The History and Mystique of the Cecil Hotel

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Yeah, I definitely empathize with those problems of renters who are either middle/lower-middle class or very low income, especially in a city with the complexities, size, corruption, and wealth disparities of LA. I suppose the thing with the Cecil is that it's a big hotel that's ability to attain legit success hinges largely on this issue, and it just feels like these individuals could be rehoused somewhere else if there was political will to do so. Of course, this crime very likely had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the low-income people at the Cecil (my theory is that it had nothing to do with them), but I guess we're just talking about the hotel's issues in general :)
 
From reading about the Cecil's history it has had long term tenants since the 30's

It was built to serve business men or single travelers in LA for a night or two, it was never meant to be a "fancy" hotel but even then within a few years of it's construction it became known as a place for people down on their luck. Seems mostly because the area around the hotel was hit hard by the depression where the west side of LA wasn't effected as badly.

Just wanted to clarify that the Cecil and having some down on their luck or seedier occupants is nothing new, it's actually more the norm for the Cecil...
 
findinganatta said:
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Yeah, I definitely empathize with those problems of renters who are either middle/lower-middle class or very low income, especially in a city with the complexities, size, corruption, and wealth disparities of LA. I suppose the thing with the Cecil is that it's a big hotel that's ability to attain legit success hinges largely on this issue, and it just feels like these individuals could be rehoused somewhere else if there was political will to do so. Of course, this crime very likely had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the low-income people at the Cecil (my theory is that it had nothing to do with them), but I guess we're just talking about the hotel's issues in general :)
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While low-income folks can have our sympathies, yet low-income folks also manufacture a lot of crime. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the police just arrest or detain someone from the hotel for the Elisa case?

Or, what about all that talk of past crimes at the Cecil? As my suspicions go, someone in that hotel is responsible for Elisa's brutal end. I haven't yet made a final determination of whether the Cecil staff was involved because I've been wanting some intelligent people (stroke, stroke) to tackle the timestamp evidence to ascertain what it might mean in that regard. Unfortunately, it seems that the timestamp is too much a headache for anyone here to tackle at this time. I suppose you are all weary, and that keeping track of all those numbers is just too much.

Whose your best techie?
 
MissedItByThatMuch said:
Unfortunately, it seems that the timestamp is too much a headache for anyone here to tackle at this time. I suppose you are all weary, and that keeping track of all those numbers is just too much.

Whose your best techie?
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I've worked with cameras & video professionally for the better part of 20 years, and it's not a matter of it being a headache - it's a matter of not having enough information to go on. To be certain, you'd need the original. We can't know what alterations were made when. It's not possible to determine from the resources available to the general public how valid or not valid that timestamp is.
 
nerdy said:
I've worked with cameras & video professionally for the better part of 20 years, and it's not a matter of it being a headache - it's a matter of not having enough information to go on. To be certain, you'd need the original. We can't know what alterations were made when. It's not possible to determine from the resources available to the general public how valid or not valid that timestamp is.
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Bummer. Are you sure?

I didn't know you were a camera expert? Please do venture a guess at why someone at the hotel might splice in frames for 10 seconds, or whether it was more likely the police who spliced them in? (But maybe this thread is not the place for this conversation.)
 
findinganatta said:
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Yeah, I definitely empathize with those problems of renters who are either middle/lower-middle class or very low income, especially in a city with the complexities, size, corruption, and wealth disparities of LA. I suppose the thing with the Cecil is that it's a big hotel that's ability to attain legit success hinges largely on this issue, and it just feels like these individuals could be rehoused somewhere else if there was political will to do so. Of course, this crime very likely had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the low-income people at the Cecil (my theory is that it had nothingto do with them), but I guess we're just talking about the hotel's issues in general :)
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I see both sides here too. On the one hand you want to want to rehab your historic core but gentrification usually ends up killing any character of a neighborhood, can discourage local business (the Starbucks takeover), and displaces disabled or very low income people and a lot of times even the cool peeps like Nerdy who love the authenticity of a neighborhood. It can end up sucking the soul of a place.

As for the Cecil investors, it seems they did get a bit of a raw deal. They went into it thinking they were exempt from that displacement law, and ended up sucker punched by the city. Usually I rally for the people who are marginalized but this seems to me either a bureaucratic error or political game playing. Someone actually paid $26,500,000; seems unlikely lawyers involved overlooked this City Ordinance at the time of sale. It really does seem like the Cecil's buyers were a bit blindsided

The Cecil would have to totally reinvent itself to succeed as a boutique hotel which involve complete disassociation with its past...there are just too many negative connotations with offering residential services. It is a tough call; I know in Chicago they had the fresh idea of turning over great buildings into really nice Co-op condos, but the residents by design all had variable incomes- big social experiment. Not sure how that played out. There are plenty of other possibilities here, but they involve acknowledging the elephant in the room, and politicians do not want to do that.

My motive in researching this is how lax the security seems to be at the Cecil. If you don't have someone financially vested in the hotel succeeding, it can definitely result in a super laissez-fare management at the hotel and even more likely for employees to not have a clue or even remotely care what is going on anywhere at any given time in the hotel.

I agree too that any of the residents had anything to do with EL.
 
Conductor71 said:
I agree too that any of the residents had anything to do with EL.
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How can you be so sure? Since when are low-income people incabable of the ultimate crime? Can you imagine of team of police officers sitting around a table for the purpose of throwing out different scenario's as possible explanations on Elisa's death, and one of them says, "Well, whatever you think, don't go thinking that any poor person in the hotel's living quarters could have done it."

The body was found in the tank on the roof. That doesn't speak too well to an outsider. It speaks well to an insider. The very mystique of the Cecil concerns its past murderers, and along with murderers come thieves and a host of other criminal types. It's no wonder the hotel's owners would want to shed that sort of past record.
 
There are two videos made by black women traveling alone before Elisa's stay. One stayed at Stay on Main and the other at Cecil Hotel. I think the first is from 2011. The second may be in 2010. It just so happens they are black women, I only mention that in case someone can recall where they are. eta... they meaning the videos

Both women do a good job of showing the rooms as well as the shared facilities. Stay on Main rooms ARE nicer. The shared facilities are also nicer.

Cecil Hotel still uses metal keys. There are multiple locks inside the door (this one video isn't the only one that shows this). The woman who made the video had a sink and toilet in her room. She uses her room key to open the shower room which has a bathtub with showerhead and a toilet. She also uses her room key to open a toilet room which has a toilet. By her video, I do not think Elisa could use ANY of the communal facilities on Cecil Hotel floors.

The woman in the Stay on Main room had a sink in her room. She only had one lock. She had a keycard. She uses this to open the shower room (which is not the same as the one on Cecil Hotel floor) and to open a toilet room (again, not the same).

Also, the TV in the Stay on Main room was much newer than Cecil Hotel. And her room had a ceiling fan. She said it was cool inside the room.

If I was a long term resident and I got a gander at the fancy new Stay on Main rooms, I'd be miffed. They're not a whole lot better, but they are better.

Also, I don't think Elisa could do anything much on the Cecil Hotel floors because she didn't have a metal room key. She might not have known that until she got up there.
 
I used to work at a hotel. Sometimes when it was fully occupied, I could walk the halls and see no one. There was only one exit in their rooms. But, there were just times of day when they were mostly all inside their rooms (we had good sound proofing, so no noise usually came from rooms except when they were right by the door... Cecil is different, I'm sure).

If the hotel was emptish, we'd put the guests close together (skip a room in between) unless they had a specific request. you don't want a guest off by themselves, ideally.

this hotel was much smaller, but LT guests at Cecil say they keep being moved (except AT) and that is probably why.
 
Apparently ghost hunting groups including psychics and/or mediums have gone to the hotel before for some TV program. I'm wondering if Elisa maybe saw that and knew the hotel was old, but thought it might be more glamorous than it actually appears to be. I don't have any idea if she watched such shows. Depressed people are often watching TV at odd times and catch some oddball shows.
 
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