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Rats, not again!
A coalition of rattl-ed Brooklynites living on notoriously rodent-infested blocks are pleading with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to bring in a new rat czar – after their calls for the city to renew the fight against the filthy creatures allegedly fell on deaf ears.
The pair of Prospect Heights resident groups penned a letter Friday to Mamdani, urging him to reinstate the City Hall rat-fighting position, which was dissolved in September when former Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi quietly traded the role for a leadership position at NYCHA.
Carol Morrison, of the City Council member-created District 35 Rat Task Force, told The Post she is “concerned” there is no longer a point-person to resolve rodent swarms plaguing local playgrounds and backyards.
“There is no real connection between these [city] agencies, and when you have neglect … you need to have somebody on the ground,” Morrison told The Post.
Otherwise, rat complaints land “in a void.”
A request for comment from City Hall was not immediately returned.
Before the rat czar took office in 2023, Morrison said the quiet locale was overrun with rodents, and that nearby Stroud Playground was “uninhabitable:
“You were walking in the street rather than walking in the sidewalks because the rats owned the sidewalks.”
More than 200 311 calls were made to the city at the time, she fumed, but seldom changed — until the rat czar finally stepped in to corral multiple city agencies and resolve complaints.
Morrison contends that the issue could be worsening again — and springtime may be rife with rat babies if a new heir to the rat czar throne isn’t selected.
“We’re still seeing rats in November in our backyard,” she lamented. “We have children who can’t play in their backyards.”
Corradi led a spate of new initiatives to combat Gotham’s estimated 3 million rats like contraceptive programs, focusing on “rat mitigation zones” with high rat populations – and even joined the rat task force on night walks to assess the problem.
“For the last two years prior to her departure, [Corradi] addressed these issues in a granular and transparent way, connecting and coordinating city departments to address specific challenges,” the letter from the residents’ groups, which also includes the Sterling Place Rat Mitigation and Awareness team, reads.
“Without an interagency approach our beloved city faces a rat infestation that will only worsen, jeopardizing our quality of life and health.”
Brooklyn’s Community Board 8 has seen a 42% decrease in rat sightings since 2022, according to a Post analysis of 311 records, and a 16% decrease since this time last year.
A Department of Sanitation rep told The Post that current rodent mitigation strategies “are working,” and rat sightings have fallen for 11 straight months in a row since residential containerization requirements went into effect.
“We’re not backing down in the Trash Revolution, or the war on rats more broadly.”
Still, residents like Morrison are urging the mayor-elect to renew the rodent-focused role once he moves into Gracie Mansion.
“Were talking about a $170,000 investment so that communication can be facilitated between departments of the City of New York — which are our tax dollars at work, that otherwise are not going to be working efficiently,” she said.
The Mamdani campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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