With gratitude to S'tan, who began this epic discussion here, and all those who have contributed to past editions, part 4 of Farewell Charming Olde New York begins.

If you are new to the discussion, catch up with Part 3
here

There is the expected but still tragic news of the Chelsea Hotel becoming another $800 a night boutique hotel. I'll be back with some links shortly, still shedding tears over this one, as all who ever lived at the Chelsea must be.

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The hotel sector of the city's economy is a kind of mafia. They generate their own statistics and so it never shows the sector doing badly, only that demand for rooms keeps going up. This is the only convenient thing the hotels need to cite as they steadily raise their 'rack rate' rooms, which during peak tourist season now easily average considerably more than $300 a night. The only adversary the hotels really face anymore are their labor unions. I worked a large event last February at the midtown Hilton, the largest hotel in the city. An impending strike by the hotel workers' union was narrowly avoided. The hotel had actually spent $100,000 dollars on pine trees it was going to place around the ground floor of the hotel so guests could not look out to the street when the anticipated strike protests started. What the hotel did with those trees I don't know, since the strike was averted maybe the Hilton family donated them to the LA County Jail.

My friends were so happy with the rates and quality of the Chinatown HolidayInn... now it's getting converted to a luxury hotel just like all the rest. Sheesh!

Hotel rates here are so wacky. The "Howard Johnson Express" on Houston is one of the best deals around.. and it's a stinky deal. It's very bare bones dreary place. When my mom stayed there a while back it was nearly $200 on weekdays and over $200 on weekends. I hear it has gone up since then. If that dump is so expensive then anyplace with atmosphere is really sky high.

I guess the best thing to tell friends is to stick with discount sites. Most of those large hotels are probably full of guests who were discounted either through a tour package, a corporate group rate, or an Internet discount booking. It's all tiered, just like nightclubs.

My mother likes the Washington Square Hotel when she comes to town. It's a scenic walk from our apartment and she adores the small, Art Deco historic feel of the place, though she's the laid-back, undemanding type who would be fine at any decent Motel 6. One of their nicer rooms runs about $350-$450 per night. Not exactly cheap but arguably a bargain in the city's current hotel market. But because it's a small place, rooms are scare so booking well in advance is recommended. I hear it's popular with the parents of NYU students who come to visit their kids.

On one of Mom's future visits I want to investigate the red brick building on Bowery & 4th Street that supposedly is an Eric Goode-designed hotel. It's one of the few new buildings that I actually admire and am curious about. But I'm sure I'll end up balking at the price.

The Gershwin still has some quite reasonable rates. I checked in there for two nights last summer during the 100+ degree heatwave (I had no air conditioning at home). I got an adorable little room with wood flooring, a little wood writing desk, the bed was perfectly comfy, and the bathroom had the old white tiling with an occasional black one dotting the walls. It was $65 per night during the week. I always think of Gershwin as Chelsea's wallflowery little sister.

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Private!

Another good place is the Larchmont Hotel on 11th btwn 5th & 6th, great location and $99 a night.....it is a shared bathroom though.

You cannot beat the Larchmont for location! I lived there for a month when it was first converted from an SRO to a hotel (1996). Then it was $40. a night.
They upgrade every year, and finally have a good elevator. (I think there's one or two old guys still living there!) They also have full kitchens to share.

The bathrooms are shared, but I have never seen them dirty. Maids are in there all the time.
But don't take a room on the first floor in the winter. The heating was terrible and the windows drafty.

Another great place to stay is the Carlton Arms on East 25th. Every room is painted differently by an artist. There's a famous "Submarine Room" by Brian Damage. On the premier etage the shared bathroom has an incredible mosaic tile, floor to ceiling... It looks like a Kenny Sharf. (by Phillipe Dawkins) They did not have working phones in the rooms, just a buzzer to let you know you have a call in the lobby, but that doesn't matter anymore with cell phones.

They had some old guys living there from the days it was a SRO too. Find them sitting in the lobby with the German tourists.

The rate was $320. a week in 1998.
They made you move out after 25 days so you couldn't become one of the bums.

... it's still there and it's $75 a night now without private bath and $500+ for a week.

http://www.carltonarms.com/hotel.swf

Go to 'Rooms' and scroll over the amazing looks...

One of the shared bathrooms on the top floor used to be painted all over with hieroglyphs, like the weird bathroom in "The Tenant," where the inhabitants went to pray...

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http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/07/10/bouluds_dbgb_...abdicated_throne.php

David Boulud is opening a restaurant on the CBGB site and calling it
DBGB ... for David Boulud's Good Burger.
Which will cost $29.00


Best comment:

"I am going to puke up Daniel Bouloud's $29.00 burger in front of the place
so at least some of CBGB's spirit will still be alive."

Wow
That sort of says it all doesn't it?

Thanks for the tip off S'tan.

Reminds me of the Ho-Jo's in Times Square where a burger with a soda cost $25.

This strip of the Bowery south of Astor Place to Houston is going to be the new Times Square South, with a boutique hotel recently opening, and still with a big selection of low end restaurants and shops to be bought out by developers. The crush of people on the sidewalk during the weekends is oppressive.

I guess Patricia Field is a visionary.

I went on a date on Sat - the geezer took me to Katsa - a morroccan tapas lounge - beautiful place. But filled up with B&T folks by 11pm (it ws a Sat!) But what shocked me more was the location bowery/Prince and how packed it was of a Sat night and how many lil spots there were there. Awful monster 'luxury condo's' but still allot of Bowery bums on the sidewalk - one was classic, in a beach chair with a small color tv playing a video game! - how he hooked that up and where I have no idea but there he was on the sidewalk chillin an playing with his bwoys! Am sure these scenes will soon fade.
My date was apt sitting this HUGE (prob unofficial) loft across the street. That was obviously an old commercial space with this gigantic outdoor play space. I am sure it won't be long till they are evicted to turn it into 'luxury' condo's.

Yeah, south of Houston and north of Delancey is the real battleground. The New Museum is putting its new home there. You get places like Crash Mansion (a self conscious tip to the Bowery?) located not far from one of the last SRO missions for homeless single men. Blocks lined with restaurant equipment wholesalers interspersed with shops catering to DJ's and a smattering of new luxury high rises financed out of Chinatown. This development will eventually march all the way down to Canal and the bridge, as if traffic on the Bowery down there wasn't impossible enough now.

.

Anyone know what's going up at that big gutted site at the corner of 6th Street & Third Ave, right where Third turns into Bowery?

A Crusties' warehouse.
No more disaffected youth panhandling on Ave A. instead of using mom's credit card. They will be offered free lodging at the warehouse which will be replete with complimentary cans of bud in brown sacks, a clothing boutique(everything in olive drab, pre-ripped and soiled), 'cafeteria' outfitted with dumpsters from Odessa and Veselka replenished daily with all the half eaten fare, a tattoo and piercing school where guests can volunteer their flesh for no-cost student assignments, and it is all sponsored by Parkbench the spray on stench of choice for the grungesters. But this is all only if NYU's hotel for students' dogs doesn't get approved by the zoning board.

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A crematorium/Soylent Green manufactory.
It's to compete with Whole Foods by year 2020, when they project 250,000 more people will be living in the Manhattan area.

I walked by NYU Palladium Dorm on 14th Street the other weekend when it seemed that most of the students were moving.. it was this awful scene of excessive over indulgent parents of these girls who had this obscene abundance of branded goods...all trying to move whilst wearing short mini dresses and hiddeous high heels. I've never seen so much consumerism all in plastic NYU bins being wheeled to mom and dads cars. It was really sad, really pathetic and made me angry. How will any of these kids ever learn anything about themselves with this lack over self discovery this overly cosetted existence and no self reliance or resiliance. sad.

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