Gothamist points us to a blog entry by a father who stayed at the hotel while visiting his daughter at NYU. Here's his story.
First, a description of the hotel:
The Jane is a 100-year old building on the Hudson river that was once a rooming house for sailors, with a long and colorful history - it even housed the survivors of the Titanic, and you can read all about it on their funky-groovy web site. What their site doesn't mention is that for some years, the beautiful building had fallen into decline, becoming sort of a derelict apartment house. It's now in the process of being remodeled into a hotel for those with "more dash than cash". Hey, that's me!
So, for the tidy sum of $115 a night, we were able to check in to a tiny room - really almost a closet - that consisted of bunk beds nestled next to a two foot by six foot stretch of carpet and a tiny window. Count us in!
And then, the incident:
I shared the elevator back up with a foreign woman, who got off on my floor. As we entered "the cloud", I said, "I wonder what died in this hall?"
She had a hand over her face, but with the other, she gestured to the strange, old door. There was a bright green sticker on it that I hadn't noticed today.
A police department sticker stating that the "room was sealed". In fact, the name of the sticker was "Seal For Door of D.O.A. Premises". Wow.
Our hero then begins to collect explanations from the hotel's staff. He never quite gets the same story.
By 9AM, the odor has finally dissipated as I make my morning coffee run down the street. I return and wait for the elevator with a really pleasant maintenance guy. He says "You should have seen this place before the remodeling… really run down", and explained that there were still residents on various floors, that those rooms were not yet remodeled, even down to the original doors still being in place.
Seeing I had an expert in my grasp, I inquired about the situation on the third floor. "Oh, that," he replied, "Someone with really bad hygiene".
I asked if the "hygiene police" had sealed the door. He laughed, leaned closer and whispered, "And some ladies used the bathroom in there, too".
Now, I've lived in 80-year old homes. I've dealt with dead squirrels in chimneys, dead rats in walls. There's only one smell like that, and it isn't hygiene. "So, that's the ‘official' story?"
He laughed. "Yes sir. That's the ‘official' story."
Yikes. Read the rest, here.
I Smell Dead People [Cloudy Project via Gothamist]
(Photo:Cloudy Project)
@RogerTheAlien:
Except ... there's no sentence fragments in his post.
I suspect you think "Avoid" is a fragment. It isn't. The verb is avoid, and the subject is understood to be the reader. Imperative sentences are often one word.
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: Galax VA is way up in the Galaxy, as in the Galactic mountainous region bordering West Virginia.
]]>@bwcbwc: Check out my rhino horn!
]]>@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: That would be DCJ...Department Of Corpse Juice.
]]>@MaytagRepairman: Hygiene? Or was it "Hi, Jean!"
]]>We used to try to get rooms at the Y. They were a bit cheaper than the regular hotels.
]]>If you're quoting a word or phrase because it has some connotation other than it normally would that the quotes, through context, are conveying to the reader, then the quotes definitely come before the punctuation marks (comma, perdiod, etc).
If, in an account of a past incident, the story-teller is quoting what someone said, then yes, the punctuation falls inside the quotes.
Besides, if you're going to be a Nazi about grammar, then don'do so while using sentence fragments as whole sentences.
So -1 for the grammarian.
]]>People repeatedly complained about the smells in the neighborhood - the city flushed the sewers, inspected gas lines, and the sausage factory (right next door) cleaned thoroughly, but the smell persisted.
The smell was due to bodies buried in the back yard and crawl space.
]]>@floraposte: Hehe well humans definitely haven't agreed on the same method of disposing the dead. We got christians who prefer burials, buddhists who prefer creamation, and captain hook who prefers davy jone's locker
]]>@The Porkchop Express: at least from what my friends pay for rent. they do have a nice view of Rikers Island though!
]]>@thisistobehelpful: Not New York. When they start saying things in feet you can actually feel your wallet trying to escape out of your pocket.
]]>The room had been sealed by the *police, not the corpse-removal fairy. rtfa.
]]>@idip: As bad as having the DOA sticker on the door?
]]>But don't take my word for it: Watch!
I know, it's just a movie role, but Annette Bening nailed it! :)
]]>I just ask because honest to God I called for for my 90 year old lady neighbor - nobody had heard from her in weeks, and her car hadn't moved, and relative called me concerned. Sure enough, found her deceased in the tub.
The impressive thing was that solid front door of hers - took twelve police guys and 20 hits with the battering ram to get it down.
It really kind of disturbs me though at the level of idiocy that whole groups of people will see something, know the right thing to do, and never do it, but instead gawk and gossip and move on.
]]>@RandomHookup:
Which is kind of strange when you think about it--in any long-populated area, people have died everywhere you look.
Yeesh. $110/night is a steal.
PS: $200-$300 wouldn't be insanely expensive. Thank the gods I have friends there for when I travel. Once I move their fold-out ironing boards out of its niche and tuck myself inside for the night, I'm pimpin' it large, like Louis XIV!
]]>Uh... did anybody else notice that Jane's website has a loading bar with skull and crossbones? Bwahahaha.
]]>@gfonner: See something yucky coming down the walls? Slip through the cracks? I see what you did there.
]]>@Meg Marco: I come here as a representative of the puppy union. We demand equal puppy coverage!
Dude. Look at this face. How can you not love this face?
]]>@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: Especially check in the hotels/motels with the mattresses on top of a box. The Iceman Mafia hitman did one guy in and stashed his body under one of these. The third! person after him renting the room complained about the smell and that's when they found the victim...
]]>I think most hotels have a "deny-deny-deny" policy when it comes to death. There are many guests who wouldn't stay in a room if they knew that someone died in there.
]]>@dfens42: Here I thought you were just a lousy speller:
Anosmia: No sense of smell, due to loss of the sense of smell or failure for it to develop.
]]>@moore850: Plus dead guys are notoriously late on paying their rent.
]]>Oo-ooh, that smell...
]]>My elderly neighbor fell in his apartment, and no one could get to him. Fortunately, his family visits him regularly and has keys to his place! I wish he'd had medic alert, though. He was down for hours.
]]>@gfonner:
I think one of the companies is named BioTrauma...I read a magazine article about them. Apparently it is good work, probably a little easier if you are an anosmiac.
]]>@kateblack: OH MY GOD
]]>@pegr:
You are fined 1 internets for your unoriginal comment.
]]>It's why apartments in nice neighborhoods cost more than apartments in shitty neighborhoods, and why broadway shows can charge more per ticket than a dinner theatre in some podunk town.
Why is it shocking that things cost more in NYC than they do in a southern town which no one has heard of?
]]>My old neighbor apparently died while shovelling snow in the beginning of winter.
I found him after the snow melted.
]]>At least corpse juice wasn't raining on his bed.
Better a dead body on your floor than the floor above your bed.
]]>@moore850:
Has nothing to do with the Hotel. NYC has a perfectly decent Potter's field for the indigent dead--much better than many jurisdictions:
[en.wikipedia.org]
It's a very good deal. In fact, I never knew about the Jane, and I'll definitely consider staying there next time I'm in town.
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: You can stay at my place for 75 bucks a night. Make it yourself breakfast included!
]]>@Meg Marco: How about a cat with a unicorn horn.
You can however occasionally luck out with priceline. I managed to stay at a very nice DoubleTree for $150.
]]>Reminds me of a documentary I saw about a man who has a "remains clean up" service. (I think that is similar to the business in the movie Sunshine Cleaning.) The documentary followed him as he cleaned up crime scenes. He also would get calls from supers when a resident would die and no one knew until the person who lived below the now deceased tenant would smell something yucky and/or see something yucky coming down the ceilings and walls.
It truly is sad that some people just "slip through the cracks". Maybe this story can serve as a reminder to check in on your Nana everyone few days.
]]>@Narockstar: I found the Chelsea based on the fact that he said he was visiting his daughter at NYU. I've never been to NYU but I suppose if he wanted to stay somewhere in NYC and could reasonably commute to visit his daughter, or they'd just meet up somewhere halfway, it's reasonable that he'd stay somewhere not exactly walking distance from the campus.
]]>Part of The Jane's allure is that it has a checkered past. The fact that the hotel is currently embroiled in a struggle with its remaining residents (Google this, there's plenty of coverage out there) just makes it that much more appealing to some. I would imagine this latest incident even moreso.
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: Don't know to be honest. I always stay witha friend. I just know everything else seems to cost a lot more.
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: I live in NYC and yes, that is a good price. :) There are some incredibly disgusting places in Chinatown that might be cheaper than that, but take my word for it and never stay at one of those. It's hard to find a decent room for under $200/night.
]]>@gStein_has joined the star bandwagon: Well, Galax, VA is very different from NYC. I'm from VA, and on Tuesday night's election I was looking at returns and I had no idea where most of the counties were in the state. Anything more south than Fredericksburg is off my radar.
]]>There. I have now tainted this thread as well.
]]>@JulesNoctambule: Great. If the poor person was actually waiting for their Comcast cable installation as pegr suggested upthread, whoever stays in that room is going to overhear ghostly and frustrated phone calls to customer service and complaints of missed appointments!
]]>@The Porkchop Express: Yeah but it works out to be $94.88 a day. The hotel lists taxes at the bottom so I calculated them all up.
I've never stayed in NYC before. Is $115 a night actually a good deal?
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: that tax will get ya every time!!
]]>I know NYC is expensive and all, but is $115 for this hole in the wall a bargain? The NYU website says Chelsea Star Hotel [starhotelny.com] is one of the most affordable hotels within walking distance of campus. It's only $80 and tax for a single room.
]]>@MaytagRepairman: It is an up and coming neighborhood with slanted floors!
]]>Are you sure the victim wasn't just waiting for Comcast to install their cable modem?
]]>