Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Radical Tourist Inspires New Movement

Natalie Mathis is a first responder in the war against the corporate greed that threatens to destroy the Chelsea. When she read on our blog about Stanley’s shameful ouster, she made up a bunch of buttons to show her support for the Bard family, and wore one when she was checking into the hotel. 
     Natalie, who works as a fundraiser for the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, was in New York to attend a book party for James St James’ “Freak Show”. She says she likes club kids and drag queens, which leads me to suspect that she is our kind of gal. Though her father keeps calling her because he is worried that some terrible fate will befall her on the mean streets of New York, she says everybody she’s met in the hotel has been really nice. (Hilariously, even she knew who the new guy was – “he’s that bald guy right?” – because he sticks out like a sore thumb.)
     We need more tourists like Natalie. Everybody should wear a badge of support for the Bards when they check into the hotel – or better yet, a sandwich board! Which is why we are sponsoring a contest for Best Tourist Protest.  Enter now by simply booking a room and showing up and demonstrating your support.  Your prize? The satisfaction of being a cool revolutionary.  -- Ed Hamilton (Photo: Natalie with her "Stanley Bard is my Hero" button.)

A Zoned Hotel for the Arts?

Sherill Tippins Op/Ed piece in today's NY Times reminds us that when the Chelsea was built New Yorkers were facing a similar housing crisis.  She writes, "The Chelsea was built to address this problem.  A French-born writer, inventor, architect, and idealist, Philip Gengembre Hubert, introduced the cooperative apartment system to New York, specifically to free New Yorkers from the burden of overpriced housing and to encourage the cross-class intermingling neded to nurture a cohesive culture."  Tippins also mentions how readers of this blog have responded with creative solutions as to how to deal with the recent hostile take over of the Chelsea.  Here’s one of the more interesting.

Surely, if the Soho artists could get an entire neighborhood zoned just for artists, the Chelsea, with its landmarked status, could work with foundations, friendly investors, artists-with-money, the Bards, and residents to create a zoned hotel for the arts.

First, all current residents would be grandfathered in. No one would feel any pressure to leave.

Second, the transient hotel sector would remain, since it's part of what keeps the Chelsea lively and at the forefront of public consciousness.

As for the residents: how about regulating a mix of 10% of residents unrestricted (any income level, any occupation); 60% artists; 30% middle and low income? The Chelsea Corporation could be run by an elected Board of Directors with the same percentages, and with Stanley as permanent appointee.

Maybe Ethan Hawke has a lawyer on retainer, or maybe there's a lawyer-artist in the building (I think there is) who would find it interesting to look into that possibility, or a variation of it. And it does sound like something Bloomberg might find it useful to back, doesn't it?

Frankly, it seems to me an improvement on the top-down system of a corporate-owned hotel anyway. The Chelsea was built as one of the city's first co-ops. Maybe it's time for it to return to its origins.

If anyone has more ideas please add them to the mix. Yesterday, a reader from Canada posted another idea on his blog.