Vermin beware: New York City just hired its first rat czar.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that the new role will be headed by Kathleen Corradi, a former Brooklyn schoolteacher who later led programs to handle rodents and pests at NYC’s Education Department.
Her role as the director of Rodent Mitigation will involve her figuring out ways to cut off food sources for the rats as well as tracking and exterminating their population in the city, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.
“As the first director of rodent mitigation, I’m excited to bring a science- and systems-based approach to fight rats,” Ms. Corradi said in the release. “New York may be famous for the Pizza Rat, but rats, and the conditions that help them thrive, will no longer be tolerated — no more dirty curbs, unmanaged spaces or brazen burrowing.”
New York is estimated to have 2 million rats, a quarter of the city’s human population. Data from the city’s health department said rat sightings doubled last year, jumping from 30,000 in 2021 to 60,000 in 2022, according to WNBC.
Ms. Corradi’s first order of business is containing the rat situation in Harlem. Mr. Adams said $3.5 million will go toward fighting rat mischiefs — the term to describe a group of rats — in the northern Manhattan neighborhood. That involves hiring full-time exterminators, adding rat slabs to prevent floor burrowing in public housing and requiring at least two inspections per year for all buildings in Harlem.
These targeted efforts build on the Adams administration’s earlier efforts at rodent control that addressed how long trash bags can sit curbside before being picked up.
“The rats are going to hate Kathy, but we’re excited to have her leading this important effort,” Mr. Adams said.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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