‘It’s like everybody’s smoking a joint’: Adams admits NYC reeks … of pot
The Big Apple stinks, all right, Mayor Eric Adams said Friday when asked about New Yorkers’ record-breaking odor complaints, but it’s not the stench of dirty streets that bothers him — it’s all the pungent weed smoke everywhere.
“The No. 1 thing I smell right now is pot. It’s like everybody’s smoking a joint now,” Adams said with a chuckle.
“You know, everybody has a joint.”
Adams’ comments came in response to questions from The Post about disgusted residents and workers who said Thursday that the city smelled worse than ever this summer.
Various Manhattanites described the foul aromas as “rancid,” “gnarly and cadaverous” and “like a used diaper.”
“I’m not smelling — maybe I have a New York nose,” Adams said during a news conference outside City Hall. “I’m not smelling.”
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.
Adams said “the majority” of those complaints involved idling vehicles and vowed to “make sure we enforce the idling law.”
And despite a recent survey by Time Out magazine that ranked New York the second-dirtiest city in the world, Adams claimed the piles of trash and rats running wild weren’t that bad — and faulted merchants for not tidying up the sidewalks.
“I think the city is getting, it’s getting cleaner,” he said.
“But store owners have to do their job, too. Everyone has to sweep up in front of your spot. You got to bag your garbage. Everyone has to chip in to do so.”
