[A rat maze in Tompkins Square Park via Scuba Diva]
Via the EVG inbox yesterday...
At a press conference today in Harlem, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer unveiled findings of a new audit showing widespread deficiencies in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) response to citizen complaints about rodents.
“This is a rat race we’re all losing and it’s one that affects our quality of life,” Comptroller Stringer said. “When people discover infestations in their homes and on their blocks, they expect a quick and effective response. Our audit found that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wasn’t managing its pest control program effectively, even as the number of complaints about pests grew.”
The number of pest complaints in New York City jumped from 22,300 in 2012 to 24,586 in 2013. Comptroller Stringer’s audit examined whether one of the agencies primarily responsible for pest control, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, adequately followed its procedures for addressing pest control complaints during the period from July 1, 2011 through April 8, 2014.
DOHMH receives pest complaints online and through New York City’s 311 complaint call system, which are then assigned to one of five regional offices for inspection and notification, as well as the baiting and clean-up of properties if owners fail to act.
Auditors found DOHMH had weak oversight of its Pest Control Services program and failed to follow its own procedures:
• In 24 percent of the cases examined, DOHMH failed to check out citizen complaints in the 10-day target that it has established as the proper time in which to respond;
• In 160 cases, there was no field inspection attempt at all and 14 still had an open status in DOHMH’s system as of March 2014;
• There was no indication that assessments were conducted in 44 percent of 386 instances where inspectors requested clean up services during FY13, a required step before remediation can proceed; and
• DOHMH failed to give some property owners notifications of city orders to eliminate rodent conditions – thus increasing the risk that rat infestations may spread through a neighborhood.
“Rats are a daily, stomach-turning insult to New Yorkers — whether they’re scurrying over people’s feet on the sidewalks, invading homes where children sleep or swarming through restaurants,” Stringer said. “Without a vigilant and timely response by the City to citizen complaints, this problem will come back to bite us again and again.”
As NPR reported in August, the East Village will be one of the testing grounds for the city's new "rat reservoir pilot" — an initiative to try to reduce the rat population in neighborhoods with chronic infestations.
The Villager has a follow-up on this initiative here.
Here's what they should do: determine which holes lead to the main tunnels, stick a couple of hoses into them, turn on the water, have people armed with bats at the exits, and whack them as they run out.
ReplyDeleteStep 1: Every early morning just start arresting all the crazy old ladies who are feeding the pigeons. They're actually feeding rats.
ReplyDeleteStep 2: The explosion of garbage brought about by the turning of the EV into party zone bro-town. Every garbage can is over flowing Wed-thru-Sunday with food.
They're the ones who are enabling the rat pop.
Fucking Obama.
ReplyDeleteAw rats! :💩🐀
ReplyDelete5AM...as I cross E. 5th street you can always see a rat family running in and out the sewer to feast upon the garbage pile in front of Cooper's Craft and Kitchen.
ReplyDeleteRats are more common than dogs and cats in our city.
pay $1 for.every rat and $2 for.every pregnant.female..
ReplyDeleteorganise dog packs of terriers and other rat dogs and give awards for.the most.killed...
get creative people...
We all have our own personal rat, all eight (?) million of us. Isn't that lovely?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9824.Rats
I prefer the rats that eat all the shit that bros leave behind, than the bros that leave said shit behind. Tbh.
ReplyDeleteYes! Organized rat hunting in TSP sponsored by NESTLE, the corporation that says water is not a human right.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a law on the books that the city would pay a 50-cent bounty on any dead woodchuck. All you had to do was bring the tail to any police station.
ReplyDeleteIf it's a post on EV Grieve, how long before someone blames a situation on "outsiders" in the neighborhood (particularly frat boys and sorority girls)? Everyone has an interest in a clean neighborhood. Where are the posts addressed to our council person to urge her to have more garbage pickups. Where are the posts that speak to buildings (yes local people) where cans are not equipped to be snapped shut. Where are the posts that urge the same thing of the "beloved" neighborhood restaurants and food shops. Eliminating rats in the neighborhood is a grass roots effort that demands that everyone with a stake in the neighborhood keeps civic responsibility forefront.
ReplyDeleteYea, Anonymous 6:54PM! Well said!
ReplyDeleteIt might be difficult to get people to take on this responsibility, though, especially when they don't even want to wash their signs or windows.
Oh come on! It is the bags of garbage left out on the curb all night three times a week... And longer on holidays like today. Change the sanitation laws to require the garbage be ALWAYS in a rat-proof container. And really bust the landlords who don't keep their garbage areas clean ALL the time.
ReplyDeletep.s. Love your keyword labels, Greive! They are hidden gems of silly.
Parks Dept. employees have told me that if garbage was put in metal cans and not plastic bags, NYC's rat population would plummet.
ReplyDeleteFor years restaurants around TSP have dumped food over the fence into the park, particularly along the west side. I mean gallons of pasta, rice and once a sawed-in-half lamb's scull. As far as I know, no one was ever fined. That food dumping needs to cease NOW.
More poison is not the answer. The poison put in Tomkins Sq. Park killed many of our squirrels, birds and one of the raptors.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Larry Otway write a story or two about that a few years ago in one of the EV papers?
Has anyone seen the mess left by all the food containers littering the street from the food truck hanging out on east 11th and First Ave?
ReplyDeleteI say if you have no way of handling your food trash other than having your patrons leave it in the street- than you have no business operating!
I have long said that the crazy people feeding the rats need to be dealt with, but sadly there's no talking to them; anyone who has tried knows what I mean.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the people who are the problem don't see themselves as one.
That said, I love rats; they're awesome creatures, and they'll outlive us all—even Cher!
Per the linked NPR article, I found out that NYC Health actually offers a half day course on rat prevention, and you get a rat-resistant trash can, too. Intended audience includes tenants, homeowners, and landlords.
ReplyDeleteI just e-mailed for their next class, but don't know if there will be another one offered. I bet if a lot of people asked about it, they would set up a class if one's not already scheduled.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/environmental/pest-rodent-academy.shtml
NYC has a guide (PDF) as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nyc.gov/rats
nyc.gov/rats.....:+)
ReplyDelete