The city announced yesterday that it has hired NYC's first-ever "Rat Czar."Our new Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi has so many strengths, but most importantly: she HATES rats.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 12, 2023
Learn more about her and the Harlem Rat Mitigation Zone: https://t.co/Ufi410U5yF https://t.co/YgE4SLdGww pic.twitter.com/KTk9A2l5jm
New York City Mayor Eric Adams ... appointed Kathleen Corradi as the city's first-ever citywide director of rodent mitigation, also known as the 'rat czar.' In this newly created role, Corradi will coordinate across city government agencies, community organizations, and the private sector to reduce the rat population in New York City — building a cleaner, more welcoming city and tackling a major quality-of-life and health issue.
Corradi has experience in the field, previously working at the city education department, where she managed rat mitigation at public schools.
According to Gothamist and other published reports, Corradi reports to Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack and will be paid an annual salary of $155,000.
This news comes after last week's reports in which NYC named eight rat-prone neighborhoods as Mayor Adams seeks to control the rodent population.
The East Village and Lower East Side were named one of the "rat mitigation zones" with "high levels of rat activity."
Per reports:
"These neighborhoods were selected by the city based on a set of criteria that included the number of rat-related cleanup orders issued by NYC within the last year, rat-baiting visits by the city’s Health Department, rat-related 311 complaints, and NYC Parks-owned properties that have been considered susceptible to rat infestations."
Of course, the East Village and Lower East Side were part of the city's $32-million rat cleanup efforts that then-Mayor de Blasio embarked on in the summer of 2017. Obviously, those efforts went well!
The restaurant sheds are never, never mentioned as a part this problem. It seems like no city official is ever willing to mention this simple fact that is starring them right in their faces. I guess the restaurant lobby carries a lot of clout!!
ReplyDeleteThe rats were consistently here long before the sheds and will likely long after…UNLESS the city goes the route of every other big city on the planet by not dumping mountains of bagged garbage on the sidewalks every night.
DeleteI don't hate rats. They're animals. I don't like too many of them running around, but I don't hate them.
ReplyDeleteIt seem like the rat problem is causing a mice problem in my building. The buildings supers theory is the mice are afraid of the rats and are running away up into the building.
ReplyDelete7:11 a cat will solve your problem
ReplyDelete@anony 7:11, clearly Adams should appoint a Mouse Czar too.
ReplyDeleteWe have a mouse czar already, my cat Oscar.
DeleteDumbest move so far is switching the hours that garbage bags, which are rat buffets, are put out, as if the rats can't switch their meal hours.
ReplyDeleteBest thing to do would be to containerize the trash. But it's easier to appoint a Czar. That's splashy which is all the mayor cares about, anyway.
Hate is such a strong word. Perhaps she, and Mayor Adams, are both alike in that they are possibly afflicted with Musophobia, which is a fear of rats and mice. I am not fond of rats personally. I try to avoid them, but I don't hate any type of animal. Whether one likes them or not, rats aren't dissipating from our human existence of living in NYC, regardless if a czar is appointed or not. They have a purpose of eliminating garbage from trash bins and are part of the predatory eco system, just as snakes, bugs, spiders, and bats are. Creatures exist throughout the world. They have their place and we have ours. And please don't come after me in the comments. I realize I am in the minority.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see a report on the correlation between these neighborhoods and why they have the most rat issues. Have some guesses but it's not like they all have the level of bars/restaurants that the East Village do. Seems like it's also a mix of type of construction/developments, level of trash on streets, and probably undeveloped lots.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the population, neighbor. There are restaurants and construction all over NY.
DeleteAlso, all those buildings trash cans being outside on the street, instead of somewhere inside the building, that doesn't help.
If food waste is put out in thin plastic bags, what do people expect to have happen?
ReplyDeleteI have yet to see a plan for rat mitigation. There are steps being taken with sanitation, but what else? I think we need someone who understands rats and how they live, not just someone who hates them. I'm hoping the plan for our neighborhood does not include poison, which kills more than just rats, and gets into the environment.
ReplyDelete"I never met an animal I didn't like." - Andy Warhol
ReplyDeleteWhy did we do away with steel trash cans again? I forgot.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked on a garbage truck upstate for two weeks long ago, just as plastic trash bags were gaining a foothold, I can tell you that a full metal trash can is very heavy, and awkward to lift and dump into a truck. We were always relieved to hit a house that used the newfangled plastic bags. BUT, the bag was usually placed INSIDE a metal trash can. That way, there was some defense against rats, but we
Deletecould simply lift out the bag and toss it into the back of the truck. Win-win. At some point, folks got lazy and started leaving the can out of the equation.
Containerize the trash, for god's sake.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste of money. Might just as well appoint a cat.
ReplyDeleteNYC should do like Florida does with the invasive pythons and offer a bounty, say, $5 a rat. And then all of the dead rats should be dumped at the doorstep of Trump Tower, just to put a fun spin on it. ( btw, I love pythons and rats )
ReplyDeleteThe concept of a rat czar has sounded absurd & useless to me from the first I heard the term. NYC has ALWAYS had rats, and we somehow never needed a "rat czar" until Adams got here. He appears completely unable to connect-the-dots vis-a-vis DINING SHEDS and increased rat population, and I'm sure he won't ever figure it out.
ReplyDeleteTo those who say that putting out garbage in bags is the cause, I ask you: Then why have we NOT had such a bad rat infestation in the past 40+ years in the East Village? I've lived here that long, and most trash on my block gets put out in heavy-duty bags (though my building uses a plastic trash can) and I can confirm that we have NOT had anything like the current influx of rats in ages.
Any prior rat influx usually was due to major renovation (like excavation when they were preparing for NYU dorm construction).
Rat influx is now due to dining sheds, and it appears that Adams' solution is (as usual) to throw taxpayer money at paying someone to have a new title and "function", when the ACTUAL solution would be to get rid of the effing dining sheds.
I have definitely seen an increase in the Rats on the streets and sidewalks of the LES/EV. The main problem is they have so much to eat as the amount of garbage such as thrown out food that is left outside on sidewalks especially by the outdoor restaurant sheds. If we want to deal with the Rats then we have to clean up the sidewalks and remove their source of food.
ReplyDeleteI hate rats. There. I said it.
ReplyDeleteIF the city was really serious about rat mitigation, instead of hiring revenue goons to issue rat fines, they would hire people to get rid of rats.
ReplyDeleteThis announcement, along with moving garbage placement hours from 4pm to 8pm (because rats don't eat garbage after 4pm) only shows more TALK and no ACTION, other than to squeeze more money out of homeowners and working class people.
@1:10PM: Agree with you 1,000 percent. The city, once again, is utterly wrong-headed in how it's going after this issue.
ReplyDeleteEven though we all pay taxes, I can tell you that many of us who own our apartments are now paying EXTRA FEES b/c our building now has to hire a private exterminator (that's on top of what the residents are already doing for rat control, which is considerable) so that we can "prove" to the city we're doing what needs to be done. We've been DOING THIS for several YEARS now, all b/c of the dining sheds nearby. Exterminator's fees are a good chunk of $$$ for a lot of people, esp. those who are retired.
Most restaurant business = more trash in plastic bags = more rats. Got to fix some part of the chain, and containerizing the trash makes the most sense. The LES/EV didn’t have the same level of restaurants 20-40 years ago, so the trash situation needs to be improved to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteAndy Warhol quote. Much love there!!!!Also, check out the application for the Andy Warhol grant. We have a lot of talented artists/writers here--get paid for it!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.artswriters.org/
Contrary to popular opinion, I am in favor of eliminating all of the dining sheds on our streets. They are breeding grounds for endless vermin and their droppings. I should know. I work in a restaurant as a waiter. Sometimes, the sanitary trucks fail to pick up the garbage, and it sits overnight, thus offering rats a virtual feast. When you go over to set a table or sweep the floor when your shift begins, they ran for dear life during daylight with customers as witnesses. Perhaps this is one viable way of decreasing the traffic of rats in front of businesses and apartment buildings without a czar?
ReplyDeleteSo, when will the rat czar be stopping by my home to take care of the rats here? And will she bring her own traps & poisons, or do I have to pay for that as well?
ReplyDeleteRat Czar is too good a name to waste on a bureaucratic position managing the city's rat control efforts. "We're gonna need a photo op front person."
ReplyDeleteAnyone been around long enough cough to remember when Tompkins got so bad they started poisoning the rats but that killed the hawks during dinner so then they used some sort of cryogenic blast of cold. We had a weekend with TV crews doing stand ups. Rats don't bother me but as the sun was going down one of the kid parks looked like a horror movie intro ("Ben, the two of us need look no more ...") with a carpet emerging to look for hawk free dining. And we left.
I, for one, like the dining sheds though I spend no money in this neighborhood eating out anymore. City's keeping them going because it increases taxable revenue is my guess. Or maybe just not paying attention because with the current administration that's also possible. Mandating dumpsters would go a long way to solving it but, once you know enough about the cartage companies, you realize there are gonna be issues beyond logistics, enforcement and restaurant expense.
It's the sheds so obvious it's the sheds!! hospitality industry has run amok in our nabe, owners who don't live here don't give a rats bum about what happens here other than their bottom line have lived here all my life never ever saw this many rats I too love animals but Rats carry disease and will attack if provoked threatened Remove all the sheds go back too enforcing or holding restaurants and bars accountable for their sidewalks/garbage enough of the pandemic coddling of these establishments the trash and noise can't tell you how many places i've walked by that have food waste piled high in between the sheds and or empty sheds/ restaurants i've walked by that have music blasting so inconsiderate
ReplyDeletethere's the root off the problem
Curtis Sliwa begged for the job at the same time he was calling the mayor "Swagger man with no plan" on his WABC radio show. For some reason the Mayor declined and when Sliwa applied to be a "rat intern" they said no thanks to that too. Sliwa wanted to use homeless cats to stop the rat problem. I think Sliwa is a homophobic , right wing racist who has a lot of influence because he is a great con artist and self promoter with a NY powerful right wing radio station. If he had become rat catcher in chief he would have done so much personal PR people would have said please we prefer the rats. Sliwa also calls Mayor Adams an idiot and like the other jerks here who said that I think they are racists like Sliwa is. Please show at least a little respect for the mayor he is not an idiot. Like Sliwa I am sure the idiots who call Mayor Adams an idiot are big fans of Rudy Giuliani.
ReplyDeleteI think Giuliani was the worst mayor in my 60+ years living in NYC. But I also have no respect for Adams. And I am not racist. Since Adams has been mayor he has accomplished nothing. And he always seems to keep shady company. I am a registered democrat but I did not vote for him cause I didn’t like him from the get-go.
DeleteIn addition to a Mouse Czar, I think we should have a Waterbug Czar. And then an Uber-Czar to oversee the mere czars. Their salary should be double that of mere czars.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I was sitting around with friends the other day and they said that rents in NYC are astronomical. Who knew? We need a Rent Czar to take care of that too.
I’m on board for the water bug czar!
DeleteSince getting into office, Adams has usually hired friends & family for whatever positions he decided needed to be filled. So I wonder who this rat czar is to him. Is it his mistresses? And this job is basically no different than a mafia no-show job, as she will accomplish nothing. Just like Adams, she will show herself to be all bark and no bite.
ReplyDeleteRats can’t eat plywood, kids. Better. Trash. Management.
ReplyDeleteThey sure can chew through plywood.
DeleteI guess the Pied Piper was already booked? We could have paid him in Gilders.
ReplyDeleteUsed to walk to work through midtown at 4AM, pre-pandemic, pre-dining sheds. You wouldn’t believe the rats. As soon as I passed any restaurant, even the BEST restaurants, $250 a head restaurants with famous chefs, a flurry of rats would scatter out of the plastic trash bags left out front by the curb. They didn’t know they were dining high end. But if we keep offering them easy meals, they’d be fools to turn them down.
ReplyDeleteYes, let’s hire a rat czar and cut library hours. Or we could do the obvious and get rid of the privatization of public property and stop the sheds and street dinning. I prefer rats to the zombies on their phones clogging up the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteWow! These comments are fantastic and thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteI share a lot of disappointment with others regarding Mayor Adams too, whom I didn't vote for given he is a moderate, and I am a liberal progressive. This czar position is a futile proclamation full of smoke and mirrors, much like everything else he has done since being ushered into office aside from his yen for the spotlight while rubbing elbows with celebrities at premieres and fashion shows. I did some research and discovered he does hire family and friends for various city held positions, which is not surprising. I won't speculate if this woman is among them, but it makes you wonder. FYI. Rats can produce between six to twelve babies a litter over seven litters annually. Let that sink in. The number of rats in our gigantic city is endless. Given the voracity and the ubiquitous nature of these creatures, I fail to understand how her hatred and execution of them will make a significant dent. Instead, why can't our tax dollars be applied to something more beneficial for us as residents? I digress.
@9:15AM: "Rats can produce between six to twelve babies a litter over seven litters annually."
ReplyDeleteMaybe Adams thinks rats can vote, therefore he's trying to up the population of voters who'll think he's a great mayor. /s
Release hundreds of cats into the streets
ReplyDelete@6:41pm: Do your homework on this, please: cats are not usually powerful enough to successfully take on a full-size rat.
ReplyDeleteThat's why DOGS called "rat terriers" exist. Read up on it, b/c to control rats you need dogs and/or hawks. (Or a lot of dry ice and a lot of free time.)