By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — A sign boasting a "Hot Chicks Room" outside the new Upright Citizens Brigade theater on Avenue A has riled a group of neighbors who find the name offensive.
Angry local residents have recently taken their complaints to the local community board and even 311 after the sign went up near the comedy troupe's forthcoming space near East 3rd Street, said CB 3 district manager Susan Stetzer.
"The issue that that has been expressed to me is that they feel like it looks like 1970s Times Square," said Stetzer, who lives on East 3rd Street near the space and agreed with grumbling residents that the sign wouldn't discourage the hordes of rowdy bar-goers that regularly flood the block.
Stetzer's building-mate is even starting a petition to get the sign taken down.
"I just find it, for this neighborhood, very inappropriate and repulsive," said Felicia Caggiano, 66, who noted there is an elementary school and church just up the block.
"We don't need a sign like this here. This is a neighborhood — this is not the Red Light District."
Caggiano added that she's already reached out to the offices of the mayor and public advocate, as well as local elected officials, requesting the sign be removed.
"It's totally inappropriate, and I find it totally offensive," she said, adding she doesn't "want the sign there for children to read."
"It just doesn't belong here, that's all."
Upright Citizens Brigade managing director Alex Sidtis was caught off guard by the negative response.
"We are surprised at the reaction and take our neighbors concerns seriously," he said in an e-mail. "The sign is meant in good fun."
The "Hot Chicks Room" is actually a nod to a UCB skit from 2006 starring troupe member Amy Poehler.
In response to the complaints, the storefront's former tenant — longtime East Village resident and Two Boots Pizza owner Phil Hartman — offered to buy the troupe a new sign.
Hartman, who formerly ran the independent Pioneer Theater inside the UCB space, tried to convince neighbors that the sign is just a gag, but Stetzer said making light of the issue shows "a lack of respect for other people's situations."
"It's not an objective thing," she added. "It's good fun to some people, and it's not to others."
Stetzer said she had a "very nice" conversation with Sidtis Tuesday, and that he pledged to work with the community regarding their concerns.
"They don't want to upset the residents," she said.
Nonetheless, Sidtis would have liked to hear from residents before they began a campaign against the "Hot Chicks Room."
"We wish we would have heard from someone directly about their concerns before a petition began circulating," he said.
UPDATE: Sidtis confirmed Wednesday that the Upright Citizens Brigade has agreed to remove the sign to avoid any future fights with neighbors. Read the whole story here.
