Community Board 3, the Cooper Square Committee and the East Village Merchants Association are sponsoring a Virtual Rat Academy on Tuesday, Aug. 23 from 5-7 p.m.
You can register to learn about rat prevention methods (here come the curbside dining comments!) via this link.
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Not to sound negative.
But you have all these outdoor dining constructions.
Garbage laying next to them.
Rats are feasting-some are bigger than tom cats!
Why don’t restaurants take better of there garbage??
My 2 cents about the-rats.
And on top of this, the city is considering changing the time to put trash on the sidewalk for collection from 4 to 8 pm to cut down on rats. Once again ignoring the magnitude of the impact of the restaurant sheds! I think the restaurant lobby has all the power here.
I don't need this b/c we already learned about it in the past two years at our own significant expense.
I'm waiting for the classes for restaurant owners in "how to be a good neighbor: take down your dining shed b/c it's a big part of why NYC is being overrun with rats".
An extremely robust compost program *that also includes commercial kitchens*, similar to the residential one that was canceled for budget cuts, would go a long way. Food that rats eat would go into sealed airtight bins instead of plastic bags that are easily ripped open by rodents. This would have the added benefit of reducing landfill, and providing fertilizer for parks & greens spaces locally, so it wouldn't have to be shipped out.
I've taken this course a couple of times and recommend it to everyone. It's good to stay informed about how the city is dealing with rats, and how to help without resorting to poison (which ultimately doesn't work). It's also a good opportunity to ask questions and share your concerns and ideas with real live humans from the DOH.
As Goggla noted, poison does not work to get rid of rats. It only increases their numbers, and the poison is lethal to the hawks and other non-human animals. Yet supers & landlords & others continue to use poison. We need to get rid of the outdoor dining sheds and also keep the streets cleaner. In the suburbs, they don’t even have street cleaning because the residents are more civilized and don’t litter. Here in NYC we behave like animals.
@3:09pm: Goggla, have you had an actual rat run through your apartment at 2 AM since January 2022? We had that happen in OUR apartment, and prior to that we hadn't had a rat in our apartment in over 12 years.
The only good rat is a dead rat. I'm in favor of poisoning them or beating them to death (if you can corner the rat in your apartment; it was very cathartic for me).
What no one will say out loud (b/c I guess the restaurant owners do have their very own lobby or have some other "in" at city hall) is that if we got rid of all these dining sheds (AKA "rat incubators and automats"), that'd go a huge way to dealing with this public health problem that THE RESTAURANTS have caused, and continue to cause.
But b/c it's NYC, somehow placating restaurant owners is more important than dealing with this major PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE of rats proliferating throughout residential neighborhoods & spreading disease freely.
I guarantee you that if someone let a few NYC street rats loose in Eric Adams' apartment (wherever he actually lives), this would get some prompt attention.
Rats will always exist in cities. Outdoor dining has nothing to do with the fact that we generate huge amounts of garbage every day, stop whining. People just need to be more methodical in garbage storage.
@8:52am: I'm not "whining" - I'm COMPLAINING, and rightly so.
Please don't insult our intelligence by saying "Outdoor dining has nothing to do" with this situation, when we all know it certainly does!
BTW, those "people" you say have to be more "methodical" in their garbage storage are called RESTAURANT OWNERS. Go preach to them.
The residential owners on my block have always been "methodical" with our garbage and recycling, b/c otherwise *we* get a whopping big fine from Sanitation.
@8:52 AM. Dining sheds do indeed have a large part to do with the Rats overrunning parts of the city. The structures are often constructed with hollow walls providing shelter and area to nest, close to restaurant trash left beside them. We've had several removed on our block which resulting in rats scurrying out once they were torn down. Why anyone would want to eat in one of these structures boggles the mind as you can clearly smell the vermin in many as you walk
I agree that restaurants need to be held accountable for all issues relating to trash and outdoor structures, however many do the right thing. Blaming everyone for the bad actors isn’t fair.
Restaurants exist and generate trash irregardless of them having an outdoor space, red herring.
@2:07pm: Uh, "irregardless" of your POV, restaurant SHEDS are home to NESTS of rats, and the sheds are absolutely fueling the huge over-population of rats. The sheds give rats safe harbor, home AND food.
Further, the existence of sheds is in ADDITION to the fact that people are now eating indoors in restaurants, therefore restaurants are putting out a GREATER amount of garbage overall, so your comment is itself false.
Does anyone know if they still have rat Death Squads? Years before the dining sheds a group of LES vigilantes would go at night hunting, bashing, and poisoning any and every rat they could find. No joke. There's a video on YouTube about this.
“Rats like to burrow against walls and fences, as it provides them with a sense of protection. So, it’s a good idea to keep trash bins away from surfaces like fences and the side of buildings.”
https://www.rejectrats.com/how-to-keep-rats-out-of-your-garbage/
What choice do restaurants have but to set their trash beside their dining structures?
Go out at 3a.m. on a Monday night when there’s less foot traffic, it’s an unbelievable scene!
RATS are everywhere, if you keep the FOOD away from them they can BE controlled. THEY don’t EAT plywood.
@11:23 PM
Rats don"t eat plywood.. they chew through it to nest within the cavities in the structures. These outdoor structures are not single plywood frames. With the dining sheds in place, there's little room for restaurants keep rat proof bins or the like, and no, it's not a matter of removing "free parking". These sheds are often side to side taking up good chunks of the block with no room for cars already.
Think harder
"What Kind Of Damage Can Rats Cause In The Home?
For such a small animal, rats can cause significant damage to a home. In addition to spreading diseases and threatening the health of everyone who lives in the house, rats can…
Cause structural damage to wood, drywall, insulation, and other building materials
Chew through electrical wires and increase fire and electrocution risk – experts estimate that damage from rats and mice causes about 20-25% of undetermined house and structure fires each year in the U.S.
https://smithspestmanagement.com/blog/post/how-to-get-rid-of-rats-in-your-home/
Sounds like everyone commenting here should go to the event lol.
The real issue is that city collects its trash in thin, leaking, smelly garbage bags that line the sidewalks for blocks, creating a welcoming home with abundant food and shelter. There should be metal or thick plastic garbage pails with tops that close. Stop blaming restaurants, get the city to require better trash storage.
I wish Kathryn Garcia had won last year. I wonder what is her stance on restaurant sheds.
Outdoor dining is irrelevant. Ultimately outdoor dining trash ends up in thin garbage bags along the street, the same as all other trash. People just venting over change.
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