have families.  How are they supposed to afford gifts for their families this holiday season?

    [Note: we couldn’t find a picture of a rat in front of Chetrit’s home, so here’s one in front of OUR HOME.]

  • Chelsea Hotel Destructo-Porn : Herbert Huncke Room

    Here’s what remains of Beat writer Herbert Huncke’s room.  Huncke, who inspired characters in Ginsberg’s Howl, Kerouac’s On the Road, and Burrough’s Junky, lived a hand-to-mouth existence in this rent stabilized room until his death.  He could have never afforded to live in NYC if the Chetrits of the world had had their way.  Underpaid, non-union demolition crews working with Joe and Meyer Chetrit,  Jonathan Chetrit, Gene Kaufman, and Ed Scheetz,  just to name a few of the characters involved , are taking rent-stabilized rooms off the books and destroying important chapters in New York history as they do so. 

    The Union Rat is still in front of the Chelsea Hotel to protest this abuse.  Union reps are encouraging concerned citizens and supporters of the Chelsea Hotel to call Mayor Bloomberg and complain about the Chelsea Hotel situation.

    Herberthunckeroom

  • Union Continues Rat Protest at Chelsea Hotel

    Local Union 79 continues to protest the non-union demolition going on at the Chelsea Hotel. Almost all of the non-occupied rooms have been gutted. Maybe the rat plans to stay long enough to get rent stabilization.

    IMG_0743[1]

  • It’s a Three Rat Day at Joseph Chetrit’s Chelsea Hotel

    Threerats

    Will they continue to multiply?

  • Union Rat Eyes Chelsea Hotel Owner Joseph Chetrit

    Union workers erected a large rat in front of the Chelsea Hotel today to protest Joseph Chetrit's use of non-union labor to demolish the interior of the hotel.  Former Hotel workers had long been union members but in August when the Chelsea Hotel was in the process of  changing ownership, the union workers arrived at the Hotel to find they had been locked out.  Then they were given a one day notice and fired.  Though promised a severance package, the maids, clerks, engineers, and bellmen of the Chelsea, many of whom had worked at the Hotel for decades have to this date, received nothing. 
    Unionprotest
    Actually, it was not one but two tenants who were assaulted.  Additionally, we have received several reports of tenants being verbally harassed by the non-union demolition workers.

  • Joseph Chetrit’s Chelsea Hotel: History and Tenants Under Attack

    Since we haven’t posted on the blog in awhile, we thought it was time for an update.  Non-union workers have been busy on almost all floors, completely gutting all unoccupied rooms.  The demolished rooms, Thomaswolfesuite2now just empty shells, include, on our floor alone: the room where Madonna filmed her Sex book in 1980; the last residence of Thomas Wolfe (seen at right), where he wrote You Can’t Go Home Again in 1938; Dee Dee Ramone’s last room at the Chelsea; and the tiny room where Beat writer Herbert Huncke was living when he died in 1996.  The room where Arthur Miller lived for ten years in the 1960s, writing his great play "After the Fall, has also been wiped out with no regard for its historical importance.

                The construction has been extremely disruptive: residents have been treated to a virtually non-stop assault of noise.  Clouds of dust (which have tested positive for carcinogens) swirl through our halls, and carts of rubble block our doorways.  Several apartments have been flooded, and some residents have had their electricity cut off for days at a stretch.

                Eviction attempts have heated up, with several new cases being brought against tenants, including families with young children.

                We also recently found out that Chetrit’s silent partner in the demolition of the Chelsea is none other than scandal-plagued hotelier Ed Scheetz, whose girlfriend was discovered dead of an overdose, at his penthouse in the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel.

                Finally, on December 8, at approximately 2 PM, tenant activist Arthur Nash was assaulted on the third floor of the hotel for showing union reps around the building and for attempting to film the non-union demolition crew (both activities protected by the First Amendment).  Approximately ten minutes later, when Nash was leaving the hotel, he found that at least a dozen workers were lying in wait for him outside.  They verbally abused him and his girlfriend, chasing them down 23rd Street to 7th Ave., where they assaulted Nash again.  When I attempted to intervene, I was attacked as well.  Both Nash and I were treated at Beth Israel and released.  

    Ed Hamilton

  • Piri Thomas, Author of “Down These Mean Streets Dies” at 83

    Piri Thomas, born John Peter Thomas in New York City's Harlem Hospital in1928, grew up poor in Spanish Harlem and wrote the now classic best-selling autobiography “Down these Mean Streets” about Pensivehis childhood there.   Among his other works are: "Savior, Savior Hold My Hand", "Seven Long Times" and "Stories from El Barrio".   A true artist and social activist who worked with drug addicts, Piri is a former Chelsea Hotel resident and a friend of the late painter Herbert Gentry. 

    Thomas married Betty Gross in the 1970s. This second marriage lasted until Betty's death in 1985. Betty Gross is the daughter of Mr. Joseph Gross, one of the three partners who bought the Hotel.  The other partners were David Bard and Julius Krauss.

    Thomas’s last years were clouded by a legal dispute with his step-son, Chelsea Hotel minority shareholder David Elder.  Basically, Thomas was the beneficiary of a trust administered by Elder, granting Thomas the income from 16 shares (8%) of Chelsea Hotel stock. (The trust was established by Thomas’s wife and Elder’s mother, Betty Gross.)

    In 2002, Elder withheld  $1.2 million dollars in hotel income from Thomas, claiming that the money was part of the principle of the shares.  Elder had a vested interest in doing so, since upon Thomas’ death the shares reverted to him.  While the courts ultimately decided in Thomas’ favor, the dispute went on for years and no doubt cost Thomas much in mental anguish and money to resolve.  The dispute can be seen as a kind of warm up round for the main event, which was Elder and Marlene Krauss’s hostile takeover of the Chelsea Hotel and subsequent ousting of long-time manager Stanley Bard. 

    NY Times obit –