City Focuses Resources on Pest Problem
Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to tackle the city’s biggest pest problem – rats – through a new $32 million, multi-agency initiative to reduce the rat population in three of the most infested areas: the Grand Concourse area, Chinatown/East Village/Lower East Side, and Bushwick/Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Rats contaminate food, spread diseases, and impact quality of life. Their gnawing and burrowing can damage utilities and erode the structural integrity of buildings.
“All New Yorkers deserve to live in clean and healthy neighborhoods,” Mayor de Blasio said. “We refuse to accept rats as a normal part of living in New York City.”
One of the plan’s tactics is to create “rat pads” in prioritized NYCHA buildings within the reduction zones. The City will allocate $16.3 million to replace dirt basement floors with these concrete “rat pads,” which has helped reduce work orders regarding rats in the past. In addition, $8.8 million will be invested in new trash compactors for developments, and a new feature will be added to the MyNYCHA app to allow residents to create work orders for trash removal and rat reduction.
The City’s additional rat management strategies include better trash management in designated areas and new trash cans that rats can’t access.
