Who said the New York peep show is dead?
Grannies and other residents of a Lower East Side public housing building say they’ve been getting an X-rated eyeful since Ian Schrager’s fancy Public hotel opened next door in June — because its guests keep having sex in view of their homes.
“Guys are together, girls and girls are together. They don’t even pull the shades down,” fumed Leonor Fernandez, 68, who said her grandkids visit her at her 10 Stanton St. apartment several times a week.
The randy guests don’t just get down in beds with the blinds open, either — they’re doing it right up against the windows, residents said.
“You see them having sex all the time, hands on the window,” said Melissa Santos, a 26-year-old dental assistant who lives in Fernandez’s building. “Not like I’m a peeping Tom, but from the corner of my eye, you can see this going on four times a week.”
Schrager’s slick, 28-story, 376-room Chrystie Street inn promotes itself as “luxury for all” — although rooms start at around $225 a night — with a rooftop bar that transforms into a late-night hot spot.
“A hotel is supposed to be more than just a place to sleep — it’s supposed to make your heart beat faster,” Schrager says in an artsy promo video for the hotel. From what neighbors have witnessed, his patrons’ pulses are racing — with one telling other tenants that she saw a guy pleasuring himself in the window.
“He got up, and he was standing there” masturbating, said tenant leader Debbie Gonzales, 64, recounting the story from the resident.
Fernandez’s daughter, Chrisanta, said she is worried that her mom’s ticker won’t survive the bawdy scenes playing outside her window — along with the ruckus created by revelers who line up down the street to get into the bar.
“She doesn’t even sleep. My mom is very, very upset — she has heart problems,” she said.
At least 47 noise complaints have been lodged with 311 against the hotel since it opened, city records show.
The neighbors said they can’t always pull down their shades or blinds because their window air conditioners are running during the summer.
And the city can’t do much about their complaints, according to regulations and a legal expert. “The whole question is whether it’s going on in public: If you’re in your house or something [such as a hotel], you’re safe,” said Manhattan lawyer Lance Fletcher, whose firm handles public-lewdness cases.
“[The neighbors] have gotta close the blinds or look away.”
But Fernandez said hotel management should be the one to block out the indecent views.
“Maybe they should put in tinted windows,” she said.
The Public isn’t the only Big Apple hotel whose frisky guests put on free shows: Visitors to the High Line were stunned when The Standard hotel opened in 2009, offering views of racy in-room romps.
The Public hotel did not return a request for comment.