First Ever NYC ‘Rat Tsar’ To Crack Down on City’s Surging Scourge of Rodents

In Mayor Adams’s ever escalating war on rats, hizzoner is appointing the first ever “Rat Tsar” of New York City, who’s promising to send the rats packing.The new rat tsar, Kathleen Corradi, will be the city’s first director of rodent mitigation and will be tasked with working to reduce rodents across the city, starting with the new Harlem Rat Mitigation Zone.“New York City has done a lot recently when it comes to fighting public enemy number one: rats,” Mr. Adams said in an announcement. “But it was clear we needed someone solely focused on leading our rat reduction efforts across all five boroughs.”The new phase of Mr. Adams’s war against rats is going to begin with a $3.5 million investment in an area stretching across Harlem. The current sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tish, will continue in her own battle against the rodents.“The rats are going to hate Kathy, but we’re excited to have her leading this important effort,” Mr. Adams said.According to Ms. Corradi, she will implement a “science” and “systems based” approach to rodent control and looks forward to “sending the rats packing.”“Rat mitigation is more than a quality-of-life issue for New Yorkers,” Ms. Corradi said. “Rats are a symptom of systemic issues, including sanitation, health, housing, and economic justice.”She added that “New York may be famous for the Pizza Rat, but rats, and the conditions that help them thrive will no longer be tolerated — no more dirty curbs, unmanaged spaces, or brazen burrowing.”The new office is an escalation of Mr. Adams’s war on rats that has followed him from his time as Brooklyn Borough president and even from his own apartments.Earlier this year, Mr. Adams appeared at a hearing to contest two tickets that he received from his own health department for allegedly allowing broods of rats to make a home of his Brooklyn townhouse.At the time he claimed to pay an exterminator for services monthly, and spent some $7,000 in 2022 to keep his property rodent-free.The hiring of Ms. Corradi comes as the culmination of a months-long search that began in early December. The job description included qualifications such as a “swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and general aura of badassery” and a “virulent vehemence for vermin.”Alongside fighting crime and trying to get employees back in offices, rats have been a top priority for the administration. Mr. Adams and his administration have implemented measures to reduce rodents.Among them have been prototypes to keep trash off the streets and to keep garbage on the curb for shorter periods of time before pickup.The new Harlem Rat Mitigation Zone will be in an area that has been plagued by rats, in particular since the Covid pandemic saw more people working from home and producing more garbage that’s bagged and left out on sidewalks to be picked up by carters.Increased rat sightings are often a problem in quickly gentrifying areas due to disturbances of rat nests from the construction of new buildings. The proximity to Central Park (where rats like to nest) and other green spaces is also a factor.

First Ever NYC ‘Rat Tsar’ To Crack Down on City’s Surging Scourge of Rodents

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