"It smells like there's something dead in there, it doesn't smell like rotten food, it smells like there's something dead," said one man in the area.
"Come get a look at this, come on, come on," said another man.
People have been pulling shirts over their faces, hands over their noses, and people who work next door say the /*Popeye's*/ franchise on Pennsylvania Avenue has been like that for weeks.
"Oh God, it's disgusting, it's bad, it's very bad," said a woman.
After a call to the /*New York City Department of Health*/, the /*Sanitation Department*/ sent out a representative and City Councilman /*Charles Barron*/ sent a spokesperson as well.
"The smell is just outrageous, the people in the neighborhood, it just can be smelled for blocks now, as you can see there are flies, hundreds of them," Joy Simmons, Barron's spokesperson said.
But why has nothing been done?
Barron's office, the Health Department, and Popeye's Corporate Office all say they just found out about the situation.
No one called an agency.
"I think what happened, I think it's just been getting progressively worse," Simmons said.
Popeye's Corporate tells Eyewitness News that the larger business that owned the franchise is bankrupt and it shut its doors on its own.
Eyewitness News found an auction notice that this site was auctioned off and bought a few days ago on April 28th.
"It shouldn't be like this, it's been like this for quite some time," said a neighbor.
The neighbor lives four blocks away and says the awful smell has been lingering for numerous weeks.
"Over weeks into months, OK say a month, a little more than a month, that bad," the neighbor added.
Popeye's says that they plan to open a new franchise in the location soon.
