Smokin hot dispute between UWS co-op and pizzeria leads to this key change

When the soot hits your eye from a big pizza pie, that’s a problem.An Upper West Side brick-oven pizza joint says it will soon be switching from wood-burning to natural gas, ending the steady stream of black smoke that has been plaguing its neighbors for years.The change is expected to provide long-awaited relief for residents of a Columbus Avenue co-op facing Motorino Pizzeria’s chimney — a set-up they say has left thick billowing smoke blanketing their outdoor patios in black soot and forced them to keep their windows shuttered in the daytime since the Manhattan restaurant opened seven years ago.“I don’t want the smoke near my kids or for them to, of course, breathe that.

I think it’s very bad,” said a resident who told The Post she has been shuttering her windows around 10:30 a.m.every day — an hour before Motorino opens for business — to block the smog from entering her apartment.The mom, who asked to remain anonymous, said she visited the pizzeria numerous times throughout the years to complain.

“He offered us free pizza.I don’t even like the pizza, to be honest,” the woman said of a pizzeria worker.Pizzeria owner Mathieu Palombino told The Post he is in the process of equipping his pizza oven with gas power, which should help alleviate the smoke in the coming weeks.He emphasized that his business is legally compliant but that he is willing to do the switch to make his neighbors happy.“We don’t want to be at war with our neighbors.

We don’t want anybody to be upset,” Palombino said.The planned change was apparently brought on by a Gothamist article last month that publicized the Neapolitan-style pizza chain’s alleged filthy impact on its neighbors.For years, black smog from the oven would waft smoke and soot through the east-facing windows of 102 W.85th St., residents said, leaving behind a grimy layer on their furniture and clothes.“We’ve sent many pictures to the owner of the store saying, ‘Look, this is what’s ge...