NYC Mayor Adams leads anti-rat crusade, ticketed for own rat issue at townhouse

NYC Mayor Adams leads anti-rat crusade, ticketed for own rat issue at townhouse
February 9, 2023

Every New York City mayor in history has battled rats. But for current mayor Eric Adams, the war on vermin has taken a peculiar turn as he tries to burnish his image as the city’s exterminator-in-chief.

Adams went before a hearing officer Thursday — for the second time — to contest two tickets he got from his own health department for allegedly allowing broods of rodents to take residence at his Brooklyn townhouse.

Participating via telephone, Adams contested the findings of an inspector who found rat burrows along a fence line and “fresh rat droppings” in front of the mayor’s garbage bins.

The city issued the summonses Dec. 7, just a day after another hearing officer dismissed an earlier $300 ticket for failing to control the rat population at the same property. Each of the new tickets could also carry a fine of $300 or more.

The mayor, who usually prides himself on conducting himself with a little “swagger” during his public appearances, was subdued and respectful during the hearing.

Adams denied he has a rat problem. His own inspections of his property, he said, did not produce signs of any rodents. Adams said he pays an exterminator monthly and spent $7,000 a year ago to keep the property rodent-free. At one point, the mayor could be heard during the half-hour hearing searching his electronic files for receipts and other documents to make his case.

Adams, a Democrat, also assured the hearing officer his tenants were heeding city rules about how to handle garbage and recyclables.

“We all don’t like rats, and we’re all cooperating together,” Adams said.

A handful of reporters listened in as the mayor seemed to profess surprise over the most recent citations, saying some of the alleged infractions observed were actually on his neighbor’s property.

City records show that Adams has gotten at least 18 summonses over the years at his Brooklyn address, many of them related to the handling of garbage. Many times he simply paid the fines, but not this time.

The hearing officer told Adams that she would decide within 30 days if any fines are due.

In his first year in office, Adams launched battles against guns and homelessness — and rats have also proved vexing for a mayor who is currently interviewing applicants for a new director of rodent mitigation, a title promptly dubbed the “rat czar.”

Before he became mayor, Adams, as the Brooklyn borough president, was known for his dislike of rats. He famously turned stomachs when he demonstrated a trap for reporters that relied on a bucket filled with a vinegary, toxic soup to drown rats lured by the scent of food.

The trap wasn’t very effective, nor was every other attempt by previous mayors to vanquish the city’s rat population.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio spent tens of millions of dollars on efforts to reduce the rat population in targeted neighborhoods through more frequent trash pickup, more aggressive housing inspections and replacing dirt basement floors with concrete.

In a prior attempt that proved to be more amusing than lethal, city officials unveiled a scheme to use dry ice to suffocate rats in their burrows but elicited guffaws when workers chased — but never caught — one of the fleeing vermin.

Adams has held press conferences to periodically bemoan rodents as a scourge on New York society.

“Let’s be clear: I hate rats, and we have too many of them and we have to get rid of them,” he said in June while announcing a proposed city spending plan.

In November, he signed a slate of legislation intended to reduce the city’s rat problems, including new rules limiting how long garbage can sit out on curbs and established what the city calls “rat mitigation zones.”

Soon after, he began looking for a rat czar, who, according to the job description, would be “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty.”

Rats in the subways in NYC are huge .. They've always been there

...NY isn't the only city with a rat problem ... Philadelphia, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco ...All those filthy cities with piles of garbage and shit everywhere....People were getting diseased from them in one of the Ca cities a couple years ago...
... They need to kill the rats and clean the shit up

maybe it was fleas they were getting sick from now that i think about it

I had friends that lived in an apartment above a Chinese restaurant and there was a dumpster in the back with rats .. We were shooting them with a pellet gun from the upstairs window..
The police station was in the building next door and we were woried about them seeing us shooting at the rats.. Then we saw them in the 2nd floor window doing the same thing
...They were pretty big rats.. The ones in the NYC subways are the biggest I've ever seen... Big as a small dog...lol

New Yoek City isn't the "rattiest" city in America, report says
BY CBS NEW YORK TEAM
OCTOBER 26, 2022 / 10:21 PM / CBS NEW YORK

NEW YORK -- In surprising news, a new report says New York City is not number one when it comes to rats.

That honor goes to Chicago, according to the pest control company Orkin.

For the eighth year in a row, Orkin says Chicago is the United States city with the most rats.

RELATED STORY: New York City health department offers advice on how to combat rat problems

New York ranked number two, rising above Los Angeles.

Video at: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-city-rats-orkin-ranking/

Temple wrote:

Quote :

I've never seen a rat

Forfuksake ... So you've spent your entire life in your house<?> ... Or maybe you think the mere sight of such a lowly, scavenging creature his just so far beneath you to have ever set eyes on one ...maybe closed your eyes or looked away if there was the possibility of a rat in sight ...lol ... SMH

Maybe the area where you've lived since birth has always been completely free of rats, like on a cloud or in a bubble where rats don't exist
... Youve never seen a dumpster, a landfill, a subway, dirty city streets, buildings, or houses where you'd see a rat .. Your surroundings have always been too pristine for the existence of a rat
.... I'd like to put you in the middle of a freshly harvested corn field that's literally swarming with rats

Quote :

--ooh maybe in a pet store or maybe they were mice, dunno..

"Dunno" should be your internet username
...I believe the only mice that'd be in a pet store would be dead frozen ones used to feed snakes...I doubt there are snakes in your world either
... So you're completely unfamiliar with mice as well, to differentiate between a mouse and a rat
... Are there no TVs, movies, books or anything where you live in this bubble or cloud where you could have observed such a thing in passing?
... There are far more rats and mice in this world than people... How you've managed to go through life to adulthood without ever seeing any, as you claim, just boggles the mind

Speaking of rats.. I used to like watching the dogs hunt them ... Some guys will have a whole team of dogs and kill 300 to 500 at a time.. But i like watching the " little guy" with one or two dogs and a mink to get it the tight spaces .. A good time is had by all...ha..except the rats of course