Greenwood Heights: Brooklyn’s Smelliest Neighborhood?

Living in the city brings its own set of odor challenges – particularly in the summer. Who amongst us hasn’t gotten that lovely whiff of a urine-trash combo while trying to enjoy the outside world these last summer days?

And unfortunately, in Greenwood Heights, we do that far more times than other neighborhoods in the city, according to BrickUnderground’s new analysis of 311 complaints from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

BrickUnderground, a real estate website, asked the folks at AddressReport to analyze the odor-related 311 complaints and then rank the “smelliest” and “least smelly” neighborhoods in the three boroughs, and Greenwood Heights came in stinkiest with 31.5 complaints about smells per capita. The neighborhood was ranked as the most smelly neighborhood in Brooklyn, listed just above Navy Hill, Vinegar Hill, Beverly Square, Manhattan Beach, Gowanus, Mill Island, Downtown Brooklyn, Midwood Park, and Red Hook.

And the least smelly? Starrett City, Brownsville, Sunset Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn Heights, Flatlands, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, Flatbush, and Kensington.

From BrickUnderground’s report:

Some notes on methodology: the site took a look at the frequency of 311 complaints for different odor-related issues in every neighborhood, then weighted the frequency of complaints by the neighborhood’s population. The issues in question? Sewer backups and odors; fumes from vehicles, restaurants, smoke, nail salons, dry cleaners, and “private carting”; dirty sidewalks and alleyways; missed trash collection; chemical odors and oil, chemical or petroleum spills on the street; and maybe most perturbing of all, “sweet from unknown source,” an apparently common air quality concern laid out in the descriptions that come along with the complaints. (We’d guess they’re more likely to pertain to past-its-prime fruit in the trash than, say, the presence of a nearby bakery.)

This methodology, of course, isn’t without its faults – we know plenty of people who encounter serious problems in their neighborhood and never report it to 311, so that’s something to take into consideration. So, potentially, this could be more of an assessment of where people are more likely to complain about smell – which isn’t to say the complaints aren’t warranted. (We all know the odor of the Gowanus Canal, can be a…unique experience.)

What do you think of this list? Accurate? No? Somewhere in between?