Reader Rant: Hip Hostel Not so Hot

Updated 9:55 AM EST, Wed, Jul 29, 2009

Print Email Share TWITTER FACEBOOK

Ace Hotel

Not content to let the Jane Hotel hog the spotlight for controversial SRO-to-boutique-hotel conversions, a member of the tenant association at the Breslin Hotel writes in regarding the current state of the Broadway and 29th Street building, set to re-open as hip hostel the Ace Hotel.

After some opening remarks that loosely translate to "you don't know what you're talking about" (a charge we can't deny!), our Breslin/Ace correspondent fill us in:

Are you aware the way tenants in the Breslin are being forced to live? Are you aware that tenants have had no heat the entire winter and still have no heat? Are you aware tenants go for 3 days without running water? Are you aware tenants suddenly have bedbugs? Are you aware tenants are made to walk up several flights of filthy stairs filled with debris to get to an unheated bathroom?

Are you aware that old people have been moved to the upper floors and are forced to walk down a dozen flight of stairs to exit the building? Are you aware that there are tenants who are terminally ill in the building and others extremely old? Are you aware most of the hipsters have been forced out? Do you even know what a hipster is?

Before you publish things like "SRO neglect" and "Bums", you could have asked a tenant in the "B" how it used to be before GFI and Ace came in. Our building was nice and clean and cool. Down at one end of the hall from me I had one of Stephen Spielberg's set designers, across from me was a well known photographer and at the other one of Howard Sterns side kicks. That was just on my floor. We were a building of artists, designers and independent thinkers. So before you begin publishing things you may be held liable for, you may want to research your sources before blogging them on Curbed.

P.S. If you must call it Soma, at the very least abbriviate it properly (SoMa). You may want to invest in a site editor.

Which leaves us wondering: What the heck is SoMa? Ah, according to the New York gang, it's a nabe handle for "South of Macy's." We apologize for this slight against a mom-and-pop neighborhood retailer.