NYC IS THE RAT CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES

These are the most rat-infested apartment buildings in NYC

By Rich Calder, Nick Fugallo and Aaron Feis

New York Post
May 14, 2018

While Mayor Bill de Blasio feebly tries to fight New York’s booming rodent population by warning parkgoers not to feed the vermin, residents need no reminder at three apartment buildings that are winning (or maybe losing) the city’s rat race.

Newly compiled data shared with The Post have identified the rattiest addresses in town, with the “winner” of the dubious top spot filing 318 rat complaints with city hot lines between May 2017 and April 2018.

Rodent-filled 335 E. 148th St., a six-story building in The Bronx, also led the city in rodent complaints in 2016.

The analysis was compiled by Localize.City, which forms neighborhood profiles based on public data — in this case, complaints to 311 about rats.

“We have rats everywhere in this place,” said second-floor resident Shakira Ransom, 31. “They’re out at night more and my children get scared.”

Ground-floor tenant Abigail Cisneros agreed her kids are being held hostage by the critters.

“My kids only play inside for that reason. [Rats are] always by the garbage, especially at night, and I’m afraid they’ll get into the homes,” said Cisneros. “I think they’re disgusting and I want them gone.”

A reporter spotted wide-open garbage cans sitting outside the building on Monday. Health Department signs lined the block, warning of rat poison placed as recently as last week.

At 410 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, which had the second-highest number of complaints, residents said they’d seen as many as three rats at a time rooting through garbage bags.

“I’m scared of them!” shrieked Esmina McDermott, 79, who filed one of the building’s 90 complaints with 311 over the past year.

“You hear them creeping, trying to make holes.”

Back in The Bronx, five-story 2337 Grand Concourse was third, with 85 complaints.

“We get rats every single day and the city needs to do something about this,” fumed Gabby Mendez, 36. “They are a serious health condition to people who already live in bad conditions.”

Of the nearly 28,500 rat-related complaints lodged with the city that always squeaks, Brooklyn led the way with 10,375, followed by Manhattan with 6,037.

Among neighborhoods, Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn is worst, with 1,824 complaints.

The report comes as Blasio has directed Parks Department workers to give New Yorkers advice that’s already obvious: Don’t feed the rats.

The officers were out in force in Manhattan’s Columbus Park on Monday.

“This is unnecessary,” said Gil Ramos, 27, a licensed exterminator who received a talking-to from Parks staff. “People are gonna be people. If their mother didn’t raise them right, a Parks officer can’t change them.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: From what I’ve observed, Houston can’t be too far behind NYC.

Those neighborhoods in NYC that are most rat-infested are also the city’s neighborhoods with the highest crime rates and highest number of homicides.