Moxy Hotels are aimed specifically at millennial tourists. They come with "communal ironing rooms" and "elevators that act like photo booths," along with free booze and pillows on the bed that say, "I woke up like this." Marriott is planning to open 150 Moxies over the next decade.
photos from a reader
Yesterday, New Yorkers joined The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) to protest the demolition.
Speaking to the group (click for Facebook video), Andrew Berman put the responsibility on Mayor Bill de Blasio--citing Lightstone Group as his allies and political contributors. The hotel, he said, will go up for "globetrotting young people with disposable incomes, who are here for a few days and then gone." He added, "We love tourists--they're great, they're important--but they're not quite as important as long-term residents."
Tell the mayor to stop this demolition. GVSHP made it easy for you. Just click here, put in your name, and push a button.
P.S. What happened to all the residents who used to live in these buildings?
"communal ironing rooms" and "elevators that act like photo booths," along with free booze and pillows on the bed that say, "I woke up like this."
ReplyDeleteI know I sound like a grumpy old lady, (whatevs) but aren't "kids these days" embarrassed that they are being typecast as to liking these lame things?
And yes, good question - what happens/happened to all the people who used to live there?
I just thought of something ... Trust me I don't feel good totally about proposing it. But what if this "hotel" doesn't get built on the lot where the East Village gas explosion occurred?
ReplyDeleteThe elevator and pillow ideas sound idiotic, but what's wrong with "communal ironing"? Doesn't it mean that instead of sending your clothes out to be pressed at an outrageous charge you can iron them yourself?
ReplyDeleteIKEA is an acronym. All caps.
ReplyDelete@Reader, most hotels (and many motels) have an iron and ironing board in the closet of every room, so a lodger can iron her/his/their own clothes. You don't have to send them out to have them pressed.
ReplyDeleteThe "communal ironing" bit is a bit of curated collectivity. You know, invoking the communalism and collectivity of the past, but stripped of the politics and run through the machine of neoliberalism, so what exists is just in name only. It's also a money-saver (surprise!) for the hotel.
Meanwhile, think of all the New Yorkers displaced by the loss of those buildings, and who'll reap the benefits from a spiffy, low-wage paying hotel in their place.
The Moxy hotel's amenities appeal to their narcissism and short attention span and hive-mind desire to be social all the time. They can post Instagram photos and they pop up on an oversize screen in the hotel lobby, aka "living room." The communal ironing room has a giant poster of a ripped, inked, shirtless young man in boxer shorts who is ironing. A yelp review of the Tempe, Arizona Moxy crowed about what fun they had with the selfie photo props in the elevator. fake mustaches and the like. They borrow pink bikes from the lobby to tool around town and they play vinyl records from Pink Floyd on their vintage record player in their room and they play Foosball, cornhole and giant Jenga. I could go on and on as I read the reviews and I am convinced it is a plot to keep young people in a state where they constantly have to be stimulated and entertained like babies or children. I was a child of the 60's and if I were 21 again and visited a hotel with lava lamps, day-glo posters on the wall with black light, complimentary strawberry and chocolate rolling paper, and a copy of the Whole Earth Catalog next to the Gideon Bible, I would think one thing - get out of there, I'm BEING PLAYED!!! It's bad enough that it has to be a hotel that is coming to 11th Street, but it kills me that it is a Moxy hotel.
ReplyDelete