For many New Yorkers, rats have always been part of the city of skyscrapers. They have become so used to its presence that they do not even consider its origin, which dates back more than 270 years. These little rodents put their first tiny paw in the Big Apple between 1750 and 1780, when the city was still part of the British colony. They arrived on ships from France and Great Britain to first invade the southern tip of Manhattan, and later spread to the rest of the island.
“Rats don’t control this city, we do,” Sanitation Commissioner.
All the mayors who have passed through the town hall have tried to put an end to the presence of these uncomfortable neighbours, but no one has succeeded. As a result of the pandemic, and especially in recent months, the number of sightings of these animals has grown 71%, which has led Mayor Eric Adams to have to implement serious measures that have started in 2023.
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Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch, appointed at the end of 2022, said at a press conference: “Rats don’t control this city, we do.” and she announced a series of strategies that, according to her, “rats are going to hate”.
Among the initiatives, the investment of more than 22 million dollars destined to the Cleaning Department of the city, which has also been joined by 200 more workers (until now there were around ten thousand).
The number of public containers was increased with pilot programs in strategic places such as bridges and parks, and fines against those who fail to comply with garbage regulations have increased, which have also changed.
In order to prevent waste bags from remaining on public roads for hours, Mayor Adams announced that “the hours in which garbage can be taken out on the street will be reduced”, and, since 2023 began, it is only allowed “from 4 to 8 at night. This should be enough time,” the mayor said at a press conference. The problem is how to forcefully impose this measure so that it is really complied with.
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a tour
El Universal walked through Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn at the hours when the streets should be free of garbage bags, and it is not what it has found. Neighbors take out their waste at the time that best suits theme, when it is more comfortable for them, which is usually in the morning, when they leave home to go to work. And there is no one to fine them, or tell them that it is not allowed, so the solution is not working.
El Universal’s tour reached the Brooklyn neighborhood, where Mayor Adams owns a building that has just received a $300 fine for being infested with rats.
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“No one lives in the basement and rats sneak in there,” Curtis Sliwa, activist and founder of Guardian Angels, an organization that watches over the well-being of citizens, explains to this medium.
Sliwa was also the Republican challenger to Eric Adams in the city’s mayoral election. Faced with the impossibility of ending the rodents, Curtis proposes to the mayor a more natural solution: release feral cats around the neighborhood “and let nature take its course,” explained to El Universal.
This medium walked with him through the Brooklyn neighborhood, where many come to ask him to go ahead with his plan to end the rats.
“I have been living here for 50 years, I have never seen so few cats on the street, it seems that the rats have thrown them out!” a neighbor tells him. On the tour, you see many mousetraps, especially on street corners, which according to Curtis “are useless and cost billions.” The truth is that they are all empty, old and do not seem to be given much use.
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“Our plan is that, that the neighbors adopt our wild cats and give them food and drink”
You come to a house with a small animal shed outside, in the garden, and two containers next to it with water and food. From the top of a wall he stares at a black cat. “He’s the reason there are no mice here,” Curtis says, pointing to the cat.
“See? Here the owner has her food and water on her and the cat does not enter the house, but just by being here the rats can smell it and they do not come,” he added.
“Our plan is that, that the neighbors adopt our wild cats and give them food and drink. That they put these booths outside, that we will give them free, so that the cats protect themselves when it rains”. The proposal reached the mayor, but he rejected it.
The road is followed, and there are at least four abandoned cars, completely destroyed. “This is the other big problem, these abandoned vehicles become the homes of rodentsthey hide here during the day, and at night they come out like a stampede.”
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Another problem are construction sites, which create perfect microclimates for rats to inhabit and breed. For this reason, companies are now obliged to hire an exterminator and make sure that there are no rodents present before the city council issues the building permit.
According to recent reportsthe number of streets rated “Acceptably” clean decreased 4% during Adams’ first six months as mayor compared to the same period a year earlier.
In New York it is estimated that there are about two million rats, and the goal is to “finish them all”, the mayor has said more than once, who has always emphasized how much he hates them.
need more cleaning
“The problem is not the rats, it is the food that is thrown away and the garbage. What we have to do is invest more money in cleaning and clean our streets better.”
Rodents are seen in many parts of the city, such as in basements of buildings, streets where garbage is piled up, parks, in the subway... The city has become a five-star restaurant for them.
“It’s that they live very well here,” Jonothon Lyons, who has lived in New York for 15 years, explains to El Universal: “They have the subway to take refuge when the cold arrives and a lot of food on the streeta product of the hundreds of restaurants in the city”.
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Jonothon is an actor known in the Big Apple for his character Buddy Rat, who dresses in a rat costume that he created himself and that allows him, in a way, to get into the skin of rodents.
“I understand that you like New York! It is that here they have everything. The problem is not the rats, it is the food that is thrown away and the garbage. What we have to do is invest more money in sanitation and clean our streets better, in addition to limiting the food that restaurants throw away”.
Jonothon has been working with the city’s Cleaning Department for several months to make citizens aware that the time has come to do something about it. “The problem is that here we don’t have containers and we have to put the garbage directly on the street”.
New York generates daily about 21,000 tons of garbage which, in general, end up directly on the public highway in garbage bags.
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The Big Apple has sought inspiration in other countries and does not rule out copying Barcelona’s cleaning model. The city of Barcelona uses selective collection containers that, in addition to preventing bags from being in the street, are stored underground, so the garbage truck does not have to empty them daily, but rather every two or three days, but this solution is still up in the air, and what the council is focused on right now is finding a rat exterminator “with killer instincts”indicates the ad itself.
These are some of the requirements that are sought. The chosen one has to look for “solutions from various points of view to combat the problem, have operational efficiency, collect data, exterminate pests and have technological innovation.”
The “czar of the rats” is wanted, so that he drives them away from this city in exchange for a salary of around 170,000 dollars a year. The last hope of New Yorkers to end this endless war.
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