Red-faced Department of Transportation officials deserve a big fat F for a street-sign spelling blunder – but what they really need is a C.
Eight brown signs recently installed in the NoHo Historic District inform pedestrians and motorists they’re on Bleeker Street. You read that right: B-L-E-E-K-E-R.
As any downtown denizen could tell the bureaucrats at the transportation agency, the hip shopping alley is Bleecker Street – with a C.
DOT spokesman Tom Cocola – maybe he could spare a C from his name – confessed to having alphabet soup on his face.
“I wish we had a big eraser,” he told The Post when we informed him of the mix-up. “We apologize to the people of Bleecker Street.”
He called the misprint an “oversight,” explaining that someone failed to proofread the signs using a Hagstrom map before they were posted.
Now it’s going to cost the city a few C-notes to fix the mistake – about $150 to manufacture and put up each new sign with the correct spelling between Mercer and Lafayette streets.
They seem to have trouble C-ing over at MTA, too. One side of a sign at the No. 6 subway-station entrance also uses the C-less spelling of Bleecker.
Told of the blooper, a transit spokeswoman took it in stride, saying, “We’ll look into it.”
“Somebody needs to get a dictionary out,” said Ramel Swanson, 35, who declared the typos “stupid.”
His walking companion, Jenny Fernandez, 27, added, “They don’t require too many qualifications for the job. I qualify. I know how to spell.”
Some neighborhood residents didn’t think it was a joking matter.
“It’s very bad for the tourist,” said Dara Lukacaj, 23, who works at the Atrium clothing store at the corner of Broadway and Bleecker.
Phyllis Balsam, 66, said the incorrect signs should be replaced immediately – although she was keeping the gaffe in perspective.
“At least there are signs here. On the West Side Highway, you can’t find them,” she said. “I love this city . . . but the C is not the biggest of all problems here.”