I’ve never seen one wearing a watch or scampering around a street clock - making sure they’re on schedule for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
However, now that New York City's Mayor Eric Adams added ‘Staunch Exterminator’ to his list of accolades, we can expect rodents to be more vigilant of their infestation practices. Right?
No way!
There are many jokes to be had when it comes to the new Department of Sanitation (DSNY) regulations that mandate homeowners place their trash curbside at 6 p.m. if they’re in covered plastic waste bins or at 8 p.m. if they’re simply in trash bags. These mandates aim to reduce the time that garbage is outside on the streets, subsequently (hopefully!) cutting down on the time that rats come out and run amok.
Really? What kind of 'Big (Rotten) Apple' semantics and logic is THIS?
In my humble opinion - and I’m sure many New Yorkers will agree - the new schedule (that will have DSNY picking up trash at amended hours to shorten the time garbage is curbside) is nothing but a rat race!!!
Let’s get real and consider this:
Rats and mice etc. don’t just come out when garbage is on the streets - If the city actually thinks that household garbage is the SOLE reason rats run rampant, this is a really ignorant mind frame! I’ve had licensed exterminators tell me that construction is one of the precursors for mice and rat activity. With excavation, rebuilding and constant opening of deep spaces in the ground where rats burrow, these vermin are forced out of their natural habitat and into our city streets - and then our homes!
With their own homes waaaaay beneath the surface being disturbed by all types of projects and land use, where the heck are they gonna go?
Other exterminators have told me that a homeowner can have the cleanest, most immaculate house on the block and STILL get these disease-infected rodents coming into their home through the tiniest crack or crevice - with their families in tow nonetheless - looking for food and water.
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| Trash dumped haphazardly in Canarsie. |
The Human Population Continues To Invite Them, Via Illegal Dumping - As a reporter, I’ve covered numerous illegal dumping sites for the Canarsie Courier. For nearly 20 years, I’ve seen dumping of food containers, furniture, miscellaneous household items, construction debris and bags of household garbage scattered along the Paerdegats and Seaview Avenue in my hometown. With civic leaders’ help and outreach to the DSNY, these thoroughfares were cleaned - but dumping remains persistent and there are no cameras, no fines enforces and no rat mitigation in place.
Vermin can have a ball at these spaces that have overgrown brush and weeds that make the perfect home! FYI - even if you’re putting your trash out at 8 p.m. like the law requires, those suckers are still roaming the streets - heading to dark and dingy dumping sites for a gourmet meal and possibly a cozy new mating shack within the depths of the dumped waste!
It’s party time y’all!
Contributions From New York City's Unhoused Population - Sadly, the existing encampments on the streets - and some in subway corridors- are compiled of garbage, food refuse and even bottles of human waste. Some of the garbage that homeowners are being mandated to dispose of at specific times are harbored by the city's homeless in dark corners of scaffolding and among cardboard boxes.
I've seen many displaced individuals lugging around shopping carts of papers, empty bottles and food remnants/ containers, soiled clothes and other toxic items that would be a rat's amusement park. How can the city mitigate these unhealthy and unsafe environments? Despite advocates' outreach to the unhoused, offering help and resources, there are hundreds of locations where so many of them are just hunkered into a pile of debris that contributes to the city's trash problem 24/7.
Multiple Family Dwellings/Buildings and the notorious New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Must Comply! There are never too many stories to publish about the city’s worst landlord NYCHA and other management companies that hire private garbage collection agencies to do the dirty work.
Private developments will have to have their own maintenance staff and services adjust to HUNDREDS of tenants’ trash being out by the curb at 8 p.m.?
And have you SEEN the conditions at NYCHA grounds all over the “City that Never Sleeps”? Garbage of all types is scattered in common areas… Trash is being thrown out of windows onto the grass at ground level… Receptacles outside of the apartment complexes are often overflowing with household garbage that doesn’t fit into the incinerator within the building itself. Despite DSNY making stops at the projects to do their routine collections, the agency is highly unlikely to be able to keep up with tenants’ trashy habits.
A rat’s playground? You betcha! And timing has NOTHING to do with this dirty trap!
I can go on…and on…
When Mayor Adams announced that “Rat Czar” Kathleen Corradi would be directing the city’s mitigation of vermin, I didn’t feel a sense of confidence in the system.
Why?
Simply put, rats and mice are smart! They're often times smarter than people!
Oh please! You can’t eradicate a population of species who found a way to survive and multiply for centuries no matter what attempts were made to wipe out their existence!
Battle lost?
Maybe!
We'll never be able to cut off their food and water supply, especially with the city growing and neighborhoods becoming more populated -- and housing multiplying. More residents equal more trash ... equal more rodents!
There is hope and there is a solution but all of us need to do our part and become cleaner, more trash-conscious humans!
The city is our home, our future and our investment. Only astute vigilance and respect for our communities can send those critters packing!
