Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

As Promised: Video of Star Lounge Mayhem

Here is a two minute 40 second clip of a typical street scene in the early morning hours outside of the Star Lounge in the basement of the Chelsea Hotel. 

  Here's another video from earlier in the evening. Check out the hot girls. I must be getting old, but don't some of those girls look a bit young to be in a bar?

Early Morning Mash Up At the Star Lounge: An Eye Witness Tweets Out

1. Black Blair Warldorf gives us the inside dope on what goes on at Star Lounge on a typical night. Gee, sounds like the newly repaired cast iron landmark railing is already endangered.
   

   My hand is soooo swollen and so is my knee. I kicked in a storefront window and my leg popped....smh....alcohol is the devil

   about 5 hours ago via web
2. Idk where I got all that strength from. Adrenaline is something serious, boy....about 5 hours ago via web
3. the cops were like "M'aam get away from the car" lmaoo...the cops weren't even tryna fuck with me.about 5 hours ago via web
4. Then they said "we're gonna arrest you" and the cops came. I threw myself on top of the cop car and begged them to arrest meabout 5 hours ago via web
5. The female bouncer was too scared to touch me, so 2 male bouncers tried to escort me out. at which point I punched one of them in the faceabout 5 hours ago via web
6. I picked up the metal soap dispenser and threw it at the mirrors in the bathroom. Then I smashed up the sinkabout 5 hours ago via web
7. Then I hopped over the balcony, ran back into the club and proceeded to tear up the place looking for my bag.about 5 hours ago via web
8. I don't remember doing any of this cuz I blacked out in a fit of drunken rage, but the report is I choked and punched the bouncerabout 5 hours ago via web
9. lmaooo @ my @ replies....someone stole my bag and when i realized it was stolen, I proceeded to trash the place.about 5 hours ago via web
10. So the report is that I destroyed the bathroom. Broke the sink. smashed up the mirrors. They tried to arrest me for vandalism smhabout 5 hours ago via web
11. apparently I am mannishly strong lolol. 3 bouncers couldnt even hold me. My homeboy had 2 throw me over his shoulderabout 6 hours ago via web
12. RT@GlamaRebel Let's hope we can go back to Star Lounge after @Overfab mash up the whole inside a there and gave bouncer a black eye #truthabout 6 hours ago via web

Chelsea Free-For-All:Breakdown of Authority Leads to Destruction of Property

The bad situation at the Star Lounge, where fights have been spilling out into the street for months, has finally reached crisis proportions.  In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 20, Chelsea Hotel residents were kept awake for several hours by constant yelling and screaming as at least three fights broke out in front of Star Lounge.  (We have video which we'll post a little later.)  Then, the next night, in the early hours of Sunday,  March 21, another fight broke out, the battle becoming so intense that a fifteen-foot section of the historic cast iron railing in front of the hotel was snapped off at its base.

 
(Photo by Michele Zalopany)

    The problem is long-running and systemic: quite simply, there’s no one in charge at the Chelsea Hotel.  The hotel security sees no need to maintain safety in front of the hotel, or to even call the police, deferring to the bouncers of Star Lounge, who couldn’t care less if gangs run wild up and down 23^rd Street.  And why should they care?  Neither Charles Ferri nor David Elder has any authority over them.

    The increasing atmosphere of uncontrolled, unsupervised violence has become a danger to Chelsea Hotel residents, and to all residents of the Chelsea Neighborhood.  Star Lounge patrons, too, could have been crushed by the heavy iron railing, which apparently fell down the stairs into the Star Lounge entrance.  Imagine the lawsuit which would have resulted from that!  (Luckily, the hotel video camera should have captured this incident.  The tapes must be reviewed to determine who is responsible. )

Order must be restored, and the place to start is at the top.  Ultimately, the buck stops with Elder, who has to be able to control what goes on in the storefronts of the Chelsea.  If Charles Ferri insists on “running” this type of lawless establishment (or maybe “collecting the money” would be a more appropriate phrase), it’s up to Elder to give him his walking papers.  Elder, who clearly enjoys the trappings of authority, such as expensive suits and the attention of opportunistic sycophants, needs to step up to the plate and actually manage the hotel, or else he needs to step aside and find someone who can do his job properly.  The obvious solution is to bring back David Bard.

 
 
 

Chelsea Hotel Multi-Bar Scheme Abandoned For Now

Due to continued interest in David Elder’s harebrained scheme to open two bars in the Chelsea Hotel lobby—one in Stanley’s office and the other behind the front desk(!?)—and maybe an Argentinean restaurant somewhere or other in the hotel, we felt it was time to give our readers a summary of what has occurred:

On January 11, Elder appeared before the Community Board 4 Business Permits & License Committee (Chelsea Now Jan 14-27) to ask for a liquor license for the two new bars.  Unfortunately for him, the committee didn’t have enough members to form a quorum, and, in addition, Elder had conveniently failed to post the notice of his application in the hotel.  Consequently, he was obliged to come back at the next Committee meeting on February 8.

  On February 8, Elder failed to show up for the meeting (Chelsea Now Feb 25-March 10).  Had he shown the courage of his money-grubbing convictions, he would have been met with stern opposition from concerned Chelsea Hotel residents.  Undeterred by Elder’s absence, these residents made it clear  to the Committee that they would not tolerate the transformation of the Chelsea Hotel’s famous lobby—which is used by children, the elderly and the disabled—into a noisy hotspot for hipsters.  The Committee gave Elder one more chance to appear and state his case at the Committee meeting on March 8, saying that if he didn’t show this time they would recommend that his application be denied.

Big surprise: Elder didn’t show.  But he got a break, because it seems he called the committee in advance and they allowed him to take his application off the agenda.  The latest on the issue, as reported by Nicole Breskin in DNAinfo, is that Elder has now postponed his application  indefinitely. (We'll be watching to see if the application reappears.)

  In related news, Star Lounge owner Charles Ferri (now in partnership with Noel Ashman, though Ashman sometimes denies it , received a recommendation for a liquor license renewal from the full Community Board on March 3, though not without many important stipulations being appended, including: that the present security firm be replaced; that the line queue west away from the hotel doors; lounge patrons will be kept out of the lobby and away from the front door; no velvet ropes; no outside promoters; no drinking or smoking near the lounge entrance; Ferri will provide a telephone number for complaints; Ferri and the new security firm will meet with residents.

  This at least shows that the Community Board is somewhat responsive to resident’s concerns. -- Ed Hamilton

Singer Songwriter Mike Skall Gets a Plaque

Mike Skall, an adopted Chelseaite weighs in with his take on the struggle to save the last outpost of Bohemia.  May more like him rise from the ashes of the Chelsea's burned-out junky soul.
Click on the banner to play Chelsea Hotel #9.
 

Chelsea Hotel #9 (Bard Mix Demo)

Chelsea Hotel #9 - 2009 Michael Skall

Hey Artie where the hell did Stanley go?

Did they take him with the garbage to the pavement down below?

They're tearin' out your mailbox, they're sawing up your doors,

Ain't this the fucking Chelsea Hotel anymore?

 

Hey David why'd you leave your soul on the wall?

Just another chapter, after the fall.

We know you can't afford it, we know you're gone for sure.

Ain't this the fucking Chelsea Hotel anymore?

 

23rd. Street Cries...

23rd. Street Dies...

23rd. Street Cries...for the state you're in tonight.

 

Hey Ed where have all the writers gone?

Where are all the poems? Where are all the songs?

Are they bleeding out like Nancy on the bathroom floor?

Ain't this the fucking Chelsea Hotel anymore?

 

23rd. Street Cries...

23rd. Street Dies...

23rd. Street Cries...for the state you're in tonight.

 

Now Dylan's room is gutted, and Leonard's got a plaque.

If they were here now they'd probably stab 'em in the back.

An artist needs a lover, not another greedy whore.

This ain't the fucking Chelsea Hotel anymore.