Chelsea Hotel Like Savaged NYC
How a Legendary New York Hotel Became a Battleground
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/nyregion/chelsea-hotel-nyc.html
When inspecting the Chelsea Hotel couple of years ago, top to bottom, for a city agency what was striking about it was how it shared the characteristics of homeless encampments, immigrant way-stations, gypsy congregations.
Beyond those survivalists examples was its miniature portrait of the whole city always under dominance of the development and construction interests commanded by a group which lived elsewhere, gated, police guarded, pristine, clean, vegetated, fore-courted and multiply-garaged with pools and tennis courts and views of mountains or seashores (lovingly advertised by the main property peddlers of country estates and penthouses).
Dust and debris and fire hazards and blocked exits and loosely zippered doorways of occupied shacks, with building and fire and health codes violation endemic inside the landmark as with the tortured city beyond, the main difference in lack of villainous vehicles spewing poison into the gasping airways of the internees.
The Chelsea conflict is much shorter than the long war against a truly healthy and safe and benevolent 8-million+ municipality, inaccurately touted as the greatest in the world.
The city agency in charge of the inspection is hapless and helpless against the powerful forces of finance, development, design, construction and maintenance, those for whom "the world is our oyster" is best exhibited in the pandemic of sidewalk bridges and construction barriers herding cattle for feed-lots of Mafia steak houses.