The 'Rat Alley' Plaguing The Upper East Side

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Rats darting across sidewalks, rummaging through garbage, and burrowing into tree beds have made a stretch of East 83rd Street so unpleasant that its residents are walking in the roadway — or avoiding leaving their homes at night entirely — to dodge teeming burrows, neighbors told Patch.

Now, residents of the block between Second and Third avenues are organizing to get the city's attention — and relief from a problem they say far exceeds the occasional New York City rat encounter.

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Alex Malescio, who moved to the block nearly two years ago, said he routinely sees five or six rats while walking from his apartment to the corner after dark.

"The issue is that it doesn't seem to be a specific reason why there are so many more rats on this block than other blocks on the Upper East Side," Malescio said.

When he began talking with neighbors, he was struck by how many seemed resigned to the situation, choosing instead to stay home or walk in the middle of the street at night to avoid the rat burrows.

"I started speaking to a lot of my neighbors on the block, and I had heard a lot of matter-of-fact resignation about the situation," Malescio said. "I had one neighbor say, 'Oh yeah, this street is rat alley."

Malescio launched a petition, which has 114 signatures as of publication.

Malescio also distributed flyers and encouraged neighbors to submit 311 complaints about rat sightings, burrows, and trash problems to trigger city awareness.

Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 6, 15 complaints about rat sightings have been filed on the block with 311.

During that same time, the street saw two industrial waste complaints and five litter complaints, including two about illegal dumping, according to city records.

Jessica, a graduate student who declined to use her last name, said the rats have made getting home at night so upsetting that she began working with an exposure therapist.

During an early exposure exercise, Jessica said she saw several rats running around, just from her stoop.

"One night I saw a lot, like I can't count how many there were. They were under the cars and running on the block," Jessica said. "It was the worst exposure I'd done. The three minutes were really hard to get to. I didn't know they could climb the banister like that."

The organizing has prompted action. The New York City Parks Department's crews visited twice, treating and filling four burrows in tree pits across those visits.

The NYC Health Department also inspected every property on the block in June and returned in August to check sites that failed. Five property owners received summonses, the department said.

Those five properties are located at 206, 208, 216, 226 and 232 East 83rd St.

Council Speaker Julie Menin's office also arranged for an exterminator to treat additional burrows.

"Our office is aware of this issue and has been working with our partners at ACE and Urban Pest Management to take the necessary action to address it," Reid Anrod, the district communications lead at Menin's office, told Patch. "In an update just last week, an exterminator had surveyed both sides of the block of 83rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues and remediated multiple rat burrows he found there."

Despite the several extermination treatments, Malescio said he had not yet noticed an improvement, adding that it may take some time to see results.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Jessica said.

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.