Bizarro Baby Dictator: The Misspent Youth of Glennon Travis

When we got back from our Thanksgiving Holiday, the first thing we heard – before we even got through the door of the hotel actually – was an outpouring of resident appreciation for Chris Shott’s Observer article about the Chelsea’s supposed manager, 26 year old Glennon Travis.
     Certainly it is a must read for anyone interested in understanding what’s going on at the Chelsea.  One important thing that Shott points out is the perception that Glennon shows favoritism toward transients at the expense of permanent residents. Though this formulation oversimplifies the problem, as Glennon is actually nasty to transients whenever they express an interest in the history of the hotel, it points out BD Hotels ultimate goal: to rid itself of all permanent tenants as it converts the Chelsea to an exclusively transient hotel. They are using Glennon to alienate us so we’ll get sick of his bullshit and move out.  (Photo: Richard Born and Glennon Travis)
    It’s actually a master stroke of harassment on BD’s part, because, even without his abrasive personality, someone like Glennon is almost completely incomprehensible to any sort of creative person. Though I’m not generally one to brag, when I was 26 I was sitting at a table in a cheap rooming house, chain smoking cigarettes and banging away on an old typewriter as I drank myself into a stupor.  For someone to squander his youth in the way that Glennon is doing – dressing in suits and writing memos – is to me a tragedy of unexampled proportions.
     Glennon says to watch for the good stuff coming up. Though he is clueless in this regard, here’s what will most likely happen: In time, BD will hang Glennon out to dry, and then they will trot out a new, marginally more appropriate manager to “save” the Chelsea. Yippeee! And I’m sure there will even be a few people stupid enough to believe the hype.
     On a positive note maybe this will be a wake-up call for Glennon, and he’ll take to the bottle – or alternately the needle – and with any luck be able to salvage what’s left of his misspent youth.
     Oh, by the way, I’m pleased to note that Living with Legends is a now officially a “gossip site” we should get even more traffic now!  -- Ed Hamilton