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New York: New York City’s unending war on rats has a new commander.
Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Kathleen Corradi, an education department employee, as the city first-ever “rat tzar”, part of his effort to combat a growing rodent population in the county’s most populous city.
“You’ll be seeing a lot of me – and a lot less rats,” said Corradi, whose official title is Citywide Director Of Rodent Mitigation. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams introduces Kathleen Corradi as the city’s first Citywide Director Of Rodent Mitigation, also known as the “rat tzar”.Credit: AP
Adams, who has often expressed a deep hatred for rats, posted the job last year, seeking someone “somewhat bloodthirsty” with a “general aura of badassery” and offering an annual salary of between $US120,000 ($180,000) and $US170,000.
Corradi, a former teacher, is not new to the fight against rats. She previously oversaw rat mitigation efforts in the city’s public schools. She will earn $US155,000 ($230,000) a year.
The size of the city’s rat population is unknown. A 2014 study put the figure at 2 million, or one for every four residents.
A rat crosses a subway platform in New York’s Times Square.Credit: AP
Rats have long bedevilled the city – some say since the American Revolution era – and are a top public concern along with crime, homelessness and exorbitant rents. No traps nor poisonous bait have succeeded in reducing their numbers. Rats have thrived in subway tunnels and burrows within empty blocks of land and city parks.
But the brown rat, which probably arrived in New York during the Revolutionary War era, has proven a crafty adversary, thriving despite numerous attempts to eradicate it.
“Rats are smart, they are resilient,” said Adams, a Democrat. “Many of us live in communities where rats think they run the city.”
Over the past year, residents have called in almost 3.2 million rat sightings to the city’s 311 service request line, just shy of the record number of complaints in 2021. Some officials have said the proliferation of pavement dining – a concession to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down restaurants – contributed to the problem.
Feeding time: brown rats feast on leftovers from a takeaway in a New York City park. Credit: Cadhla Firth
“Rats have proven to be one of the most formidable opponents that humans have faced. Here in New York City, we’re locked in a constant battle,” said council member Erik Bottcher, whose district includes Times Square.
New York City’s approach is in contrast to some efforts by animal-rights advocates in Paris, where there could be twice as many rats as its 2.2 million population, according to some estimates. A strike by garbage workers left some streets teeming with rats.
Animal rights group Paris Animaux Zoopolis has been trying to convince Parisians that “rats are not our enemies”.
Adams thinks otherwise.
As Brooklyn borough president, he once showed reporters a bucket filled with a toxic soup meant to drown rats.
“There were people that were yelling, you know, ‘Oh you murderer. You murderer!’ ” he said. “You know, we can’t be philosophical about things that impact the quality of life of New Yorkers.”
Adams has implemented other measures aimed at what he called New York’s “No. 1 enemy”.
His administration has recently limited the number of hours that rubbish bags can sit on footpaths awaiting pick-up and launched a curbside composting program intended to reduce food waste.
Corradi’s first task will be to launch a “rat mitigation zone” in Harlem, where the city will invest $US3.5 million to roll out “an accelerated rat reduction plan” deploying 19 full-time and 14 seasonal employees to combat rats. Strategies that work there will be extended elsewhere.
Reuters, AP
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