Two ugly buildings have caught the attention of City Council member Gale Brewer and she’s pushing the city employee who owns them to get rid of them.

Diane Haslett-Rudiano, chief clerk of the Brooklyn Borough Office of Elections, owns brownstones at 118 West 76th Street and 44 West 73rd Street, but she’s let them fall into disrepair. She told the Daily Newsthat she’s held onto them because her late husband had dreamed of rehabilitating them. (He bought them in the 70′s for a song. The one on 76th street, pictured at right, cost him $5,000 in 1976!) “A lot of my husband’s dreams are wrapped up in that building … but you have to be realistic, and the thing to do is to let someone else enjoy it,” she told the Daily News.

Meanwhile, the buildings have become eyesores, and attracted that familiar Upper West Side scourge: rats!

“Over the past 12 years I have sent many letters to the owner, sharing the concerns of my constituents,” said Council Member Gale A. Brewer in a statement. “My office has reached out offering to assist in mending the situation in any way possible, at first to try to improve the situation together and get her to do something about the rat infestation and garbage. When it became clear that she had no intention to make any improvements and maintain these buildings, I tried putting her in touch with a broker recommended by the block association. She never followed up on any of these things, and I found her lack of concern and refusal to be reasoned with deeply disturbing. Things can’t continue this way, the upper West Side community has had enough of being ignored and we want a new person to take possession since it is clear that the current owner is not a responsible property owner.”

Brewer and others spoke in front of the buildings on Sunday.

Judith Bronfman, President of the West 76 Street Block Association, Inc. summarized their attempts to repair 118 West 76 Street. “Over these years, the building has grown more derelict, more of an eyesore, a greater haven for rats. As our block has worked to improve itself, to make it a clean, safe, pleasant environment, 118 has mocked our efforts.”

The building on 73rd street, pictured at left, has run into similar problems.

“Our West 73rd Street Block Association and its members and residents on this block have been under duress by the great amount of rats running around the sidewalk and the street every evening. Needless to say, it has eroded the quality of life and real estate values on this block where many are owners of their building and/or their apartments,” said Frances Apgar, President of the West 73rd Street Block Association.

Brewer also said Haslett-Rudiano probably shouldn’t hold her city job: “She is a very bad example of home ownership (and) public servant responsiveness. She’s not somebody who should be either owning property or, in my opinion, (be a supervisor) of the Board of Elections.” (That seems like an overreach: she might be a bad landlord, but that doesn’t mean she’s not good at her job.)

Brewer is calling for some response from Haslett-Rudiano. Maybe this will push her to sell the places. There’s no question she’d make millions.

Photos via Gale Brewer’s office.

The Upper West Side’s rat infestation took on epic proportions last year when multiple rodents were seen scurrying around Fairway on 74th street, including a cute little mouse videotaped frolicking in the olive bins. But City Council member Gale Brewer told the local community board on Tuesday night that “Fairway has gotten rid of its rats” and said that the supermarket is leading a charge to rid the area of the pests entirely. Fairway is hosting a breakfast on April 30 for local merchants to brainstorm on how to get rid of the rats.

The Upper West Side has had the most rat complaints of any neighborhood in the city in recent years.

Brewer secured $50,000 from the city to spend on rat mitigation — in particular, she wants to install 6 to 12 specialized “Big Belly” trash cans in the Verdi Square area from 72nd to 73rd streets on Broadway. The neighborhood’s first solar-powered self-compacting Big Belly can was just placed next to Shake Shack, and reportedly cost $3,000. She working with the city parks department on those plans.  The Broadway Mall Association is also considering  getting rid of the ivy in the area and replacing it with other plants. Rats have been known to build nests in ivy, which is frankly disgusting. In fact, I’m sorry you have to know that now.

Of course, with construction picking up at a rapid rate in the neighborhood, it’s hard to imagine that the rat population will decline much.

For all of our rat coverage, click here.

It’s not news to Upper West Siders that the neighborhood is overrun with rats. We’ve been writing about the growing problem for months, and it’s rare to walk down a block in the neighborhood and not see something scurrying about.

But now it’s been confirmed that we’ve get it worse than any other neighborhood in the city: people in the 10024 and 10025 zip codes lodged 1,183 complaints about rats from 2010 to 2012, the New York Post and Gothamist found. That’s more than the 965 complaints in Bushwick, which came in second for the dubious honor of most vermin-ridden. The Lower East Side and the East Village lodged only 688 complaints.

And the Post didn’t even include the 10023 zip code, home to Fairway, the Rat House and the Rat Crossing. People in the 10023 zip code lodged an additional 237 complaints, according to Gothamist.

(Okay, it has not technically been “confirmed”: Upper West Siders may just complain more than other people. Also, more people may live in those zip codes than on Bushwick. But it’s confirmed enough for us.)

For all our rat-related coverage, click here.

November 13, 2012 Weather: A few showers, High of 47 Degrees.

Notices:
Upper West Side events today include free concerts, and a meeting on a new bike parking proposal.

The Community Board meeting cancelled last week is rescheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

News:
Apartment 8B at 15 Central Park West is seeking $59,000 — a month! Available for year-long leases starting Feb. 1. (Curbed)

We have reported before on the rat problem in local playgrounds in Riverside and Central Parks. The critters have also been seen at the Little Engine Playground on 68th Street. Residents say the city has been less than helpful. “In October, the father, who asked not to be named, filed several complaints with 311, the city’s helpline, but said he was confused by the email message response: “Work to correct the reported condition has been deferred because of seasonal considerations and will be corrected as soon as possible.” (DNAinfo)

The MTA won’t give refunds to people who had unlimited metro cards but couldn’t use them because of hurricane-related disruptions. (NY Times)

David Elias, 31, of West 103rd Street, was arrested and charged with stabbing his mother and brother and setting fire to their Harlem apartment. (DNAinfo)

Fairway’s rodent problem just went from gross to GROSS.

A Fairway shopper videotaped a mouse, or possibly a rat, running along the olives in the bins at the supermarket on 74th Street and Broadway very early Wednesday morning. The sighting comes after rats were seen running though Fairway’s produce section a couple of weeks back, which prompted the company to say it would respond promptly and aggressively. Apparently, the little guy above didn’t get the memo. Check him out in the video below by Glenn Herman, who posted it to YouTube.

Then Herman sent a note to Fairway.

Hello Fairway Marketplace:

At 12:20 AM I entered your Upper Westside Store to buy a few things. When I arrived at the area with the buckets of olives I was surprised that a man next to me jumped away from the produce and started gesticulating wildly. He explained that there was a mouse or rat walking all over the tops of the produce.

I moved in closer to examine for myself the truth and I discovered a small rat or mouse happily hanging out in the olive bins. He was walking all over the produce. The night manager and a clerk were discussing how they knew about the problem and that the exterminator was coming.

Additionally, they stated that these vermin often come from the subway. In my opinion, it might be time to invest in a few buckets with plastic foldup lids. This would prevent the mice from directly contaminating the produce. Ideally, the vermin infestation should be dealt with so that there are no need for plastic tops to the buckets.

I wish you well in finding a solution to this problem. However, I think I will buying my olives and artichokes somewhere else for the foreseeable future.

Regards,

Glenn Herman

A Fairway rep apparently replied:

thank you for taking the time to email us.i handle the catering for our manhattan stores, and i have forwarded your email to our store manager, our produce director and our director of store operations. it will be addressed immediately. please accept our sincere apologies. we appreciate and value your continued business.

(Question for font experts: does responding in small-caps lower-case mean they’re really taking it seriously?)

ABC News ran the story as the lead news item on their 11 o’clock newscast Thursday night, and Fairway responded to them: “We believe the incident was caused by the massive construction that is happening throughout the immediate vicinity of the store. We are now taking comprehensive measures to remedy the situation so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Update: Bruce Bobbins, a Fairway spokesman, told us: “We are spending thousands of dollars on replacing old entrance, exit and loading dock and installing new ones, and fully sealing off any potential entry points to our basement.  And we are replacing, renovating, and refortifying walls and floors with iron and diamond plates, installing new produce cases, and taking other immediate infrastructure measures to eliminate access points.”

As ABC points out, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets inspects supermarkets, and doesn’t tend to stop by more than once a year “”unless there’s something critical to cause reinspection.”

We’ll update this story as we learn more about Fairway’s response.

In the meantime, read all about the recent explosion in Upper West Side rats. Here’s our first story on Fairway rats.

It was bound to happen. As rats invade the Upper West Side, they seek out places where they can find food. And where can you find people whose tiny hands sometimes fumble on their way to their tiny mouths?

Playgrounds!

A mother posted on the blog Lollitot last week: “This morning my two girls and I were leaving River-Run playground on W 83^rd street and Riverside Drive when we came face to face with a gang of rats.”

A gang! She took a video of one of the rodents, which we’ve posted down below.

Lollitot named other apparently infested areas, including the Wild West playground on 93rd Street and Central Park West, and Strauss Park on 106th Street.

We also heard from a mother named Katherine yesterday about a pretty gross situation at the popular Hippo Playground on 91st Street in Riverside Park.

“I just had to leave the Hippo Playground because of the number of rats. They were running in and out of the turtle rock, round the edges, across the playground entrance. There were at least 8 large rats. It was very unpleasant and unhealthy.”

We contacted the city parks department and the Riverside Park Fund for comment. A parks department spokeswoman wrote:

“We’ve recently reduced the number of trash cans in the playground and surrounding areas and installed rat resistant trash cans in their place to reduce access to food.  Our exterminator is evaluating the situation at the playground and we’ll take appropriate action.”

The spokeswoman didn’t specify whether poison will be used to kill the rats. Hawk-lovers have argued against the parks department using rat poison because of its tendency to kill birds too. But it might be time to do something a little more aggressive. These playground rats make our cheeky playground raccoons seem almost quaint. We don’t need to see rat gangs recreating West Side Story in our playgrounds, do we?

Photo by jayneandd, clip art by OCAL. Photo illustration by Avi.

This week, Upper West Siders can learn new ways to get rid of two things that plague our neighborhood: dirty heating oil and rats.

Dirty Heating Oil

The heating oil that many Upper West Side buildings use is a huge pollutant: “Just 10,000 buildings in New York City burn heavy forms of heating oil, but they contribute more soot pollution than all cars and trucks on the City’s roads,” the city notes on a website dedicated to the problem. A disproportionate number of buildings on the Upper West Side burn Number 6 oil, which is literally at “the bottom of the barrel” of the petroleum refinement process. Some of those nasty particles end up in your lungs. Upper West Side buildings have begun converting to number two oil or natural gas or steam but it’s going pretty slow, assuming the city’s data is up to date.

On Monday at 6 p.m. at the New York Public Library’s Riverside Branch (127 Amsterdam Avenue at 64th Street), the city is holding a meeting for building owners to learn how to switch heating oils as the city phases out Number 6 and Number 4 oil. If you’re a resident of a building, you can see what kind of oil or gas your building is burning on this map, and you can contact your building owners to see if they’re making the switch. Says Councilwoman Gale Brewer: “Whether buildings need help understanding conversion options, coordinating with utilities, or assembling financing, NYC Clean Heat can assist you and answer your questions. Info: www.nyc.gov/cleanheat or info@nyccleanheat.org or 212.656.9202.”

Rats

We’ve written quite a bit about the spread of rats in the neighborhood — from the Rat House, to rats inside Fairway, to rat crossing signs on 76th Street.

The city has begun to pay more attention and has been holding classes for people to learn more about keeping them in check. They’re particularly useful for building supers, but everyone can use more rat-related education these days. The next meeting is on Tuesday from 2 to 4 at John Jay College, 524 West 59 Street (between 10-11 Avenues), Room L.61. As Gale Brewer notes:

“Free Rodent Management Training sponsored by the NYC Dept of Health, Council Member Gale A. Brewer and Community Boards 4 and 7.  This is the 3^rd such training we have sponsored. 10 rodent free trash pails to be auctioned! All welcome. To register contact: Jesse Bodine at: jbodine@council.nyc.gov or call (212) 873-0282.”

Soot photo from NYC Clean Heat; rat clip art by Nicubunu.

By Karen Farber

Since the landlord has failed to clean up the disgusting building at 120 West 74^th Street (other than to paint over the neighborhood protest graffiti labeling it “the Rat House”), local entrepreneurs have started using the infamous location for a more benign reason; every weekend it is now the unofficial home of the on-going Rat House Garage Sale!

Maintained by a core group of laid off or underemployed neighborhood women – all with good taste and lots of stamina – every Saturday and Sunday (weather permitting) the sidewalk in front of the Rat House is home to a plethora of tastefully displayed wares.  The items range from antiques to kitsch, often including work done by local struggling artists.  The ladies have taken advantage of the notoriety linked to the building and advertise their sale on fliers as “Garage Sale at the Rat Hous” (the “e” is intentionally omitted to give it an air of mystery, one of the ladies said with a wink .

Word of mouth and tongue in cheek advertising posters have resulted in a small but loyal following of repeat customers who drop by every weekend to check out the goods and schmooze with their neighbors.  In addition to locals, many shoppers come by to ask about the Rat House name on the signs and then end up buying a gently-used designer bag or mongoose trap (really).

As winter approaches, the ladies will eventually have to go inside for the winter (just like the rats) but for now the sales are helping them make ends meet until the economy picks up again.

Read Karen Farber’s last column on a lost owl.

The rat infestation on the Upper West Side has reached a new high low point: the furry creatures have been sighted in Fairway’s produce section! Fairway, on 74th and Broadway, is right in the midst of the rat triangle of death: it’s two blocks from the Rat House, about four blocks from Joe Bolanos’ Rat Crossing signs, and two blocks from Verdi Square, which is basically a rat vacation community.

On a recent night, My Upper West’s Mike filmed a rat running through a produce aisle in Fairway and posted the video (below) on YouTube, saying that he had seen at least two in the aisle at a time. The rats were apparently snagging peanuts from a low shelf. The market had a mouse trap out near the aisle, but it’s not clear if the owners knew the extent of the problem. After seeing the video they called it “unconscionable” and vowed to undertake a “thorough investigation” and take “immediate steps to remedy the situation.”

Check out the video:

Update: Fairway reached out to us on Monday via twitter, saying “We have a large crew working overnight to ensure we address this issue rapidly and thoroughly.” We asked for more info on how they were getting rid of the rats, and will update if we hear back.

Update 2: Two weeks later, a shopper videotapes a mouse/rat INSIDE olive bins at Fairway.

Community Board 7 has begun holding “Rat Academies” to inform people about how to eradicate the vermin. And Gale Brewer said last week that Verdi Square will soon get better rat-proof trash containers. But is it enough? And are we all just bellyaching about something that’s been around for decades? Let us know in the comments.

For all our coverage of rats on the Upper West Side, click here.

Photo illustration by Avi. Photo by SpecialKRB and clip art by Nicubunu.

September 10, 2012 Weather: Partly Cloudy, High of 73 Degrees.

Notices:
Today’s events include a presentation on how black holes “blow bubbles,” as well as concerts and a talk on the end of the middle class.

A quick word about comments. We love our commenters — comments on our posts are often more interesting than the articles themselves, as you can see on our post about cyclists in Central Park — but lately we’ve been getting some comments that include nasty personal attacks. Those don’t meet our terms and conditions, and we tend to take them down. Strong opinions are great and we try to err on the side of letting comments through. But let’s please keep it civil!

Did you miss the first Rat Academy? Don’t worry, there’s another free training on how to deal with the rodents on Tuesday, September 25 from 2 to 4 p.m. at John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street, room L61 (enter between 10th and 11th avenues. Mark your calendars.

News:
Four dogs that took walks between 136th street and 140th street in Riverside Park in July died afterwards. The ASPCA is looking into whether they were killed by intentional poisoning. “The dogs convulsed into seizures, vomited, frothed at the mouth and lapsed into comas as their owners watched helplessly during a two-day span in July. All four of them were walked on July 17 or 18 in Riverside Park between 136th and 140th streets — a coincidence that’s prompted their owners to try to find out whether the dogs may have been the victims of intentional poisoning.” (DNAinfo)

Rebecca Levey, a former PTA co-president at PS 87 reviews Won’t Back Down, a controversial new movie about schools and unions. (Beccarama)

A movie by Ken Burns and his daughter Sarah on the Central Park jogger rape in 1989 is getting lots of buzz at film festivals. (NPR)