Monday, May 14, 2018

The latest on the city's rat-curbing initiatives


[Photo from May 9 by EVG reader Annabelle]

The Post checks in on the mayor's latest effort to curb the city's rat population ...

The city has begun stationing an army of workers in 30 parks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx to warn people that it “has experienced problems with rats” and make sure they know that “rats are a health hazard, especially to children and seniors,” according to internal Parks Department e-mails and sources.

But some residents say the move only shows that City Hall is a Mickey Mouse operation.

“You know what would be more useful? If de Blasio had them empty the trash more often,” said Rob Wooster, in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village Sunday.

Chelsea Casey, 28, who was at the park with her three kids last week, added, “I don’t know what warning people about rats in New York City will achieve.”

Union members with the Parks Department said workers with both the agency’s Parks Enforcement Patrol and Urban Park Rangers divisions were first dispatched last week. The union said the move is sapping valuable manpower that is meant to police the city’s 30,000 acres of park land.

Last July, the city delivered new solar-powered trash cans to points in and around Tompkins Square Park as part of the mayor's $32-million plan to combat vermin in rat-popular neighborhoods, like this one. (The Daily News reported at the time that each can costs $7,000.)

As the top photo shows, the big bellies aren't really helping with the overflow of trash — at least when they're not emptied, as Rob Wooster told the Post.

The city would not respond to questions from the Post about whether the cans have been effective.


[Avenue A and 10th Street]

Previously on EV Grieve:
8 more solar-powered, rat-proof trash cans arrive in Tompkins Square Park

Looking at the Big Belly 1.0 and 2.0 in and around Tompkins Square Park

City ready to attack rats in Tompkins Square Park (and elsewhere) (again)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

solar garbage a nice idea but they don't work. Like so much of the Disruption ideology, where any technological fetish is good.

Anonymous said...

A sad trend in our society is the growing expectation that technology will solve all our problems. These expensive trash bins are useless since they either don't compact the trash as intended or they were just another scam some company pulled on City Hall and the taxpayers.

The money spent of these could have employed people to do this much more effectively and save the city money.

I would like to see the city actually get behind extermination methods and stop waiting for rats to starve because there is less trash on the ground.

Anonymous said...

Would really appreciate if some energetic journalist/researcher would interview and document the multitudes of educated affluent folks who think it is OK to pile up on overflowing garbage...
The folks who could not be bothered to carry their Starbucks cup for another couple of blocks.
Don't get it...

NOTORIOUS said...

Is that a LinkNYC?!?

Anonymous said...

"Educating people" - b/c it's news that rats carry disease? They should educate people not to be lazy slobs.

sophocles said...

StinksNYC

Anonymous said...

Why don't we have more containers for recycling around the city? This city is so far behind the times.

K/d0 said...

Anon 4:31 that’s what bothers me. You wouldn’t behave that way anywhere else except in a public space, which makes it all the more disrespectful.

JQ LLC said...

Does the city think people are going up to rats and feeding them themselves like how senior citizens feed the pigeons? Because that's what this current campaign sounds like.

De Faustio and his moonie-like neoliberal cult of aides have absolutely no real ideas and no ability to run a city. Either hire more park officers to levy fines or hire more maintenance people to empty the cans. But first get rid of these stupid big belly cans, it's an obvious failure.

https://impunitycity.wordpress.com/

Lower East Sider said...

If the city would allow businesses and commercial buildings to have cats in their basements, there would be no rat problem in the city. Instead, property owners pay thousands of dollars in violations and the city makes hundreds of millions in violation profits. Pest control companies are a multi billion dollar business. Buildings, restaurants, etc, get so called non toxic poisens sprayed every month and many times even more frequently in every corner of their buildings. Property owners would get permits to have a cat and maintain the cats healthy and clean. They would get violations when they are not kept healthy and clean. Make sure they have all their shots, free of any kind of desease, proper kitty litters etc. That should be how to keep the city substantially rat free. I worked in a large commercial building for over 15 years with a cat in the basement and never saw a rat and maybe once or twice a mouse in the first 10 years. The minute the health department saw the cat and gave us a violation and made us get rid of it, our extermination bills doubled and soon after began having mice and rats for the remaing 5 years. No amount of pesticides ever did the job. Even when it seemed to work, they would return several weeks or months later. One cat took care of a 30 thousand square foot building. Follow the money. Pesticides, pest control companies, their lobbiest and politicians. A simple thing like a cat, no way.