“Because it’s so hot, it permeates.”
Williams added: “Either you don’t come out of your house or you just deal with it.”
Fashion worker Milly Aldon, 45, of Manhattan called New York “an alive city that smells like death.”
“It’s a rotten, lingering smell,” she said. “And if it rains, it smells even worse.”
Calls to 311 show that outdoor odor complaints are at an all-time high after rising 54 percent — to 5,746 through June 30 — compared to the same period in 2021, according to a Post analysis of official data.
On West 46th Street, one office worker was overheard asking another, “Why does the city smell like a used diaper these days?”
The answer, Colon said, is simple.
“I clean the steps going down to the subway. I’ve cleaned up poop so many times,” he said. “This morning I was cleaning up poop.”
One Manhattan cop said, “It is not uncommon to see human feces on the street,” adding: “I guess you only have to pick up after your dog.”
A Manhattan NYPD detective said bluntly, “The homeless people are s–tting all over the place.”
Another Manhattan cop said the city faced a “perfect storm” of hotter temperatures and “abandoned [outdoor-dining] sheds, where people are throwing garbage and homeless are living there, using them as bathrooms.”
