I’m not sure if this an April Fool hoax, but even if it is, it’s well worth a read. Apparently its not enough to be crazy to get admitted into Bellevue nowadays. You also hafta book a room and pay for it, cause the City wants to turn Bellevue’s psyciatric ward into a luxury Hotel…Talk about a room with a ‘vue, as the NY Post delicately puts it in an article titled ‘Loony (B)Inn Bellevue Eyed As Luxe Hotel’.

Guests at Bellevue will soon be given bathrobes instead of straitjackets, if the city can convince a developer to turn its most famous nut house into a luxe hotel. Originally, officials considered turning the 1931 Italian Renaissance-style building on First Avenue between 29th and 30th streets into condos, but oddly, the layout of a mental institution is better suited to a hotel, Melissa Konur, vice president of the city’s Economic Development Commission, told The Post. “There are long corridors, and the rooms aren’t very big,” she said.

And this is the original story from the NY Observer, which started the ball rolling on this nuthouse story. Includes the full proposal from the NYC Economic Development Corporation. And some more juicy bits from FoxNews. Not many hotels can claim Norman Mailer, Edie Sedgwick and Charlie Parker all spent the night, but the psych ward housed fewer sax players than ax murderers, said Dr. Frederick Covan, who for 14 years was its chief psychologist.

If you’re not from NYC, please tell me something. Do we look as crazy to you, as we look to ourselves? Maybe its the water, or the gas leaking from the subway or something like that…