Mysterious foul stench plagues NYC’s tony Park Slope neighborhood, smells ‘like feces or something dead’
Residents of one Brooklyn neighborhood are flush with concern about a mysterious, overwhelming stench that’s been compared to “sewage,” “feces” and “something dead.”
Park Slope neighbors have been raising a stink for months about the foul smell wafting over the southwest corner of Prospect Place and Sixth Avenue — and several who spoke to The Post on Thursday said it’s been getting more persistent this week.
“On Monday I was sitting in my car, eating my lunch…I smelled it in my car [with the windows closed]. I had to spray a little bit of air freshener inside the car,” said office manager Enjah Newman, 29, adding, “It smells like sewage – poop and pee mixed together.”
Newman, who said he first got a whiff of the sickening scent in October, noted his employer B&A Appliances, has had to shut their windows to keep it at bay.
“When it gets to 50 degrees or so, it gets really strong. I wear my mask then. I’m used to it from COVID,” he said of his strategy for avoiding the malodor.
On Thursday afternoon, The Post observed what appeared to be human feces near the metal drainage grate on the busy corner – though it wasn’t clear how long the bodily waste had been there or if it was the original source of the nose-curling smell.
“It smells like s–t! I’m not happy about it,” said Scott, 38, a filmmaker, adding, “I stay away from this corner.”
“It smells like sewage. It’s a nasty smell,” a local nanny observed while pushing a stroller past the site.
“I’m glad I don’t live around here,” she quipped.
Others were concerned the funk could have an impact on neighborhood youngsters.
“You have the playground over there on 19th Street. The wind brings it over there. It’s not good [for] the kids,” said freelancer Angel Nunez, a Park Slope resident of more than two decades.
“I can’t take this anymore. I’m going to faint,” he recoiled, pulling his jacket over his nose to block the offensive fumes.
“If by the end of the week it’s still there I’m calling 311 and if they don’t do anything, I am calling call the (City) Council person and take it from there. I am not letting it go. Something needs to be done,” he insisted.
Local mom Julia Collazo told The Post she had called 311 when she was overpowered by the revolting smell while walking in the area with her daughters on Wednesday.
She described it as “like feces or even something dead,” and said the stench was so strong, she even checked her youngest daughter’s diaper and then the family’s shoes.
“It [was] like it was coming from the ground…We had to Lysol and clean our shoes because they had the smell,” she recalled.
While 311 “didn’t say anything,” Collazo got more of a response in the Park Slope Together Facebook, where she asked if anyone else had noticed the stench.
“YES I had to check my shoes to make sure I didn’t step on something,” one person wrote back.
“I walked a dog over there this morning and actually began gagging and dry heaving – left immediately,” another chimed in.
A third commenter, Sam Thomson, said that the scent “smelled like hot diarrhea.”
“It definitely smelled strongly of sewage on that whole block [Wednesday afternoon],” Thomson added to The Post on Thursday.
The city Department of Sanitation said crews on Thursday “inspected the location and cleaned what appeared to be feces from two catch basins.”
The Department of Health and Safety said that “many city agencies (such as DEP, Sanitation and Health) work together to ensure New Yorkers have a clean and healthy environment.”
“We remind New Yorkers to follow human waste and garbage disposal guidelines and to make a complaint with 311 if they see something that seems suspicious, dangerous or unsanitary. We’ll look into these conditions,” a spokesperson added.
