Our long neighborhood nightmare is over! The 'Hot Chicks Room' sign is gone (sort of)

The sign came down yesterday...

[Photo by RyanAvenueA]

Actually, workers just flipped the sign around... you can still see the hot pink letters...

In any event. Long live the Hot Chicks Room sign!

And from the EV Grieve gift basket (sorry, not available in cargo shorts)

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Your 'Hot Chicks Room' sign update

[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade

Breaking: UCB will remove the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign!

Note campaign begins against the Hot Chicks Room sign

Thanks to Dave on 7th for the photo taken outside the coming-soon Upright Citizens Brigade on Avenue A.

Previously.

Noted

[DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund]

OK. So, let's just go right to Patrick Hedlund's article on DNAinfo:

The Upright Citizens Brigade recently hung red drapes in the windows of its forthcoming venue near East 3rd Street, after the comedy troupe agreed to remove a humorous "Hot Chicks Room" sign due to local residents' complaints that the babe-inspired billboard would draw hordes of rowdy bar-goers.

Now neighbors are taking issues with the theater's rose-colored curtains, claiming they make the venue look like a house of ill repute.

"They look like red velvet, like you would see in a bordello," said Felicia Caggiano, 66, whose window looks out onto the theater and who previously planned to start a petition against the "repulsive" Chicks sign.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Your 'Hot Chicks Room' sign update

[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade


Breaking: UCB will remove the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign!

Comments, noted

A comment left today on "[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade"

Anonymous said...
I can speak on behalf of the community and we are willing to settle with changing the sign to "slut jam"

Breaking: UCB will remove the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign!

Alex Sidtis, managing director of the Upright Citizens Brigade in Chelsea, just sent along an e-mail about the group's Hot Chicks Room sign on their new home on Avenue A at Third Street:

Rather then fight, the UCB have decided to change the sign. Our goal is to make people laugh by presenting the best comedic material in town and not to cause a stink over a silly sign.

They have decided to take my suggestion — Hot Hick's Room.

Kidding!

What will the new sign say?

"Not sure yet, but we're not likely to be provocative in this case."

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Your 'Hot Chicks Room' sign update

[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade

[Updated] Your 'Hot Chicks Room' sign update

As mentioned Monday night, a resident is circulating a petition (where, I have no idea) to have the "Hot Chicks Room" sign removed from the incoming new home of the Upright Citizens Brigade on Avenue A at Third Street...

Via e-mail, I asked Alex Sidtis, managing director of the UCB in Chelsea, for his reaction... and about a possible opening date.

"We've gotten a lot of positive attention and support from the community so I'm not sure where the ire is coming from," he said. "The fact as the matter is that no one who has a problem with this sign has personally come forward and talked to me about this sign. We are shocked there is a petition going around over this but are eager to understand the cause for concern."

(He said he'd be happy to talk about the sign with any concerned residents. The UCB main number is 212-366-9176.)

After our e-mail exchange, he spoke with CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer about the sign, and will have further discussions with her about it.

"We really aren't trying to be straight up offensive, and it feels really surreal," he said.

Meanwhile, he also said that no one involved with the UCB placed the signs on the East Village mailbox.

And! As for an opening date... soon...

"We're eagerly awaiting clearance from the city to open and start booking shows."

[Updated]

Patrick Hedlund has more on this story at DNAinfo:

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 Catgiano, 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."

Previously. (It's worth you time to read the 40-plus comments.)

UCB's mail call

The Upright Citizens Brigade are apparently prepping for their move to the East Village by putting signs on mailboxes, such as this one EV Grieve reader Stacie Joy spotted on Third Street and Avenue B...

Meanwhile, as we mentioned last night, a resident is starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade HQ on Avenue A and Third Street.

We sent an e-mail to Alex Sidtis, managing director of the UCB’s Chelsea location, to learn more about when the EV location might open ... and what he thinks of the sign drama.

[Updated] Resident starting a petition to have the 'Hot Chicks Room' sign removed at the Upright Citizens Brigade

Last month, we discussed the new signage at the new home of the Upright Citizens Brigade on Avenue A at Third Street ...

The sign is a nod to a UCB skit. (Watch it here.) In any event, early word from tonight's CB3/SLA meeting is that a resident will be circulating a petition to ask UCB to change the sign for the sake of the children.

We don't have all the details just yet... (In fact, we're not even at the meeting!) However, a tipster there sent along an e-mail....

Jill at Blah Blog Blah attended the meeting, and said that Two Booths owner Phil Hartman offered to cover the cost of a new sign for the UCB.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About the Hot Chicks Room

About the Hot Chicks Room

We noted a few days back that the Upright Citizens Brigade had unveiled some signage at their new home on Avenue A at Third Street ... Including!

While it's a nod to this skit (thanks Erin!) ... a few commenters are not amused ... Like!

Anonymous said...
Are you people not looking at this unfunny, SNL obsessing, new-jack cornball, out-of-place, cargo-short and frisbee throwing, annoying piece of shit sign? I will spit on all these mothrfuckers as they wither in their adidas and converse and cold-weather sandals, as their nasally laughter and unfunny jokes penetrate my soul.

Enjoy your signs, they will soon be sent back to the college campus graveyard where they belong.

Upright Citizens Brigade unveils its 'Hot Chicks Room' on Avenue A

RyanAvenueA passes along this photo of the new Upright Citizens Brigade home on Avenue A and Third Street ... their signage is up now... and you can see there will be a "Hot Chicks Room" (heh), no doubt pandering to the cargo shorts set. (Find the awesome cargo shorts comment thread here.) We'll have more on this next week.

Previously.

Upright Citizens Brigade's future home on Avenue A now has stools in bags, so to speak

Just noting the continued progress here on Avenue A near Third Street. Those bar stools may cause a lot of cargo shorts owners to lose stuff out of their multiple-pocketed cargo shorts. (OK, so multiple-pocketed cargo shorts is redundant.) Hope they have a big lost and found.

Previously.

Upright Citizens Brigade making progress on East Village outpost

Grub Street first reported that the Upright Citizens Brigade would be opening an East Village outpost back in January 2009. Plans called for the troupe to open at the former Pioneer Theater, which closed two years ago on Avenue A and Third Street. Work started on the space in July 2009.... a time which brought us an epic comment thread about cargo shorts.

Anyway, it seems as if work has picked up again here of late...



Alex Sidtis, managing director of the UCB’s current location in Chelsea, told me in an e-mail that "we are making progress on the space, it will be open in 2011." Stayed tuned for more details.... By the way, CB3 did approve a liquor license for this space in January 2009.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Work on Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre begins at former Two Boots space

Stop work order at Upright Citizens Brigade space

Totes the fault of the cargo shorts!1!111!!! (Read the comments.)

Getting a better look at the Two Boots renovation

On Friday, I got a better look at the renovation of the former Two Boots/Pioneer Theater space...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Work on Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre begins at former Two Boots space (And maybe we can get another comments thread going on cargo shorts...)

Work on Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre begins at former Two Boots space

The "for rent" signs -- seen below earlier this spring -- have come down at the former Two Boots space on Avenue A...(Two Boots Pizza and the video nook combined into the storefront on Avenue A and Third Street.)



There are now work permits in the window. ("To create new performance theater...")





And, peeking inside, you can see the space is being cleared out.



Previously:
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre to Open East Village Location (Grub Street)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Two Boots Video store "in contract" -- largest available retail space on Avenue A