City To Fight Upper West Side Rat Infestation With Targeted Program

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The mayor's office has heard the cries of the Upper West Side and, starting immediately, will launch a targeted rat prevention program in the neighborhood, city officials announced during a Thursday press conference.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday in Riverside Park's Hippo Playground that New York City has long been associated with rats, but that time will eventually come to an end.

"As New Yorkers we really, really don't like rats," de Blasio said. "It's one of the things people think of unfortunately, when they think about this city and it's an association we don't want anymore."

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To combat the growing rat infestation on the Upper West Side the city will allocated $750,000 to strengthen rat prevention at eight Upper West Side parks and four neighborhood schools, de Blasio said Thursday.

"We know how tough it is to fight rats, and we know it will be a long time before we eradicate them totally," de Blasio said. "But we also know we can do a lot better and what is unacceptable is to have the quality of life of people in our neighborhoods undermined by rats."

Here's a list of schools and parks included in the targeted program:

Parks

• Henry Neufeld Playground
• River Run Playground
• Hippo Playground
• Dinosaur Playground
• Joan of Arc Memorial
• Theodore Roosevelt Park
• Diana Ross Playground
• Booker T. Washington Playground

Schools

• PS 75 Emily Dickinson
• PS 165 Robert E. Simon
• MS 54 Booker T. Washington
• PS 811 Mickey Mantle

The rat problem on the Upper West Side came to a head this summer when the vermin were seen in increased numbers in neighborhood parks and even displayed aggressive behavior such as jumping into baby strollers, officials said Thursday.

Upper West Side resident Tali Etra — who takes her children to Hippo Playground and described herself as a dedicated "Hippo Mom" — said Thursday said that the rats became a "source of horror and fear" for parents bringing their kids to the playground.

"The rat scourge is overwhelming even the toughest New York City parents," Etra said Thursday. "The stories on the parent boards and forums about aggressive rats crawling in strollers and sandboxes have been dreadful."

State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal echoed the complaints of neighborhood parents Thursday, saying that her office was flooded with "desperate complaints" about rats this summer.

To target the neighborhood's rat colonies the city will invest in new, rat-proof, waste receptacles such as "Big Belly" solar compactors in parks and roll-on/roll-off compacting dumpsters at schools, officials said Thursday. The investment is similar to one made by City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal — who spoke at Thursday's press conference — in Riverside Park playgrounds. The city will also ramp up enforcement on vendors and residents who improperly dispose of waste, increase baiting efforts in the neighborhood and hire a dedicated exterminator for the Upper West Side, officials said Thursday.

The city will begin its rat-fighting efforts on the Upper West Side immediately and all the program's elements should be in place within the next six months, de Blasio said Thursday. The program is similar to one launched in July that allocated $32 million to rat prevention efforts in neighborhoods such as Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy.

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