That Smell

I love NYC but I hate the hot humid days that are ahead of us this summer. There are a ton of reasons to hate the humidity because it will make the commute just horrendous as we are just not set up to deal with the heat. The reason is that with this many people all crammed into a small island there is just no-way to escape it let alone cool it. One of the issues is the vast amounts of air-conditioners which cool the air inside the apartments subsequently pump the hot-air into the streets which is like a self-perpetuating cycle of humid nastiness. There are other cities like Houston which are set up for the humidity with AC's blasting 24 hours a day in homes, cars, office buildings and stores but since the city is more sprawling and thus not as vertically packed, maybe it allows the hot-air to dispense. Or maybe it doesn't but those Texans are just happy to find reasons to burn fossil fuels.

But in NYC we don't have those luxuries as we are stuffed to the gills with sweaty people in cramped spaces so every day of humidity above 80% makes for a slice of hell on earth. And as if the heat wasn't terrible enough you have to mention that nasty AC sweat that drops down as you make your way through the streets. There are few things that are grosser than getting pelted with the precipitation from an overhanging AC unit.
But the biggest issue isn't the hot subway platforms or even AC sweat but the smell the city takes on during the most sweltering days. Between the 20 million people and their melting pot of odors and the stagnant waters surrounding the city we have a summer of nastiness ahead and nothing curls the nose more than the piles of garbage piled 10 feet high rotting in the humidity. I have never thought we handled garbage particularly well since we should be forced to throw trash out in large metallic bins instead of piling thin garbage bags on the sidewalk which only become easy targets for the two most vile members of the NYC wildlife: rats and homeless people.
So I say we go to air-conditioned steel garbage bins keeping the stink in and the rodents and homeless out, this coming from a guy who used to dive into piles of garbage on drunken nights
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry