# Cities That Stink (literally) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337 "2009-06-01T09:01:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/41 "2009-06-01T16:41:13Z")
No one has mentioned New York yet. I haven’t been there in a really long time, but I can still conjure up the odor of Broadway. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/42 "2009-06-01T16:48:02Z")
Actually, \*\*Jamaika a jamaikaiaké \*\* did. And I third that. Oh, God, New York! I _hate_ that city. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/43 "2009-06-01T16:49:32Z")
Quoth **ZipperJJ** : > [@](#): > > Cleveland stinks when you’re driving up through the south end, where they still apparently make some steel or something. I don’t mind the stink - it means someone is working somewhere. Only in that specific area where the mill is, though, and it’s not a very heavily populated area. Most folks would never know about it at all, if there weren’t an interstate running right through there. And is it really possible that I’m the first to mention Los Angeles? I’ve only been there twice, and both times, I tried (and failed) to hold my breath for the entire weekend. The whole valley smells brown, except for Pasadena, which smells like brown plus flowers. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/44 "2009-06-01T16:50:39Z")
Ah. Blommer stinks to high heaven. I can’t imagine living in one of the apartments near it and having to smell it all day every day. I’d lose my mind. Having spent a not-insignificant amount of time in Ontonagon, the paper factory smell kind of loses its punch after 24-48 hours. Of course, this is contingent on ensuring that you stay within reek range. Stepping outside of the Reek Range means you get to experience it anew when you re-enter. For another 24-48 hours. Enjoy! I believe I’ll be the first to mention Montreal. Beautiful, lovely city with wonderful, friendly people and many thousands of gorgeous French guys. Certain parts of it smell like an open sewer. Sad but true. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/45 "2009-06-01T16:54:12Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Actually, \*\*Jamaika a jamaikaiaké \*\* did. And I third that. Oh, God, New York! I _hate_ that city. Oops, missed that. I found it really overpowering and unpleasant. And I, too, cannot understand the appeal of living there. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/46 "2009-06-01T16:58:19Z")
I was in Kathmandu recently. There is no trash collection at the moment due to political unrest, so most people throw everything into the river. The water is black. And they burn the deceased at funeral ghats on the river too, and throw the ashes and bones and unburned flesh into it, which, instead of flowing away, get caught up in all the trash, and rot. I walked across a footbridge above this morass, retching most of the way. I have never EVER smelled anything so bad. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/47 "2009-06-01T17:07:01Z")
Delhi wasn’t as bad as thought it was going to be, but it did go from zero to assy in the blink of an eye. Moorhead, MN had sugar beet refineries on the outskirts of town. I was always surprised that something so sweet could be so noxious. Cedar Rapids, IA has a dog food plant where the wafts of Trigger and Mr Ed permeate sealed car windows with vicious intent. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/48 "2009-06-01T17:14:56Z")
Mumbai, India. Smells like an open sewer servicing 15 million people. Oh, wait… it sort of IS an open sewer servicing 15-20 million people. I guess this is what happens when just one particular slum in one particular part of the city is home to 6 million people. Vomiting on yourself from the smell and then breathing in the stench of your own vomit is a good way to temporarily escape the smells of Mumbai. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/49 "2009-06-01T17:28:05Z")
Although the paper processing plant that generates the stench is technically in Millersburg next door, when the signs on the I-5 say Albany, OR, in approaching, you roll up your windows, put the AC on internal air, and hold your breath. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/50 "2009-06-01T17:35:46Z")
I forgot to mention Olongapo, Phillippines. We were briefly stationed on the naval base there. The river separating the town from the base was nicknamed shit river, I soon found out why. The town didn’t smell a whole lot better. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/51 "2009-06-01T17:46:11Z")
NYC has a weird sewer smell that can pop up out of nowhere. I smelled it the most when I was there in August. It was like a collective, 8 million person fart would sneak up on you, contort your face, and then leave as quickly and quietly as it approached. And, as has been mentioned many a time on this board, there’s all the homeless pee in San Francisco. Again, limited in scope, but it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/52 "2009-06-01T17:46:58Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Bangkok is smelly, very much so. I blame the shallow sewers, the large open sewers flowing throughout the city (they call them canals, go figure) and the high curry content diet of the general population. I second that. I don’t mind the small of cow poop, dog poop and whatever else poop - it really doesn’t bother me. But I draw the line at the acidic smell of human poop in Bangkok. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/53 "2009-06-01T17:49:56Z")
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico; a fragrant combination of dust, urine, some sort of manufacturing/heavy industry smell, and wet dog. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/54 "2009-06-01T18:29:53Z")
There’s a town in Southern Missouri kinda near Springfield that I always used to drive through that had a creosote plant. Even with the windows up and the A/C recirculating, you would get slammed with that indescribable smell. When I was in New Zealand we travelled to Rotorura, a town known for its spas and natural sulfur springs. I was well aware of this, and have been around sulfur before near Lassen in California, but I was still unprepared for the stench. It smelled like bad-egg-and-cabbage-stuffed feet. And I was hungover. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/55 "2009-06-01T18:33:35Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > How about the Aroma of Tacoma? During periods of low tide on warm days, the smell of rotting vegetation on the tide flats of Commencement Bay can be overpowering. Bruce Springsteen once had to delay a concert at the Tacoma Dome because he wasn’t feeling well. The locals blamed it on the aromatic stench. Actually, the “Tacoma Aroma” was more a product of an Unholy Trinity of stockyards, copper smelter and pulp mills. One of my most vivid memories of a theater that I used to work with involves a summer afternoon when the wind was from the stockyards — I pretty much had to chew the air in order to wrestle it into my lungs. The stockyards and smelter are gone now, and the pulp mills (those that are left) have cleaned up their act, so low tide may be the main component of whatever TA remains. (Incidentally, I seem to recall that Springsteen referred to Tacoma as a “gritty [or perhaps grimy] mill town.” Given The Boss’s background, I’ve never figured out whether that was an insult or a compliment.) ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/56 "2009-06-01T18:58:04Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > New Orleans at dawn. Gah. Often times I’ll walk by a restaurant’s dumpster and get the aroma of deep-fried food mixed with rotting garbage and think “ahhh, New Orleans!” **Lewiston, Idaho** has some breathtaking scenery but reeks like rotten sausage due to a paper mill. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/57 "2009-06-01T19:19:38Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > Often times I’ll walk by a restaurant’s dumpster and get the aroma of deep-fried food mixed with rotting garbage and think “ahhh, New Orleans!” Oh hey, Stickney, IL. Home of the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, supposedly the largest wastewater (read: sewage) processing facility in the world. What it really means is that even though it’s several miles away from where I live, on some days if the wind is right, you can just smell what could on a good day be called the smell of really stale deep fryer oil. And if you’re unfortunate enough to be driving past on the highway, close the windows and put the AC on recirc. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/58 "2009-06-01T19:26:02Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Chicago stinks…of chocolate. God, the horror, when the wind blows in just the right way and the entire downtown smells like baking brownies. You have no idea how awful this is. > > (The first time I smelled it, I thought I was losing my mind. Turns out there’s a chocolate factory really close to downtown. Some jerkfaces decide the smell was an EPA violation a couple years ago and there was a tussle to get the factory shut down or something. I’m not sure what happened with that.) That’s the Blommer Chocolate Factory, in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor just west of the Loop (downtown). Around my neighborhood, also in Chicago, depending on which direction the wind is blowing, you can get the smells of World’s Finest Chocolate Factory or the smell of smoking Polish meats–neither or which, in my opinion, is particularly offensive. When I was a kid, I spent the first few years of my life in the Back of Yards (stockyards) neighborhood, and, even though Union Stockyards had closed down in 1971 (I was born in '75), I still remember the immediate area having a peculiar dead animal smell well into the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/59 "2009-06-01T19:44:33Z")
Chillicothe, Ohio. It’s the paper mill. Town smells like a toilet. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337/60 "2009-06-01T19:46:44Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Sauget, Illinois and its neighbor Cahokia have a lovely bouquet from the local copper, rubber, chemical, and other assorted industrial plants. (At least they did 10 years ago when I was last through there) St. Louis, just south of downtown (past the brewery), also stinks of processed rubber. We always turn the air off when we drive down I-55. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-that-stink-literally/498337.md?page=4)