Mayor Adams Declares War on Rats in NYC
On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams expressed concerns about the city’s rat population, stating they are “really scary” due to ongoing cleanup efforts.
During a press conference, he highlighted that the health department has collected £15 million in trash from highways and medians since the beginning of 2023. This initiative has led to a notable decrease in rat sightings each month this year.
“It’s unacceptable to claim we can’t have a cleaner city,” Adams asserted, while standing beside a poster depicting him in a Mr. Clean-like persona.
The Sanitation Department initiated a specialized unit in April 2023, targeting trash and debris along the city’s extensive 1,100-mile highway network to combat the rat issue.
“For years, no real responsibility has been taken to clean the highway shoulders,” Adams remarked while visiting the Sanitation Garage on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
He urged New Yorkers to refrain from littering, emphasizing that trash accumulation fosters an undesirable environment in the city.
Data from 311 indicates rat sightings in New York City have dropped to just 16.4% of what they were earlier in the year.
Adams credited this decline to the combined efforts of his appointed “rat emperor,” Bridget Koradi, and the deployment of new trash cans designed to be rat-proof.
So far, 880,000 of these protected bins have been requested by residents and businesses.
“We’ve shut down the curbside buffet for these filthy creatures,” Adams shared on X, noting that the data shows a sustained reduction in rat sightings reported to 311 over the past eight months. “They’re really scary!” he concluded.
