Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog

Chelsea Hotel Owner Joseph Chetrit Has a History with Rats

Joseph Chetrit is starting to look like the Pied Piper of Hamlin: wherever he goes, the rats follow.  It seems that in 2007, they even followed him home!  Imagine waking up in your beautiful mansion in Englewood, New Jersey to find one of these fearsome critters staring you down!  Chetrit and his family were understandably upset, and Chetrit even initiated a lawsuit to force Local 79 to remove the 15-foot monstrosity.  It apparently didn’t occur to Chetrit that the obvious solution was to STOP EXPLOITING NON-UNION WORKERS!!! 
            The workers have families too, Mr. Chetrit.  The union maids, bellmen, engineers, and clerks of the Chelsea Hotel all have families.  You remember them, don’t you?  They were locked out of the hotel and you still refuse to pay their severance.  The non-union construction workers who are gutting the hotel, some of whom are reportedly only making $8 per hour, also have families.  How are they supposed to afford gifts for their families this holiday season?

[Note: we couldn’t find a picture of a rat in front of Chetrit’s home, so here’s one in front of OUR HOME.]

Chelsea Hotel Destructo-Porn : Herbert Huncke Room

Here’s what remains of Beat writer Herbert Huncke’s room.  Huncke, who inspired characters in Ginsberg’s Howl, Kerouac’s On the Road, and Burrough’s Junky, lived a hand-to-mouth existence in this rent stabilized room until his death.  He could have never afforded to live in NYC if the Chetrits of the world had had their way.  Underpaid, non-union demolition crews working with Joe and Meyer Chetrit,  Jonathan Chetrit, Gene Kaufman, and Ed Scheetz,  just to name a few of the characters involved , are taking rent-stabilized rooms off the books and destroying important chapters in New York history as they do so. 

The Union Rat is still in front of the Chelsea Hotel to protest this abuse.  Union reps are encouraging concerned citizens and supporters of the Chelsea Hotel to call Mayor Bloomberg and complain about the Chelsea Hotel situation.

Union Continues Rat Protest at Chelsea Hotel

Local Union 79 continues to protest the non-union demolition going on at the Chelsea Hotel. Almost all of the non-occupied rooms have been gutted. Maybe the rat plans to stay long enough to get rent stabilization.

It's a Three Rat Day at Joseph Chetrit's Chelsea Hotel

Will they continue to multiply?

Union Rat Eyes Chelsea Hotel Owner Joseph Chetrit

Union workers erected a large rat in front of the Chelsea Hotel today to protest Joseph Chetrit's use of non-union labor to demolish the interior of the hotel.  Former Hotel workers had long been union members but in August when the Chelsea Hotel was in the process of  changing ownership, the union workers arrived at the Hotel to find they had been locked out.  Then they were given a one day notice and fired.  Though promised a severance package, the maids, clerks, engineers, and bellmen of the Chelsea, many of whom had worked at the Hotel for decades have to this date, received nothing. 

Actually, it was not one but two tenants who were assaulted.  Additionally, we have received several reports of tenants being verbally harassed by the non-union demolition workers.

Joseph Chetrit’s Chelsea Hotel: History and Tenants Under Attack

Since we haven’t posted on the blog in awhile, we thought it was time for an update.  Non-union workers have been busy on almost all floors, completely gutting all unoccupied rooms.  The demolished rooms, now just empty shells, include, on our floor alone: the room where Madonna filmed her Sex book in 1980; the last residence of Thomas Wolfe (seen at right), where he wrote You Can’t Go Home Again in 1938; Dee Dee Ramone’s last room at the Chelsea; and the tiny room where Beat writer Herbert Huncke was living when he died in 1996.  The room where Arthur Miller lived for ten years in the 1960s, writing his great play "After the Fall, has also been wiped out with no regard for its historical importance.

            The construction has been extremely disruptive: residents have been treated to a virtually non-stop assault of noise.  Clouds of dust (which have tested positive for carcinogens) swirl through our halls, and carts of rubble block our doorways.  Several apartments have been flooded, and some residents have had their electricity cut off for days at a stretch.

            Eviction attempts have heated up, with several new cases being brought against tenants, including families with young children.

            We also recently found out that Chetrit’s silent partner in the demolition of the Chelsea is none other than scandal-plagued hotelier Ed Scheetz, whose girlfriend was discovered dead of an overdose, at his penthouse in the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel.

            Finally, on December 8, at approximately 2 PM, tenant activist Arthur Nash was assaulted on the third floor of the hotel for showing union reps around the building and for attempting to film the non-union demolition crew (both activities protected by the First Amendment).  Approximately ten minutes later, when Nash was leaving the hotel, he found that at least a dozen workers were lying in wait for him outside.  They verbally abused him and his girlfriend, chasing them down 23^rd Street to 7^th Ave., where they assaulted Nash again.  When I attempted to intervene, I was attacked as well.  Both Nash and I were treated at Beth Israel and released.  

Ed Hamilton