According to the Times, 60 Thom is stirring up beef with its neighbors on Thompson Street between Spring and Broome. I live one block up, and often pass by while various black limos are disgourging the rich and famous (and their scurrying assistants) in front of the hotel. The neighbors are saying that the hotel is destroying the quality of life in the neighborhood, which, defying all the laws of physics, had until now defied the gentrification and putrification that has affected the rest of SoHo. All the usual complaints are alleged- noise, rats, construction violations. I'd like to add a few of my own:
- Too many B list celebrities crowding the sidewalk. Clearly, the sidewalk is reserved for celebrities of Antonio Banderas' rank or above. [Jen:] (And even that's questionable, given his wife.)
- Cosmopolitans in the second floor lounge violate the law- of mixology, that is. Way too fruity.
- No discount is offered to neighborhood residents. I mean, is it really fair that Russell Simmons can hang out in the penthouse, and I can't?
- Not enough north facing windows, making it difficult for me to take pictures of people in the penthouse from the roof of my building
If the tenants are serious about getting even with the hotel, they should contact my father and his firm of tenant-loving-landlord-hating attorneys. Or they should follow the lead I set when Meg Ryan's luxury loft building went up next to my apartment and I protested the noise violation.
