I knew it was only a matter of time before I figured out why. No cockroaches, no rats…but one of the guys I live with did point out that he’d walked past the waste treatment plant one day, and it happens to be about a block and a half away from where we’re living. The guys were concerned that it might smell, and expressed this to me. All I could do was laugh and tell them, “Wait until the middle of July when it’s been hot and humid and the streets piled with garbage for a day or two. You won’t even be able to notice the smell from the treatment plant because all of NYC will already smell like a giant, rotting fart.”

Speaking of farts and New York City, my younger brother came to visit me last summer and said, “You know why New York City is great?” (My god, I could only imagine…) “This place smells so bad you can fart anywhere you want to in public and nobody knows it’s you.”

Ah, boys.  He still had a really good point. One I think many people take for granted in this town.

Anyway, apparently the smell from the plant itself in the summertime is known to trigger bouts of nausia and general whiny malase, according to the article in the Bay Ridge Courier I came across today. They have plans to put lids with carbon filters on the tops of the open air waste containers  – ala a gigantic kitty litter bin. Nice idea.

In the meantime I imagine I’ll be conducting my own smell test once the weather starts co-operating and I can leave my windows open during the day (whenever that is going to finally happen). You’ll know whether or not the fumes are toxic if my roomates find me dead on the floor.