New York takes cues from Chicago in fight to control rat population
In New York on Wednesday, a first-of-its-kind summit was held to focus solely on the problem of rats, and it turns out Chicago has played a positive role when it came to helping combat the Big Apple's rodent problem.
So, what sets Chicago apart when it comes to the war on rats?
For one, Chicago has alleys, making it a lot easier to keep rats away from what's inside garbage cans.
"Wow, I didn't realize we would get so many people showing up to talk about rats," said New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams spoke about the large number of people attending the inaugural National Urban Rat Summit in New York. He said rats impact the quality of life more than people may realize.
"You could only imagine lifting up your toilet seat in the morning and seeing a rodent come out," Adams said. "Or your garbage bag, you take the garbage and put it outside, and you see a rat run across your feet. You think about that all day!"
He added, "And that's what this is about, the cross-pollination of ideas from across the country to state. How do we deal with a problem that has always been here? Rodents have always been here from the beginning of time."
The Lincoln Park Zoo had a representative at the summit. The zoo has what's called the Chicago Rat Project. It studies the rat population in the city.
The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation provides rodent abatement free of charge to residents. The Bureau of Rodent Control baits all alleys and parkways, and front and back yards for residential homes with four units or fewer with the owner's permission.
A spokesperson from the Department of Streets and Sanitation said in the summer of 2023, its deputy commissioner for the Bureau of Rodent Control met with the newly appointed "rat czar" for New York and exchanged ideas and strategies about rodent mitigation. In Chicago, residents have garbage cans and dumpsters in alleys, which help keep rats at bay. But in New York, Adams noted there are no alleys and that garbage bags had always been left on the sidewalks to be collected.
"We realized from our analysis that one of the major problems is the all-you-can-eat buffets that we have in our plastic bags," Adams said. "When I got to European cities and we say we have plastic bags, they say, 'Plastic bags? You have plastic bags on your streets?' Everyone is containerizing their garbage and we're seeing a decrease in rat sightings because of the containerization of garbage."
Such a measure is new this year as New Yorkers are being told to put their garbage into cans. Ironically, on the day of the summit in New York, in Chicago, the deputy commissioner in charge of rodent control, Josie Cruz, retired and was honored by the City Council for her service.
A new deputy commissioner will be announced soon.
