The Cecil Hotel/Stay on Main

My first (and last) visit to the Cecil Hotel—already unofficially rebranded as Stay On Main—was in May 2010. This was nearly three years before the Elisa Lam tragedy, but two decades after notorious serial killers Richard Ramirez aka the “Night Stalker” and Johann “Jack” Unterweger had called the budget hotel home. I had just graduated from college and was going on a celebratory trip to Los Angeles with my boyfriend of two months and two of his close friends. As 22-year-old recent graduates unsure of our next steps in life and saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, inexpensive, hostel-esque lodging was incredibly appealing. The four of us shared a small room that had enough space for two twin beds, two nightstands and an orange plastic hand chair that Buster Bluth would have coveted. The most luxurious part of our hotel room was the private bathroom — we splurged on the additional nightly fee to avoid the communal toilets and closet-sized, mold-covered showers that were on every floor. <a href="https://medium.com/@brittonsierra/the-cecil-hotel-stay-on-main-304c2de30626">Read More</a>