NYC Council passes bills to fight rats: ‘They have begun to define us’

Rat’s all, folks.

The New York City Council on Thursday passed four anti-rat bills, taking aim from multiple directions at the worsening vermin scourge menacing the five boroughs.

The package, dubbed the Rat Action Plan, would set new pest management standards for all major private construction projects, require the city to establish new rat mitigation zones and mandate annual Health Department reports on the rodent plague.

At a news conference before the vote on the legislation, Councilman Chi Osse deemed the rats the city’s “Public Enemy No. 1.”

“The rats have plagued New York for so long they have begun to define us,” said Osse, a rat-hating Brooklyn Democrat and a sponsor on three of the bills.

In the first nine months of 2022, the city fielded almost 21,600 rat complaints, a tally 71% higher than the count reported at the same point in 2020, according to government data.

The increase has been attributed to factors including outdoor dining, residential trash that overflows on streets, warming weather that could be extending rats’ breeding seasons and a city construction boom that appears to be kicking up the critters.

Councilman Erik Bottcher, a Manhattan Democrat, described his bill requiring that builders employ pest management professionals for their projects as a “common sense” measure.

“New York has never been an easy place to live: It’s kind of a rat race,” Bottcher said with a smile in remarks in the City Council Chamber. “But we’ve got to do more to address the rat problem.”

His bill passed by a 44-to-6 vote. Another centerpiece bill in the package, which would clear the way for the Sanitation Department to move the start of curbside trash set out time to 4 p.m. from 8 p.m., also passed 44 to 6.

The bill requiring that the Health Department report annually on rat mitigation progress passed unanimously.

Mayor Adams, who has said “rats have no place in this city,” detailed the planned shift to the trash collection rules last week. The legislation will next go to his desk.

“We know it’s not going to solve everything,” said Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, a Brooklyn Democrat and the chair of the Sanitation Committee. “But this is definitely putting the groundwork in place.”