Chelsea 1982 NY Times

IF YOU'RE THINKING OF LIVING IN. CHELSEA. NY Times May 2, 1982

ELSIE LEVY has lived in Chelsea for 25 years, but she considers herself a newcomer compared to many o ther residents. ''That's not really a long time as far as Chelsea isc oncerned,'' she said.

Hilda Regier, a Chelsean for 14 years, said she can walk down the street on a Saturday afternoon and greet every third or fourth person she meets by name. ''It's a place where you have a strong neighborhood feeling,'' she said, ''and you can come to belong if you want to do that.''

In a city characterized by impermanence, impersonality and fastpaced change, Chelsea has remained a self-contained, relatively stable, out-of-the-way enclave to a degree noteworthy among Manhattan neighborhoods. ''You get the feeling of its being like a small town,'' said Carol Greitzer, the New York City Councilwoman whose district includes Chelsea and Greenwich Village.

That atmosphere, however, is changing rapidly these days. Rundown buildings that used to be single-room-occupancy dwellings are being converted into luxury cooperatives, rents are skyrocketing and seedy blocks once distinguished most noticeably by their derelicts now boast shops selling expensive cheeses, exotic coffee beans, pates and pasta salads.

Gristede's has already moved in, and D'Agostino's is contemplating an incursion. And restaurants are multiplying fast. But while real-estate developers hail the ''Chelsea renaissance'' and newcomers talk about ''gentrification,'' longtime residents worry that the neighborhood's character will eventually be sacrificed to ''progress.''

One of the hallmarks of the character oldtimers fear might be lost is diversity, which is structural as well as demographic. ''Chelsea is a major manufacturing area as well as a residential area,'' said Ira Brophy, director of business services for the city's Office of Economic Development. ''There's the garment industry, printing, the fur industry -90 percent of America's fur industry is between 27th Street and 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

''There are the handbag concerns, there's the flower market - which supplies shops all over the metropolitan area - and there's a big concentration of commercial photographers.''

While definitions of Chelsea vary, most people consider the area to run from 14th Street to 34th Street between Fifth Avenue and the Hudson River. Residential at its heart, between Eighth and 10th Avenues, Chelsea is more industrial at the fringes.

Northeast Chelsea - north of 23d Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues - is a manufacturing-on ly zone in which existing buildings cannot be converted to residential use without a zoning variance. It is city policy to discourage such conversions. Southeast Chelsea, south of 23d Street between Fifth and Eighth, is a mixed-use zone and western Chelsea, west of 10th Avenue, is also a manufacturing-only zone.

Nonetheless, there has been considerable residential conversion in some segments of Chelsea, and existing housing is being rapidly upgraded. A block of nineteenth-century town houses along 23d Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues, boarded up for several years and generally regarded as a neighborhood eyesore, is now being converted into elegant cooperative apartments. The project is called Fitzroy Place, and its prices range up to $325,000 for a two-bedroom unit.

In the next block east, the former Cornish Arms Hotel is being converted from a home for the elderly into a cooperative called the Broadmoor, where 74 open-plan apartments (fixtures included) range in price from $94,000 to $280,000. On 29th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, 100-year-old row houses are being converted to cooperative apartments selling for $96,000 to $159,000.

Such prices reflect the area's soaring property values. ''In 1978 you could have bought a very nice, fully renovated townhouse for $150,000,'' said Paul Gay, president of Wells & Gay, a real estate concern on 23d Street. ''Today the same house would fetch between $400,000 and $500,000.''

Rents have jumped accordingly; Mr. Gay estimated that a onebedroom apartment in a typical brownstone that would have gone for $375 in 1978 would fetch $800 today. ONE of Chelsea's largest residential complexes is the venerable L ondon Terrace on 23d Street, a Romanesque extravaganza with g argoyles jutting from its red-brick walls. Most of the units, with t he exception of the towers facing Ninth and 10th Avenues, are m anaged by London Terrace Gardens, whose studios now rent for $550 to$ 750 a month and one-bedroom apartments are $750 to $1,000. There is a long waiting list. An even larger complex is Penn Station South, a c ooperative sponsored by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.

Chelseans are often amused when other New Yorkers cannot quite place their neighborhood. ''Nobody else knows where Chelsea is, but the people who live in Chelsea do,'' said Jay Watkins, a writer and community activist who has lived in the area 11 years.

Although it strikes outsiders as geographically remote, Chelsea is blessed with good public transit. The avenues from Ninth to Fifth, as well as Chelsea's major east-west artery, 23d Street, are all served by buses. The IND Eighth and Sixth Avenue subway lines, the IRT Seventh Avenue line and the RR and N lines of the BMT provide swift access to other parts of the city.

Chelsea's population is undeniably changing. ''When I first came it was a much more diverse community economically, socially, and racially,'' said Mr. Watkins, who heads the Chelsea Anticrime Task Force and the 200 West 25th Street Block Association. ''There were the Irish, blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, a lot of Jewish people, a lot of senior citizens, a lot of gay people. There were artists and writers and longshoremen.

''But the gentrification that's going on is bound to diminish some of that variety. I like the new restaurants, and it's really nice having all those places to go to now. But along with that is the fear that people currently living in lower-income housing will have to leave, and that the roots of this community will be ripped out.

''You really hate to see friends having to move out of Chelsea because of rising rents. The people moving in now are doctors, lawyers, professional people who can afford the rents.''

Chelsea was given its name by Capt. Thomas Clarke, who bestowed it on his estate when it was staked out in 1750. His grandson, Clement Clarke Moore - better remembered for his poem, ''A Visit From Saint Nicholas'' - divided it into lots around 1830.

He donated the block still occupied by the General Theological Seminary, an ivy-covered Victorian Gothic block built in the late 19th century. Another neighborhood landmark is the ornate Chelsea Hotel, whose residents have included Thomas Wolfe, Dylan Thomas, Brendan Behan, Virgil Thomson and Mark Twain.

Like other parts of the city, Chelsea is suffering from more crime. Homicides in the 10th Precinct jumped from 9 in 1980 to 19 in 1981. The number of rapes stayed the same at 39, while robberies rose from 865 to 1,010. But these figures still make Chelsea look good compared with other areas of the city.

''T HE crime rate is relatively low,'' said Chief Anthony Voelker, commanding officer of the Police Department's Office of Management Analysis. ''In total felonies the 10th Precinct ranked 62d out of the 73 precincts in the five boroughs last year. It's basically a safe area.''

Among other changes is an explosion of new restaurants. The choices are diverse, from Chinese at Chelsea Big Wok on 10th Avenue to Cajun Creole at Cajun on Eighth Avenue to soul food at West Boondock on 10th Avenue. Gracious turn-of-the-century settings are to be found at Harvey's Chelsea on West 18th Street and at McFeely's on West 23d Street; but other choices abound, including the Empire Diner and Chelsea Central on 10th Avenue, Artie's Warehouse on West 21st Street and Chelsea Place on Eighth Avenue.

More changes will doubtless be wrought along the Hudson by the planned convention center and by the Westway development, if it ever gets built.

''The question,'' said Mr. Watkins, the community activist, ''is how do we deal with the transition and keep the diversity, keep all the people who have made this such a pleasant place to live.'' Revival of a Revival House

Once a haven for film buffs seeking revivals and classics, Chelsea's Elgin Theater, at Eighth Avenue and 19th Street, has been dark for five years. If all goes as planned, however, it will be reborn this spring as a 475-seat dance theater.

Renamed the Joyce Theatre, it has been undergoing a $4 million renovation since being purchased by the Original Ballet Foundation, the parent company of the Eliot Feld Ballet, in 1979. Although the timetable has already been postponed several times because of construction delays, the theatre is currently anticipating a gala opening on June 1.

''We gutted the interior of the building and built completely new facilities,'' said Ann Murphy, a spokesman for the theater. ''Everything is new except the four outside walls.''

The first show will be a four-week engagement by the Eliot Feld Ballet. After that it will be rented to other dance companies.

Illustrations: photo of statue in gardens of London Terrace map of Chelsea photo of Chelsea row houses photo of scene in McFeeley's