Reporter Robert La Franco (above) got more than he bargained for when he agreed to spend a few nights at downtown's supposedly revitalized Hotel Cecil. Here's how he begins his piece:
The bravest of the three doctors attending me at County General reached out gingerly with a latex-covered finger and prodded the large, red bumps on my arm. "Rashes are always a bit of a mystery," he said before quickly stepping back in line with the others. They simultaneously snapped off their rubber gloves and shook their heads, sending me off with a tube of pesticide. "Rub it head to toe before you go to bed and leave it on for at least eight hours. It smells, but it should kill anything living in there."
I thought back to a woman I encountered a few days before while staying at the Cecil Hotel. We met in an alcove next to the hotel laundry room, a small area filled with plastic furniture and the heavy scent of detergent. She stood at the table next to me, dipping a plastic fork into a sardine tin with her frail, bony fingers. "I think it's the fancy quilt," the woman whispered to me as she slowly lifted a shaking hand to her lips. "The new owners moved me to a new room a little while ago and fixed up my old one. It's nice. I've got a television and these fancy new sheets, but ever since I've been scratching like crazy. My skin is just burning up. I just hope they don't ever find out. I don't want to cause no trouble."
Read on from there. Let's just say the Hotel Cecil isn't going to score high on the Trip Advisory website anytime soon.
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