(shit stirring headline , but OK article )
Not even tourists are intimidated by the Hells Angels anymore.
The once-menacing motorcycle club has been unable to keep people from sitting on its beloved bench outside its East Village headquarters.
A sign stating "Private Property" failed to keep guests at neighboring hotels from taking a seat, so a few weeks ago, the club finally installed a yellow metal bar and lock across the bench that only members can open with a key, noted the Web blog EV Grieve.
The only hogs the club cares about more than their Harleys are the folks who lounge on their bench, said Mario Cornejo, manager of Sanctuary Guest Suites, one of two hotels neighboring the Angels' East Third Street den.
"They really care about their bench," he said.
The hotel urges guests not to use it, even posting its own signs in the lobby, he said.
Members of the club -- apparently now as gentrified as the rest of the East Village -- declined to comment.
But longtime residents of East Third Street said they could understand how tourists could get Angels' motors running.
"If you put in a bench, rest assured somebody is going to live there," said the super of a building across the street who wouldn't give his name.
"[The Angels] do a pretty good job of keeping an eye on things -- they have a better reputation than the cops here -- so who is going to begrudge them a bench?"
After seeing the new bench security system -- to match the seven surveillance cameras positioned outside the club -- hotel guests said they had no intention of moving in on the group's turf.
Lia Sposto, 41, a lawyer visiting from Argentina, said the Angels had every right to their property.
"People must have been sitting there all the time, and they wanted their space back," she said.
But some said the Hells Angels haven't been sitting on the bench, either.
"No one is ever at the Hells Angels building," said Jana Kern, 23, a pastry chef staying at Sanctuary Guest Suites. "I don't think it's very neighborly of them."
Still, the hotel has no intention of escalating any gang warfare over it.
"The bench aside, we have a very good relationship with the Hells Angels, and we want to do everything we possibly can to keep it that way," Cornejo said.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hells_angels_can_even_scare_away_rI8a5cVpdCmPg1ougXZfNN
