Residents can’t stand the fumes in these Queens neighborhoods
It stinks to live in parts of College Point and Forest Hills, Queens, which contain two stench-filled areas that rank as the Big Apple’s smelliest.
A malodorous stretch of 14th Avenue near and 129th and 130th streets in College Point smells worse than any other part of the city, a Post analysis of calls to 311 found.
Over the last seven years, neighborhood residents filed a staggering 772 outdoor odor complaints. Most of the gripes were logged as “odor/fumes, vehicle idling” and at least 15 for “chemical odor.”
Residents blame a regular lineup of semi trucks.
“We’ve been breathing this disgusting, horrible exhaust for years,” fumed Iraida Engersbach, 52. “We can’t even sit in our backyard anymore because the trucks just sit there all hours of the day.”
The trucks surround a row of warehouses and garages housing a building contractor, a truck rental, a restaurant supply and a stainless steel manufacturer. City inspectors come by now and then — but the trucks keep idling.
“All these truck companies get is a slap on the wrist,” said Engerbach’s husband, Edwin Lopez, 34. “It’s an ongoing nightmare.”
A section of Forest Hills on 69th Road between Sybilla Street and Metropolitan Avenue generated 482 complaints, mostly for “chemical odor.”
“It smells like burnt tires and chemicals all the time,” said Violetta Valenzuela, 68, whose home is next to the Department of Transportation Queens roadway maintenance building, where trucks and equipment are stored.
But other residents say the smell isn’t that bad, and blame a serial 311 caller.
“We have a neighbor who’s off her rocker and thinks toxic fumes are coming into her house,” said George Schramm, 62. “She set up seven big, industrial fans in her driveway to blow the nonexistent fumes away.”
The smelliest block in Manhattan, as measured by the number of 311 complaints, is 117th Street, but residents blame a bar and grill a block away for the odor.
Residents of 304 W. 117th St. helped push up the number of complaints on the block to 147, the data shows. But officials said many of the gripes center around the Harlem Tavern, a popular restaurant on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near West 116th Street.
“The smoke from their kitchen, which smells like burnt steaks and burgers, is blown right up the side of the building,” said the building super, who identified himself only as Ymer.
Harlem Tavern was issued a violation for the odor, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Edward Timbers, but Ymer has smelled no changes. The tavern did not comment.