Stinky Joralemon

I didn’t notice Joralemon (and I live on Henry/Joralemon), but I couldn’t help bu notice Montague Street on the way to the R this morning AND coming home this evening. Even the distraction of the poor tree didn’t help. I know that it’s summer and that there are restaurants all over, but what is up? It’s horrible and not too different from the truck from the meat rendering–emporium truck that loads up at Key Food. All the Air-Wick/Fabreeze/Glade in the world wouldn’t help.

It’s not a Gingko, it’s the restaurants as bornhere pointed out. La Traviata on Joralemon is the culprit on the Henry/Clinton block. They leave their trash, and the oil associated with it, out to rot in the sun and that’s the stench you get. It smells like the rendering plant truck because the source is the same. Montague street suffers from the same problem. I’m not sure what it is about the Heights, compared to other neighborhoods in the City, that prevents the restaurants from properly disposing of their cooking oil. It’s awful, especially when the sun is strong. Plus, the street cleaners don’t help, they simply spread the oil all over the street, further disbursing the smell.

It’s the private sanitation trucks that ‘squeeze’ out the liquid on the street when they collect at night. If the street doesn’t get broomed or it’s very hot, the juice gets pretty rancid and stinky. To compound the problem – on the Henry- Clinton block of Joralemon, the pavement at the curb is depressed providing a nice little river for the stuff to collect.

Enough with the Gingkos: they don’t “ripen” until the fall, at which point the exotic hop-scotch dances begin over the exploded “fruits”; and Gingko aroma, as awful as it is, is entirely different from that of rotting meat, rancid oil, etc. And as has been pointed out, eateries elsewhere have figured out how to navigate the problem (Mulberry Street smells fine in the summer). And why is it “whininess” to comment on a doesn’t-have-to-be-that-way sense assault?

Female Ginko trees produce barf-berries every Autumn. Male trees, understandable bear no fruit. In a perfect world, property owners who are graced by barf-berry bearing boughs would hose off the pavement in front of their buildings regularly!