Good Times, My Friends, Good Times

A landmark of New York City's la vie Boheme is up for sale, and isn't everyone waxing lyrical and oozing sentimentality about all the "wonderful" things that happened there? From AP:

NEW YORK, N.Y. - New York City's Hotel Chelsea, the bohemian landmark where poet Dylan Thomas collapsed in a coma before dying in 1953 and where the girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious was fatally stabbed in 1978, is up for sale, its owners announced Tuesday.

The hotel's legacy as an artists' playground could be in doubt after the group of families that has owned it for 65 years decided to sell. They have not named an asking price.

"The hotel will always continue to be a destination for creativity and art, that's what makes it so special," shareholder Paul Brounstein said in a statement. "Nothing can ever change that."

But residents said they are in the dark about the building's future...

...Singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo was living at the Chelsea during its darkest time, when Vicious was charged with Nancy Spungen's murder. Vicious, born John Simon Ritchie, died of a heroin overdose months later while out on bail.

"It really kind of changed the whole atmosphere," Escovedo said by phone from Lexington, Kentucky, where he was touring. "There was a lot more paranoia."

Escovedo recalled riding in an elevator at the Chelsea with Vicious, Spungen, writer Quentin Crisp and fashion designer Charles James.

"I just hope it doesn't become a Starbucks or something," he said.

Yeah, that would be horrible.