Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Happy Birthday to Chelsea Hotel Legend Stanley Bard

Stanley Bard and his wife Phyllis celebrated Stanley's 80th birthday in style earlier this month by dining at El Quijote. Stanley said that one of his all time favorite dishes was El Quijote's Chicken Villeroy, but he ordered something different just to change it up on this particular occasion, looked like the Fish in Green Sauce to me, another yummy dish. Phyllis also recommends the baked chicken.  "It's the best in town," she said.  Here's to Stanley celebrating many more birthday's to come in El Quijote.  The famous off-key pink guerrilla was no where in sight. 

(photo by Rita Barros) 

Former Chelsea Hotel Part-Time General Manager David Bernstein's Secret Blog

Remember last May when Marlene Krauss fired Richard Born and Ira Drukier from managing the Chelsea Hotel. Allegedly, one of the reasons she fired them was because General Manager David Bernstein was never around.  So where the heck was he and what was he up to?  The answer can now be revealed.  He was busy setting up a blog for the Pod Hotel.  Hey David, if you need any guest bloggers, we need jobs!  By the way, writing about Marlene Krauss is great way to get readers.  Unfortunately, you need to be a guest of the Pod Hotel to read the blog.  Rats.  Well, you can always follow the Pod on twitter.

Though Greed and Phony Demolition Win a Round in Court, Dan Peckham Remains a Hero to Tenants Everywhere

New York Real Estate Legend Dan Peckham’s Appelate Court case against his landlord, Larry Tauber, was decided May 5, and, in a blow against tenants everywhere, Peckham lost (Peckham v. Calogero).  Later that day Tauber sent Peckham an e-mail message that said, “Tick-tock,” hinting that Peckham’s days in his rent stabilized apartment were numbered; Tauber also forwarded his lawyer's BBWG's e-mail to Tauber that gloatingly said, “WE WON!”

In other words: Hooray! We get to throw an elderly, disabled man whom we’ve harassed for five years out into the street!  Their mothers must be beaming with pride.  I don’t know what’s going to happen to Peckham now, but most likely Tauber will step up efforts to evict him.  Hopefully Peckham has legal recourse.  He relies on pro-bono legal representation, and is presently without a lawyer.  We are hoping that a competent, dedicated lawyer will quickly step forward to represent Peckham, and keep the wolf from his door.

To bring you up to speed on this case: Tauber is seeking to gut renovate Peckham’s building which is in the Chelesa neighborhood.  The Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) granted him the permits to demolish the building (which he began to do, with Peckham still in it!), but then realized its mistake.  The Appellate Court said, basically, that the DHCR couldn’t change its mind about the definition of “demolition” in Tauber’s case after it had already decided that he met the criteria. 

(This is actually somewhat reasonable, as allowing city agencies to change the rules after they have already granted permits could lead to all sorts of abuses.  It’s just that in Tauber’s case—an instance of the so called “phony demolition”—the permits shouldn’t have been granted in the first place, and any reason to revoke them would seem justified.)

This affects other cases around the city in which the DHCR has already made a decision to grant permits for this kind of phony demolition.  Fortunately, the DHCR can still change their definition of “demolition” for future cases.  We urge them to do so, and immediately close this dangerous loophole.

Enduring untold stress and harassment, Peckham has been the lone holdout in his building for five years, costing Tauber hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost rent revenues and legal fees, and making greedy landlords everywhere think twice about trying to cheat legitimate rent stabilized tenants out of their rights.  In addition to fighting his own case, Dan has devoted his time and expertise to aid other Tauber tenants in need, and as such he remains a hero and an example for all of us of what a courageous, dedicated activist can accomplish.  We need more Dan Peckhams in this City. --  Ed Hamilton

 

A Star Is Born: Robby From The Pita Hut

For those of you who didn't know that Robby from the Pita Hut was a major talent, check out this hot video from the Rev. Billy Talen for Mayor campaign.  Go Robby!

Jumpin Butterballs! They're Trying to Tear Down the Marx Brother's Home

     Jumpin' Butterballs! You might think you're in the Marx Brother's movie "Room Service" around here, the way the bumbling, incompetent management keeps trying to evict the struggling artists (some things never change), but at least no one has seriously proposed demolishing the Chelsea.  But the childhood homoe of Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo doesn't have our landmark status. 

Marx Brothers Place is the NYC block where the beloved childhood home of the Marx Brothers still stands - as of today. But, since Marx Brothers Place is but one block shy of the boundary for the Carnegie Hill Historic District, the Marx Borthers House and every other house on th block remains vulnerable to demolition. Three beautiful 19th century houses have already been demolished to make room for a modern CONDO-Complex! 

Please join Harpo's son, Bill Marx; Woody Allen; Bob Weide and so many others who have signed the petitions (2) to extend the CH Historic District to include Marx Brothers Place, and to ask NYC to officially co-name East 93rd Street between Lexington & Third Avenues 'Marx Brothers Place'.

Spoiler Alert! In case, after 70 years, you haven't seen "Room Service" in the end Groucho and his brothers manage to put on their play and pay the hotel their back rent. Though Stanley Bard was only a toddler when the movie first came out, he seem to have absorbed the lessons of the film.

The New Faux-SRO Trend

     The faux-diner has been popular for years, since, once greedy landlords ran all of the real diners off adventurous yuppies craved a return to that “real New York” dining experience.  And now that most all of the residential hotels have been cleared out, their tenants scattered to the wind, up pops the faux-sro.  To give all of those faux bohemians and faux winos a place where they can pretend to be keeping it real.  On the cutting edge of this trend is the Ace hotel which was formerly the Breslin Hotel an SRO catering to artists and other genuine New Yorkers.  Instead of the crappy clapboard furniture, old record players and broken down refrigerators that were no doubt thrown out on the street when the Breslin’s tenants were evicted the Ace now features crappy ikea furniture and kitschy appliances such as turn tables and refrigerators making it look like a dorm room from the seventies.  We don’t know what the hell to make of the Joe Lewis boxing robes, though they are obviously some sort of evocation of a past era.  Maybe they’re sending a message to the tourists that they need to be prepared to go a round or two with the few remaining permanent tenants.  In today’s financial climate, if there’s not enough money to build a real boutique hotel, just make it cheap and tell people they like it.   – Ed Hamilton  (Photos: www.hotelchatter.com)

Rumblings from the Chelsea Hotel’s Law Firm Belkin Burden

     New York real estate legend Dan Peckham sent us this e-newsletter produced by Belkin Burden a few years back, but we didn’t make the connection that the law firm trying to evict him was also the Chelsea Hotel’s law firm!  They haven’t had much luck getting rid of  Peckham, now have they?  That certainly gives us reason to be optimistic. 
     On the other hand, this newsletter should make your head spin.  In it Belkin Burden is basically advertising that they can get rid of rent stabilized tenants through luxury decontrol and demolition application.  (The latter presumably includes the so called “phony demolition” that they used against Peckham.) At least it’s good to know where we stand with these guys.  Get ready to rumble indeed.

NYC Real Estate Legend Dan Peckham’s Phony Demolition Case Comes Before State of New York Court of Appeals

     Today, April 1, 2009, the case of  Daniel Peckham vs  Calogero will he heard up in Albany .  Everyone who can make it should go up to Albany and support Dan and his campaign to preserve his rent stabilized apartment against his greedy landlord Larry Tauber.  Dan Peckham, you might remember, is the heroic tenant activist who is the lone hold out in his building on West 21^st St. in Chelsea.  He has single handedly thwarted  the plans of developer Larry Tauber to transform this rent-stabilized building into luxury condos, costing Tauber hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues and legal fees while the case has slowly been making its way through the courts.  Peckham is a yoga instructor who uses his discipline to avoid the stress of his protracted battle.  Dan has also generously met with the Chelsea Hotel’s tenant activists and shared strategies for fighting greedy landlords.

     At the heart of the case is the so called “phony demolition law” whereby landlords take advantage of a provision in the law allowing them to evict tenants in order to demolish a building.  In this case Tauber is merely gut-renovating the building and trying to claim that it’s a demolition and therefore gives him the right to evict Peckham.  Peckham is joined in this case by the DHCR. This case is important because it could set a precedent and close a loop-hole that has been used to evict many NYC tenants. 
     Landlord Larry Tauber – surprise, surprise – is being represented by none other than the law firm of Belkin Burden who has been representing the Chelsea Hotel recently in its efforts to evict tenants.  If somebody out there travels to Albany let us know how it goes. -- Ed Hamilton

In Memoriam: Natasha Richardson (1963 - 2009)

Many Chelsea Hotel residents have brought our attention to Natasha Richardson’s fine acting role in Chelsea Walls.  She was also a friend to many residents of the Chelsea Hotel .  The  Chelsea Hotel community is saddened by the loss of one of its members. 

Chelsea Now Newspaper Shortage?

     Hey, I know it's popular but this is ridiculous!  It was a good thing I grabbed a Chelsea Now early on the day they came out (Friday, March 13), because by the next day they were not to be found in any of the orange Chelsea Now boxes near the Chelsea Hotel.  I thought this was really odd, since papers usually stay in these boxes almost until the day that the next batch comes out (the paper is now bi-weekly.).
    Odder still, when some of the boxes near the hotel were refilled this week, the newspapers were once again all gone by the next day.  Coincidentally or not, the issue contained several Pro-Bard letters to the editor.  The week before, when one anti-Bard letter was in the paper, there was no problem finding one in boxes around the Hotel.  (The Chelsea Hotel itself has banned Chelsea Now from its lobby, apparently in retalitation for a Pro-Bard editorial that ran a few weeks back.)
     So what gives?  I'd like to hear if others have had trouble locating Chelsea Now? And to whoever removed the papers, just remember theft of "free" newspapers is a crime in New York state.

New Yorkers Join Mayoral Candidate Rev. Billy for the Blessing of the Water

AQUA-A-LUJAH!!!  Mayoral Candidate Rev. Billy Talen, The Life After Shopping Choir, The New York City Greens and residents from neighborhoods across New York City (including the Chelsea Hotel) gathered today to show support for clean, fresh water. Rev. Billy blessed containers of New York city tap water and the souls of New York City residents were refreshed.  He also baptized a lucky little tyke who will no doubt grow up to reject overpriced bottled corporate water.  If elected Rev. Billy will give eminent domain to water throughout the city.  Filmmaker Josh Fox was also on hand to talk about the dangers of natural gas drilling to the fresh drinking water supply.  Water to the people, by the people, and for the people!!!!  Rev. Billy Mayor for Eternal Life. AQUA-A-LUJAH!!!!
 

 

 

Homeless People and Allies Successfully Occupy Empty Building

Homeless people and community allies took over a vacant building in El Barrio/East Harlem earlier today. The target was a beautiful two-story building at the corner of Madison Avenue and 116th that has been vacant for decades. For those of you who weren't able to attend today's action activist organization Picture the Homeless is holding a SLEEP-OUT celebration outside the building, Friday, March 20! Bring poems and songs for a community cultural event; bring food and blankets and sleeping bags for yourself and to share with everyone else.  (Source: Picture the Homeless blog)

Breslin Hotel Ghettoized: Will Chelsea Be Next?

There’s an article about the Breslin Hotel in this week’s Chelsea Now.  The Breslin, you’ll remember, is, like the Chelsea, an SRO hotel that houses a lot of people in the arts.  It was taken over by developers at about the same time as the Chelsea, and their aim was the same, to evict the rent stabilized tenants and turn the Breslin into a fancy boutique hotel.  In this update, we find that most of the Breslin’s tenants have by this point been evicted or taken buyouts.  The name of the Breslin has been changed, obnoxiously, to the “Ace,” and the few remaining tenants have been to some extent ghettoized, forced to enter through a separate entrance from the more important (ie. higher paying) tourists, and also given their own, smaller lobby.  Additionally, tenants are forced to use one elevator while the guests have access to six elevators.  Long term tenants are also having trouble getting heat and hot water.  The developers attempted to segregate the permanent tenants on the upper two floors, but tenants were able to resist what they perceived to be an attempt to compromise their rent stabilized status.

The Breslin is no more.  The difference between this hotel and the Chelsea: a Certificate Of No Harassment (CONH), which allowed the Breslin’s developers to engage in disruptive construction designed to drive the rent stabilized tenants out.  If we allow Marlene to get a CONH here, then we may as well just let her rename this place the “Ass” Hotel. -- Ed Hamilton

One of the Country's Top Political Blogs Highlights Eviction of 75-Year-Old Resident from Chelsea Hotel

Readers of Chelsea Hotel Blog may be familiar with DailyKos.com.  After all, it's one of the top political blogs on the web with hundreds of thousands of readers daily.  Yesterday, Daily Kos ran a story about how the current economic climate was impacting renters.  The heartless and illegal eviction of a 75-year-old man from the Chelsea Hotel was the prime example of how bad things have become.
The eviction story originally appeared on The Huffington Post and on Legends.  It's heartening to learn that a broader audience is concerned about the crisis at the Chelsea Hotel.  

News Bohemians Can Use

NYU finds that surveillance cameras do not deter crime.  The study reviewed "five years of evidence from Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan."  The researchers question whether the trade-offs in cost and loss of privacy are worth it.

Tishman Speyer may now have to pay $200 million back to tenants (at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village) because a court has ruled that they "had wrongfully raised rents and deregulated thousands of apartments after receiving special tax breaks." According to the NY Times, the ruling could "affect hundreds of other apartment house owners who, like Tishman Speyer, obtained tax breaks under the city’s J-51 tax program for property renovations and then raised rents beyond certain set levels. The Appellate Division ruled that apartments must remain rent-regulated as long as the building owners enjoy J-51 tax benefits."

An in-depth article in The Indypendent explains why tenants should support repealing the "vacany decontrol" law. "The top priority for the tenant movement, however, is repealing “vacancy decontrol.” Enacted in the 1990s, it lets landlords deregulate vacant rent-stabilized apartments if the rent can legally be $2,000 per month or more. (Rent stabilization covers buildings with six or more apartments built before 1974, or buildings where the owner accepted it in exchange for tax breaks.) Once an apartment is deregulated, there are no restrictions on rent increases and the new tenant has little to no housing rights. The bill to repeal vacancy decontrol, S. 2237, has 23 co-sponsors.

As we reported earlier on the blog, efforts are underway to reform the DHCR's Individual Apartment Improvement Code which allows landlords to use the 1/40th increase to pad the cost of apartment improvements in an effort to deregulate units.  

Nothing in Life is Free: Your Rent Can Be Raised To Pay for Repairs

If you are one of the tenants who is considering getting apartment repairs from management,  a word to the wise: the cost of these repairs may be added to your rent.  According to the DHCR website for substantial increase of services, replacement of furnishings or equipment and improvements to your apartment, including demolition and removal, the landlord can add 1/40^th of the cost of the improvements including the installation costs to your rent each month.  (For example if a repair was $10,000 the amount of your increase per month would be $250.00) This increase in your rent will be permanent.  In other words even after you finish paying for the repairs you will still have to pay the increase.  This is in addition to any other legal increases to your rent.

Even if the amount of repairs is small landlords have been known to turn in receipts to the DHCR claiming that they spent much more money than they did.  Then you have to go to court and file an overcharge claim.

You may want to think twice before you vacate your apartment.  A common trick that landlords have played in the past is to get the tenant to vacate the apartment “temporarily” in order for them to carry out repairs and then to change the lock, forcing the tenant to sue to reclaim the apartment. 

Jane St. Hotel Tenants Take It To The Streets

Today (Feb. 16, 2009) at 5:00 p.m. the tenants of the Jane St. Hotel will protest against their slum lords Sean Mcphearson and his sidekick Glennon "GIGI" Travis.  The Jane Street Tenants Association has extended an invitation to Chelsea Hotel tenants to join the protest.  The Jane Hotel is located at 113 Jane Street between West and Washington Streets in the West Village.  If you can't attend the protest please follow their struggle on youtube.  

A Hero for 2009 -- The Duchess of Carnegie

Watch the ccn video here! She's not leaving her apartment without a fight.

Holiday Wish List

For the long-suffering residents of the Chelsea Hotel: the swift return of the Bard Family to a management role at the hotel; a government bailout for those of us behind on the rent and facing eviction

For Chelsea Hotel minority shareholder Marlene Krauss: a summit meeting with God and Satan; eternal life and youth; dominion over all the creatures of the earth

For Chelsea Hotel minority shareholder David Elder: looks; personality; a brain; anything

For Chelsea Hotel general manager Andrew “Piccadilly” Tilley: quiet retirement to New Jersey; a stocking full of hair care products; a job at the new fake Chelsea Hotel in Atlantic City

For New York City: a glass and steel shortage to go with the money shortage; Club Fed memberships for the developers and stockbrokers who pillaged the city

For the High Line: beaucoup boutiques and upscale eateries, as well as private access for all the condotels, to keep the rich jet setters off the streets; extension north of 30^th St., and to the ends of the earth

For Florent: a Phoenix-like rebirth over the ashes of the increasingly ridiculous Meat Packing district


Use the comment feature to add your wish to the list:

Transplanted Chelseaites in Kentucky

I meet all kinds of Chelsea Hotel people and get to hear their stories when I'm out promoting my book, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel.  I was at the Kentucky Book Fair and I met this couple who had stayed at the Chelsea back in the 70s.  The man, said he had always wanted to stay at the Chelsea but his travelling companion had a lot of reservations due to the Chelsea's bad reputation.  He kept working away at her however and she finally agreed to stay at the Chelsea with one stipulation that they had to have their own bathroom so that she could take a bath. So the man readily agreed to this and arranged for a room with a bath.  And so they checked in but then the woman said that when she tried to take a bath green slime bubbled up out of the drain.  Gee, that happens all the time at the Chelsea.

Another man who came to my reading at Ear x-tacy Record Store in Louisville was an artist who lived at the Chelsea first in 1988 and then again in 1991.  He said that Stanley wanted one of his paintings but that he was reluctant to give it to him and it was good thing too because he later sold that painting to Brown Forman Distillries for a heafty sum.  Furthermore, this painter claims that he always paid his rent.  Boy that was a new one on us.  And yes, to answer your question they both bought copies of Legends.

At the Bookfair, I sat next to a lady selling Christian inspirational fiction and when people came by and looked at her books and decided that it wasn't for them I said well maybe you'll like this book, the Chelsea's got sex, drugs and rock & roll galore.

 

Landlord's Fishing Licenses Revoked: Legislation Will Provide Restitution to Harassed Tenants

State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Council member Dan Garodnick, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney and other officials today announced legislation they will be introducing requiring landlords to pay attorney’s fees and/or expenses incurred by tenants wrongly accused of breaking rent-stabilization regulations.  In cases where a landlord if found to have knowingly served a notice containing facts or allegations that are not true, the landlord shall be liable for three times the tenant’s legal fees.

This proposed legislation is a broader version of legislation passed by the State Assembly this Spring.  In this new bill if landlords bring frivolous actions against tenants they can be required to pay treble damages of the lawyer’s fees incurred by the tenant.  The bill is designed to stop landlords from going on fishing expeditions.  They cast out a net and accuse everybody they can of some violation of the rental laws and then see who they catch.  This is a considerable burden everybody but especially upon older people and people who are not familiar with the legal system or may not be native English speakers. 

Here are examples of some of the tactics that have been employed by landlords to falsely accuse legitimate tenants: 1. Accusing a child of being a sub-letter; 2. Wrongly accusing tenants of living elsewhere based on records of someone with a similar name.

It could be any frivolous accusation such as that the tenant has an illegal pet or cluttered conditions.  In short, any sort of violations of the terms of the lease. Often the landlord continues to accuse the tenant repeatedly even after the tenant has provided documentation of his or her legal status.  Recently, at Stuy Town and Peter Cooper, the landlord, Tishman Speyer, was found by the courts to have made false claims in 339 cases, according to Congressmember Carolyn Maloney.

Today’s press conference was held near the Stuy Town Peter Cooper Apartments because of the large number of abuses that have occurred there.  However, this represents only a small portion of the abuses that are occurring city wide.  This legislation will give all tenants an important weapon.  And if the Chelsea Hotel management engages in such wrongful lawsuits it can used as a weapon against them as well. -- Ed Hamilton

Behemoth of the Chelsea: RIP Johnny 1997-2008

Sadly, Johnny, our four-footed friend and neighbor at the Chelsea Hotel passed away yesterday.  Johnny, who, in true Chelsea gender-bending fashion, was a female. She was 11 years-old, ancient for a Newfoundland.  Johnny was a true Chelsea institution, and we will miss her intoxicating aroma in the elevator, as well as her immovable carpet-like presence in the middle of the lobby.  May we all meet Johnny again someday, in that great multi-species bohemian flophouse in the sky.  Neighbors have been informally stopping by Willem's apartment to express their sympathy. (The photo is from Johnny's birthday celebration earlier this year, and she says she did not  vomit up that cheesecake!)

The Second Time is Farce

Historian Sherill Tippins, whose history of the Chelsea, "The Dream Palace" is due out soon, wrote in to remind us that history reapeats itself:

Thomas Wolfe wrote this at the Chelsea Hotel. It's remarkably appropriate this week:

    "On October 24 [1929], in New York, in a marble-fronted building down in Wall Street, there was a sudden crash that was heard throughout the land. The dead and outworn husk of the America that had been had cracked and split right down the back, and the living, changing, suffering thing within--the real America...began now slowly to emerge. It came forth into the light of day, stunned, cramped, crippled by the bonds of its imprisonment, and for a long time it remained in a state of suspended animation, full of latent vitality, waiting, waiting patiently, for the next stage of its metamorphosis.
     "The leaders of the nation had fixed their gaze so long upon the illusions of a false prosperity that they had forgotten what America looked like. Now they saw it--saw its newness, its raw crudeness, and its strength--and turned their shuddering eyes away. 'Give us back our well-worn husk,' they said, 'where we were so snug and comfortable.' And then they tried word-magic. 'Conditions are fundamentally sound,' they said--by which they meant to reassure themselves that nothing now was really changed...
    "But they were wrong.  They did not know that you can't go home again. America had come to the end of something, and to the beginning of something else"
                                                                                  --Thomas Wolfe
                                                                                  "You Can't Go Home Again"

Ghosts of Chelsea Haunt BD

Well ain't that a bitch.  It seems that BD, showing total disrespect for the landmarks commission in making the top story of their Greenwich Hotel too big and visible from the street, may now have to remove the offending structure from their building and start again.  And to add insult to injury, NY Times food critic Joe Frank Bruni recently panned the new restaurant Ago that they opened on the ground floor of the building.  (They made him wait 52 minutes for his reservation! Hey guys, get a photo of Bruni and shove it in all of your employees faces unitl it's inprinted on their brain, okay?  (Is Glennon Travis your new maitre'd, or what?)
     We can only attirubte all of this misfortune to the bad karma you guys built up when you took over the Chelsea.  You dind't seriously think our ghosts were going to leave you alone, did you?  They are like the Furies of the ancient Greeks! We have sent Sid and Dee Dee and Hiroya after you to dog you to your grave!  Ha ha ha ha hahaha!  -- Ed Hamilton

Pantsless Man At Wit's End

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. 

Marlene's Shame

Be sure to check out Chris Shott’s piece in The New York Observer about BD’s shameful attempt to evict a dying man, Jann Paxton.  So what about it Marlene?  Is it so important to win your war against Stanley Bard that you’re willing to abandon ever last shred of common decency?  We think that, as a show of good will, you should at least pledge not to evict Jann Paxton. -- Ed Hamilton

Artie Nash Gets on the Books and You Can Too!

BD Hotels sued Arthur Nash in housing court, alleging that his apartment was not rent stabilized.  But last week, when the judge asked BD to provide evidence to that effect, they couldn’t do it, and didn’t even try.  Arthur, on the other hand, had a letter wherein BD admitted that another Chelsea Hotel resident was rent stabilized.  The judge took one look at this letter and threw the case out.  (He dismissed the case with prejudice, which means that BD can refile if they come up with new evidence, but chances are they won’t be able to.)
        Arthur’s case is important for another reason as well, because he represented himself, and it shows that tenants don’t need to back down from BD and their high priced lawyers.  Judges in housing court don’t necessarily expect tenants to have lawyers, and they are likely to be reasonable if you do your homework as Arthur did, and know your rights.
     Artie weighs in "... Krauss and Elder's attorneys came on with bullying tactics and it was under this pressure at least a half dozen residents i'm aware of left the hotel. there are probably more. But from the start their case consisted of a bluff; they got called on it and crumbled, actually admitting to [Judge Wendt] they had no proof to support the claim that has had us in courtrooms, researching and writing legal motions since last november. Moreover opposing counsel conceded they'd be unlikely to find that proof in the future. Some would call this type of lawsuit 'frivilous'. If there is a 'round two', the only consolation might be that we'd get to use the rest of the research in support of our counterclaims."

Big News from Housing Court

Artie Nash has won his case against BD's lawyers!  Guess those banners won't be going anywhere after all. We'll post an interview with Artie a little later.

Greed Fair

Yes, look at me now, I'm a Rock Star!  Bobby DeNiro is my Best Friend.  Go to hell Chelsea losers.  You deadbeats can kiss my ass!  (Gold ball brought to you by Tax Free Liberty Bonds)  Also, all you millions of bloggers out there may want to know that we'll automatically cancel your reservation if we find your name in our system!

Ira Drukier at the Greenwich Hotel. Vanity Fair via down by the hipster.

The Party's Over for Hoteliers as Banks Pull Loans

Good news for the forces of sanity and sustainable development: Wall Street bankers are pulling the rug out from under hoteliers, taking away the loans that have been subsidizing all these hideous hotels they keep throwing up all around the city. That's what happened to Sam Chang, head of the McSam Hotel Group, New York City's largest hotel developer. "The city is being overbuilt," Chang says, citing a coming room glut that will drive down rates.

Though BD has just received the rubber stamp from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for an unnecessary hotel at 145 Perry Street, one that would totally alter the character of that quiet neighborhood, the changing real estate climate will hopefully lead the banks to reconsider and tell Born and Drukier to go take a flying leap from the top of the Pod Hotel.

BD also needs a loan in order to gut renovate the Chelsea, or whatever the hell it is they plan to do to us, and now it's not looking so good for them in that respect. As Stanley Bard said in his recent Video statement at the Museum of the City of New York , "We're not always going to be in this bubble. We're not always going to be in this economic boom, hotel wise." Well, it looks like his words are coming true already. BD needs to figure out who their clientele is (hint: adventurous artistic types who want a unique New  York experience) if they want to last for long at the Chelsea. -- Ed Hamilton

.