Rodents beware: New York City hires first 'rat czar'

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) - New York City's unending war on rats has a new commanding general.

Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday announced that Kathleen Corradi, an education department employee, has been appointed New York’s first-ever "rat czar," part of Adams’ effort to combat a growing rodent population in the county’s most populous city.

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“You’ll be seeing a lot of me - and a lot less rats,” Corradi, whose official title is “citywide director of rodent mitigation,” said at a news conference. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

Adams, who has often expressed a deep hatred for rats, posted the job last year, seeking someone "somewhat bloodthirsty" with a "general aura of badassery" and offering an annual salary between $120,000 and $170,000.

Corradi, a former teacher, is not new to the fight against rats. She previously oversaw rat mitigation efforts in the city’s public schools.

FILE PHOTO: A rat runs across a sidewalk in the snow in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., December 2, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Rat sightings have jumped in recent years, according to city data. Some officials have said the proliferation of sidewalk dining – a concession to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the city’s restaurants – contributed to the problem.

The size of the city’s rat population is unknown. A 2014 study put the figure at around 2 million, or one for every four residents.

Adams has implemented other measures aimed at what he called New York’s “No. 1 enemy.”

In recent months, his administration has limited the number of hours that trash bags can sit on sidewalks awaiting pickup and launched a curbside composting program intended to reduce food waste.

But the brown rat, which likely arrived in New York sometime during the Revolutionary War era, has proven a crafty adversary, thriving despite numerous attempts to eradicate it from the city’s warrens of subway tunnels and alleyways.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Thumbnail courtesy of REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo.