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.)
