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!