WILLIAMSBURG — A massive, multi-colored penis made of Christmas lights adorning the penthouse window of a luxury rental building overlooking a busy corner has neighbors fuming.
The phallus went up at 65 Ainslie St. at the corner of Union Avenue last weekend and has been raising eyebrows, inspiring chuckles and inciting annoyance in people who don't know what to tell their children.
"It's rude and vulgar, it's definitely wildly inappropriate," said Justin Abenchuchan, 28, who walked by the lights Thursday afternoon and snapped a photo, admitting he was going to share it with all his friends.
"I don't think it's right for a family-friendly neighborhood," said Alyson Redinger, 32, who lives around the corner and recently had a child of her own. "Are you 18? How old are you? It makes me mad."
A man who lived in the apartment with the massive phallus said that his roommate had strung up the lights last weekend.
"It's a joke," he said, declining to give his name. When asked about the concerns of neighbors with young children he said: "It hasn't come up. I haven't thought about it."
The man responsible for the Christmas lights did not respond to a request for comment.
A maintenance worker at 65 Ainslie St. said that an older gentleman had pointed out the Christmas lights to him on Wednesday afternoon.
"He was pretty disappointed, he didn't know what to tell his grandkids," the worker said. "'What is it? What is it?" the man's grand kids wondered.
A woman walking with her partner and young child who declined to give her name said the phallus seemed typical of the "frat boy mentality" and of the "douche bags that moved into the neighborhood."
