Board-Directed Coup Topples Chelsea Hotel’s Famed Manager Stanley Bard

The breaking news at New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel is that managing partner Stanley Bard, and the rest of the Bard family, have been forced out by their board of directors. Starting Monday, an as yet unnamed new management company will take over the day-to-day operations of the hotel. The beloved Stanley—everyone calls him by his first name—has been in charge of the hotel for over fifty years.
     It was he who fashioned and maintained the unique creative dynamic of the hotel, presiding over the sixties when Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen wrote some of their greatest songs here, and Andy Warhol filmed the famous Chelsea Girls. Since then, nearly everyone who’s anyone in the New York art, music and writing scene has lived here at sometime or another, including Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, Madonna, Dee Dee Ramone, and more recently Ethan Hawke and Ryan Adams. Stanley has always managed to keep rents low for the creative people living here, most of whom—unlike the stars listed—don’t have much money, but all of whom are just as important in maintaining the famous Chelsea spirit.
     Certainly we’re all a bit apprehensive here at the hotel, wondering what will happen now to our unique artistic community. The actual ownership structure of the hotel is a closely guarded secret. It is known that Stanley’s father, David, in partnership with two men named Krauss and Gross, bought the hotel in 1940. (Stanley took over upon his father’s death in 1957.) These days, the part of the hotel that Stanley’s father owned is still in the Bard family, but the interests of the other partners’ families are represented by a board of directors. The board seems to have given Stanley a wide latitude in managing the hotel over the years--that is, apparently, until just recently. What happened is that the hotel simply became too valuable.      
     When Chelsea was a depressed neighborhood it was one thing, but now that this area is one of the most desirable in New York, the temptation to cash in has apparently proved too compelling to ignore. The other owners—outsiders who have no stake in the Chelsea--would just as soon turn the building into a boutique hotel and rent the rooms to rich tourists, or gut the building and convert it to condos. Lately, the board had been pressing Stanley relentlessly to make more money, and in the past few years he made a series of missteps, raising rents on many tenants—perhaps illegally--initiating a flurry of lawsuits.
     Despite some ruffled feathers and bad feelings, however, few of us here doubt that Stanley has always had our best interests, and those of our unique community, at heart. On the other hand, many of us suspect that this is what gave the board the pretext for the take-over. Stanley, who was seen staggering out of his office Thursday evening in disbelief after being given the news, was ousted just days before his 73rd Birthday on June 16. He had planned to turn over the reins of the hotel to his son, David, who has worked alongside him for many years. Please write in to this blog to show your support for the Bard family and the Chelsea artistic community. -- Ed Hamilton  (Photo: Chelsea Now)

sparkle hayter	It's a crime against humanity. Posted by sparkle hayter on Saturday, June 16, 2007 at 5:33 PM [

Countess Cherry Ramone

we're devestated Posted by Countess Cherry Ramone on Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 12:37 AM

This is easily the most digusting news i've heard in a long time....I LOVE Stanley and The Chelsea willNOT be The Chelsea without him....................Happy Birthday, Happy Fathers' Day and Happy Trails is BS!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU STANLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (It seems "the spirit of Robert Moses" will kill NYC yet - very sad!) Posted by anno on Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 1:31 PM what a bumer he was allways so good to me the 10 years i was there if you see him send my love JON B BERGER i stayed in the chelsea when i was 21 ands was the best most important time of my life, until i had to move back to scotland, outraged at what us happening to it. i wrote ma best songs and tales in this place, well i think idid lyrical y,s anyhow. grand indeed hope the fight continues iwas planning and coming back for a visit and stay to this year. craigy

Comments

[casebeer & joe myers]

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

[Dan McKeaney]

I've only stayed at the Hotel once, but it was a desire I'd cultivated since I was 15 (I'm 28 now) and I first heard "Chelsea Hotel #2". I brought my girlfriend there last year for our anniversary and staying there was one of the greatest times of both our lives. This news makes me want to cry. Though I live in Los Angeles, if they try anything, we all must band together and do whatever possible to stop it.

[Former Resident]

I certainly don't think people should lay down and take it. It's the Chelsea, there should be a creative, nonviolent, witty protest. Regret should haunt the greedy ones' every step in that place. Every luminary who every created there should get together with Stanley to buy out the place. And if by some chance these efforts fail, and the Chelsea does succumb to this Sickness the boad of directors has, these peop,ke who value mammon over art and soul, it should go out with a bang not a whimper.

This is worth repeating:

The Hotel Chelsea

Edgar Lee Masters

Anita! Soon this Chelsea Hotel
Will vanish before the city’s merchant greed,
Wreckers will wreck it, and in its stead
More lofty walls will swell
This old street’s populace. Then who will know
About its ancient grandeur, marble stairs,
Its paintings, onyx-mantels, courts, the heirs
Of a time now long ago?
Who will then know that Mark Twain used to stroll
In the gorgeous dining-room, that princesses,
Poets and celebrated actresses
Lived here and made its soul;
In after years, so often made and unmade
By the changing generations, until today
It stands a tomb of happiness passed away,
Of an era long overlaid?
Floor What loves were lived here, what despairs endured,
What children born here, and what mourners went
Out of its doors, what peace and what lament
These rooms knew, long obscured
Will be more lost when fifty years from hence
The place thereof will have no memory,
When men must hunt its picture, so to see
What it looked like amid this turbulence!
Few now remember even the noted names
That loved its hospitality in past years.
Who will remember me when wrecking shears
Clip like a leaf this room of troubled aims,
And make this window one with the sky’s space,
By which I sat looking into the court?
This table that I write on will not report
My dreams, gone by without a trace.
There will not be a seat for any ghost,
No room left for a musing ghost to smile
On kisses, vows, regrets, that for a while
Made life, and then were lost.
The blue-eyed woman who went out and in
The entrance door, time and the tooth thereof
Will take her, take the man who gave her love,
Both will be lost ere twenty years begin.

With purest love this woman was beloved;
With pain her lover looked upon her grief,
Her past, and strove to give her heart relief,
Himself by Life so moved.
All this will be but currents of the air
Veering and lost. Tell me how souls can be
Such flames of suffering and of ecstasy,
Then fare as the winds fare?
Tell me how love that fills the human heart
With a sense of things eternal must submit
To what is eyeless, and is infinite,
And hears so soon the word ‘depart/”

Anita! You can perpetuate by thought
What we have lived, when this hotel is gone.
Passing its site remember I was one
Who sought for peace and found it not.
Remember that I loved you, scarce could bear
My helplessness to give your spirit thrift –
Remember this as with the tide you drift,

Others will not remember, nor even care.

[Betty Bishop]

What can we do? I live in Toronto, Canada and I would love to buy a week a year at the Chelsea if I could afford it. How many others are there like me? Someone should arrange a sort of Town Hall meeting of all interested - hell that isn't really necessary now that we have the internet! I will be watching this site but I actually wish I was sitting in the lobby!

[Sarah]

So glad that I met you on the firescape...I knew that it was for a reason. The news is not only shocking...but sad and scary all at the same time. We need to unite. You need to unite us through your blog. Can u please do that?

[Becky]

This is so very wrong. Just totally and utterly wrong. I wish I lived closer so I might be able to take part in any sort of active protest there may be, but whatever I can do from SC, I'll do it in a heartbeat.

[Randi Marx]

I'm just shocked beyond belief. Last time I was at the hotel I heard these rumors of change, but I kept thinking no one would really do something so drastic. I heard they were thinking of raising rent, raising prices of hotel rooms for guests, maybe condos--but not once did someone mention that Stanley wouldn't manage the beautiful Hotel Chelsea.

It scares me to think what might be ahead. I just don't have a lot of faith in business types that have no heart in the matter. It's impossible to imagine the front desk without Stanley there or near-by.

Thanks for keeping us all posted, btw. I'll definitely be watching the blog closely for any updates.

[Carrie Bedsore /Cherry Ramone / Rob from Aus]

The ghosts won't welcome new inhabitants.

[sparkle]

What they did to Stanley and David is just so wrong on so many levels.

[Larry]

I landed in Chelsea after ending a 14-year relationship in August of 2004. My head was spinning, and after a month of sleeping in my office and hooking up randomly when I wanted to sleep in a bed, I walked in to the Chelsea and spoke to Stanley. I described my situation and he said "I have exactly what you need." It was a hot-pink room with a window facing an air shaft. It was quiet, and comforting -- a womb, really. I was finally able to get some sleep and figure out how to reorganize my life. I was a total stranger, and Stanley did this for me. Yes, the front desk lost my absentee New Jersey ballot and I had to get a court order to be able to vote against Bush, and yes, Stanley wouldn't let me leave when I wanted to, forcing me to stay (and pay) for an extra few days, but I'll always be grateful for the way he thoughtfully took me in.

Aside from all that, the loss of the Chelsea as we know it is the symbolic end of the neighborhood we love.

Maybe this is why "Chelsea" has not been illuminated on the sign lately.

[Brian F.]

If they even THINK about turning that place into condo's... there will be hell to pay.

Yeah-- they can consider that a threat. Bastards!

[topher]

It's gone. bye bye. a tragedy. any idea who the other partners are and what sorts of things they've done in the past?

[Mark]

Man, un-f'ing-believable!... Stayed at the Chelsea just last week, for the week... It had always been a wish to stay there, and finally had the chance... Stanley checked me in on Monday ("Here, you want today's Post?"), and he started each day with "good morning" and ended it with "good night" as I passed by... The only time he wasn't there was when I checked out Friday morning, and now I know why... This is really-really-really scary...

[mj]

I don't think anyone will like my following commentary, but I want to preface it by saying that I lived in the Chelsea from 1997-1998, and very much enjoyed my time there. Stanley's son David is close to my age, and we would chat occasionaly. I liked Stanley, David, and his sister very much - they are lovely people.

Having said that, the sense of entitlement I heard from residents who were living at the Chelsea long term when I was there, as well as those living there now, is egregious. Nobody owes YOU anything! It isn't a welfare business being run so that you can live your (ahem) "outsider" artiste lifestyles however you wish. You're all adults, and you're accountable for your own lives. The other Board members (whom I do not know) are certainly within their rights to wish to maximize their financials - their families invested their money long ago, and have been giving many of you long term Chelsea Hotel residents a well-below-market-ride for, in some case, decades. So now the gravy train has stopped - boo-hoo-hoo. Now you'll have to be responsible, mature adults, and not daydream or work part time gigs while you chill in the Chelsea, but you'll actually have to start working full time like all the other hard working members of society do and pull your own weight! Be VERY thankful for the wonderful opportunity you've had - now wake up and smell the coffee. Nobody owes you anything - you have to earn it on your own merits and by your own hard work, day after day for the rest of your lives.

I do wish Stanley, David, and the rest of the family the very best. It's not nice the way this was handled, but, as the saying goes, that's why it's called 'show business' and not 'show friends.'

[Former Resident]

MJ, I think you miss the point, and missed a few other things during your relatively brief time at the Chelsea.

It was not a free ride. People paid to live there, real money, and people there worked very hard, day in day out, often at a job as well as as their art. And residents put up with things that people paying "market" prices would not have put up with. But you see, the Chelsea was a place where you were buffered a little bit from those savage market forces, and where you found community with other creative people, and where people could be free and real without a lot of the conformist bullshit of middle america or wall street or any other powerful political clique. This is why so many great artists worked here. The bottom line isn't the only thing that matters my cynical friend. All worthwhile art is not commercial. I sense you're the type of guy/gal who would tell Van Gogh to quit whining and get a real job, who would say the same to Jesus after kicking him down the stairs.

Have people lost sight of what truly matters in this world? Does everything have to be egared towards maximizing profit?

[resident2]

I have lived at the Chelsea since 98. I have no idea who 'mj' is, but I have no problem recognizing that he/she is a particularly idiotic and embittered specimen of a certain type, i.e., someone who for personal psychological reasons fetishizes market forces as an agency of moral good, and who simply cannot grasp that there might be more to life--and to New York--than devoting oneself to financial profit. A question for mj: what do you do with yourself at the end of the day, after your daily dose of virtuous labor? You might hang out with friends, family, sure--but you might also read a book, or listen to music, or go see a movie, or ponder artwork, or go shopping for interesting fashion. Put it another way: why is it, when we're ill, that we see doctors? So that we can get better in order to make more money? Or so that we may take pleasure from life? And who do you think provides society with its sources of non-material pleasure? Let me enlighten you: creative types. So enough of this rubbish about freeloaders who fail to contribute to society: a society without such 'freeloaders' is not a society worth having. And what enables creative types to function--to do the very demanding, difficult of making valuable things out of nothing? A creative, enabling environment. Do we have a surfeit of such environments in New York? No: hence the unique value of the Chelsea.

Also, as these threads reveal, the Chelsea does much more than serve its residents: it serves as a living, authentic symbol of a life informed by art and non-conformity. If you, mj, had less of a chip on your shoulder and less of that creepy Schadenfreude, you might be able grasp that simple fact.

[Former Resident]

Resident2, hear hear! And you nailed it, "creepy schadenfreude." It's an epidemic these days.

[Robin]

Gosh,such dismay. Can't she be Land-Marked? What can we do to help?

By the by, Mark, that's a fine bit of vitriol you have going there. Yipes. Where ever did you find the time?

[funkydollarbill]

SQUATTER VICTORIES:

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0640,lombardi,74628,15.html

http://mediafilter.org/MFF/13ST_Win.35.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DE1E38F933A0575BC0A961948260

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0235,ferguson,37825,1.html

http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/75/turfwars.html

[Gary]

I second that, Former Resident. I can not stand the new smugness that permeates so many about the active removal of people in the name of profit only. It's Idol/Idle worship and will be the death bell for this city's cultural heart if they are allowed to get away with it.

So sorry to find out about this David and Stanley. I am so sorry.

[Sherill]

The Chelsea Hotel is already landmarked and can't be torn down, nor can its exterior appearance be changed. The interior is another story.

Without the enforcement of lower rents there will be no art in New York City, aside from packaged, marketed fake-"art" like this, taken from Motoko Rich's article on the NYC Architecture website,linked by the Chelsea Blog:

"IZAK SENBAHAR, a developer of luxury condominiums in Manhattan, was commenting this week that neighbors should not complain about a glass tower overlooking the Hudson River that he is planning. It is being designed by Richard Meier for a site just south of the two Perry Street buildings the architect also created.

"Simply by the fact that a new building by Richard Meier is being sold there, values will go up," Mr. Senbahar said. "Do you want to have a printer next to you or another high-class pure Richard Meier building next door?"

Before he could continue, he was interrupted by Louise Sunshine, one of New York City's most aggressive promoters of high-end real estate. "No, don't say 'high class,' " she said. "Say 'work of art.' "

In the latest marketing ploy for high-priced condos, Ms. Sunshine is trying to give real estate the cachet of fine paintings or sculpture. She plans to market the 31 apartments in the new Meier building, which broke ground in December, as "limited edition" residences. To underscore the point, Mr. Meier has commissioned clear acrylic models of the apartments — which he will sign and number to give buyers as a closing gift. "

[JZ]

The real landmark is not just the building and the exterior appearance. The landmark of value is so much more and it includes the history, inhabitants and "management". Stanley's management and navigation should be landmarked. American culture would likely be poorer were it not for the Chelsea ... and by "the Chelsea", I mean the Chelsea Hotel that Stanley made possible.... and to top it off, it was still vital.

[Victoria]

Stanley is the Chelsea!

[Don]

I know politicians are shmucks....can't we write or call someone?

[rwells]

seems to me that one solution would be for anyone rich and famous (or middle class and obscure, or broke and infamous, etc.,) who has claimed the Chelsea as part of their development should get together and make an offer on the place.