Broome Street: Smelliest Block in New York Cleaned Up?

The smelliest block in the whole city might soon be a footnote in the history books.

We’ve long maintained in the pages of Bowery Boogie that the stretch of Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge is the most pungent in Manhattan. That olfactory nightmare cocktail of chicken-soaked cardboard, wet dog, and hot garbage. New York Magazine agreed with our assertion and even penned a sprawling article about the phenomenon. The ambulance-chasing news trucks followed suit. But it seems that the stench is finally clearing. How, you ask?

Point the fingers at the DOT and DEP. It seems the two city agencies are collectively engaged in “emergency sewer repair” on the block. Groundbreak was a couple weeks ago, and is slated to last until the end of June. At least. Since work began, however, residents in the immediate vicinity confirmed that much of the stench has subsided. We conducted a couple separate field tests during the last few sweltering days and noted the same results.

Could it be?