A Fresh New Signature Scent for the Bronx

Summertime in the South Bronx could be a lot sweeter this year if Majora Carter has anything to say about it. The green guru and MacArthur Genius Award winner wants to pump the essence of “grain, rain and citrus” into a Hunts Point apartment building to replace the structure’s current signature scent of sewage and exhaust.

The celebrated founder of Sustainable South Bronx partnered with Parisian perfumers Pascal Gaurin and Bruno Jovanovic to create L’Eau Verte du Bronx du Sud - or Green Water of the South Bronx - which Carter hopes will infuse the occupants of the Sister Thomas Apartments with a sense of optimism and happiness. “The part of your brain that senses scent can allow you to feel really bad about what you see in front of you—or really good—depending on what it is,” explains Carter. The nonprofit South East Bronx Community Organization (SEBCO) hopes to release the perfume into a rooftop air unit at the building where it will waft into the hallways and common areas - but not into the 103 apartment units - as soon as the complex’s 200 residents give them the nod.

Most residents of the low-income building in Longwood, which is well within range of both a noxious sewage treatment plant and a trash transfer station, are more than willing to give the idea a shot. “Anything to make the Bronx smell better,” says Yolanda Rivera, who can smell sewage from her seventh-floor apartment.

Building manager Sal Gigante concurs believes tenants will definitely prefer the “nice outdoorsy aroma” of L’Eau Verte du Bronx du Sud to the more traditional borough bouquet of “decaying rat carcass.”