UPDATE: Friday, August 29 at 12:30 p.m.: Upper West Side District 6 Councilmember Gale Brewer has gone back and forth with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene over the bird and rat swarm issue at the 96th Street Broadway median.
“The pigeons are fed by over a dozen people daily starting at 6 AM. The pigeons have become familiar with the routine and congregate at set times throughout the day. They create a major health hazard at this location,” Brewer wrote in the letter to the city agency this month, shared with West Side Rag. “Renovating and repairing the building [Broadway Malls storage building at the 96th Street median] would be an asset to the community and could include measures to prevent the feeding and the pigeons.”
Brewer also provided a photo of a woman scattering crumbs and seeds at the location.
Maura Kelly, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Health, responded to Brewer’s letter on August 20.
“While it is not illegal to feed pigeons or other wildlife, feeding pigeons or other wildlife contribute to the feeding of rats,” Kelly wrote. “We have been working closely with the Parks Department to address some of the issues at this site that have allowed rats and pigeons to proliferate. We ask that local leaders help us get the word out about the harms of pigeon feeding and encouraging constituents not to do it.”
Upper West Side Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who represents District 7, which 96th Street is part of, has also been working on the rat issue at the location for months, including sending repeated messages to city agencies.
“For over six months, our office has been sounding the alarm about the massive rat infestation at the Broadway Mall across from the 96th Street subway entrance, where food left by pigeon feeders has created a rat buffet,” Abreu wrote in an email to the Rag. “This is a clear public health issue, and the city’s failure to act aggressively has understandably left our community frustrated. Everyone is aware of the problem, but enforcement has been either nonexistent or ineffective.”
By Gus Saltonstall
Rats. Lots and lots of rats.
Over the past month, West Side Rag received multiple emails from troubled Upper West Siders about a swarm of rats that has been appearing in front of the Broadway Malls storage building that sits in the median at West 96th Street.
The building is just opposite the 1 line subway station entrance at 96th Street. Multiple eyewitnesses said the rats emerge in front of the Broadway Malls building after someone has scattered crumbs and seeds, apparently meant to feed birds.
🐀 Ongoing rat swarm situation this month on the Upper West Side as a person keeps scattering crumbs and seeds to feed birds at a Broadway median across from the 96th Street subway station.
“I’m beyond horrified.” pic.twitter.com/b3r47mn2vG
— Gus Saltonstall (@GusSaltonstall) August 28, 2025
“I’m beyond horrified,” Jane Sherwin, who has walked by the swarm multiple times, wrote in an email to the Rag. “People feed the pigeons and then the rats eat them!”
Stephen Dicker, who also emailed about the rat issue on West 96th Street, wrote, “While we regularly see rats on the Upper West Side, we have not seen such a cluster of rats in more than 20 years.”
And here’s how Upper West Sider Gimo Nasiff described the rodent scene at the 96th Street median:
“A swarm of roughly 50 rats feasting on crumbs and seeds,” he wrote in an email to the Rag. “Footage from the scene shows the rats guarding the area, refusing to let pigeons feed. While some consider leaving food for birds an act of compassion, the unintended consequence is a rising rodent population that poses both health and safety concerns.”
The Rag visited the 96th Street Broadway median on Monday and Tuesday evenings in an attempt to speak with whomever was scattering the bird feed, but nobody came by.
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Rats are here because we are here, and we leave food out. Maybe humans will always live with and among rats (and if we didn’t, who will eat our trash?). I suggest those who find these images horrifying try to think of a gerbil or hamster or other small rodent that they might have had as a pet, and remember that they curious, smart beings just like them.
Bring them in your home. I would like see what your home looks like.
Are you for real. 😳
stop drinking cool aid!!!!!
Rats a “vermin”..and spread disease..Your pussy cat, gerbil and pet rabbit dont.
Plus they do so much damage to trees and bushes in our CP. Some of the trees are endangered species, almost extinct. Its mind boggling ignorance from “our rulers”.
I grew up in a big city in China with a population of 10 million, and in the 20-plus years I lived there, I never once saw a rat running on the street. After just two years in NYC, though, whenever I’m traveling and catch something moving in my peripheral vision, my first thought is that it’s a rat—and I get startled—only to realize it’s just a pigeon. Rats on the street may direct or indirectly spreading disease, so they are not really comparable to small rodent pets.
What’s China’s secret? Maybe Trump would be willing to trade a few Nvidia chips — or lower tariffs — in return.
AI tells me this:
“Yes, dog meat is consumed in some regions of China, with estimates suggesting that around 10 million dogs are killed for human consumption each year. However, attitudes towards eating dog meat are changing, and some people in China disapprove of the practice.”
R.A.T.S., the club of canine ‘ratters tells me this:
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/ratter-dogs.htm
2 + 2 = feed the dogs rats, then eat the dogs.
10,000,000 dogs is a LOT of dogs.
pigeons are nothing but flying rats. Continue your horror.
Pigeons are beautiful birds, with beautiful songs.
Wrong. Pigeons are part of the dinosaur family – not rats. They are pets too. They’re smart and affectionate- they carried messages too. They mate with one partner and are truly special. Get informed! In Venice, Italy and other places they are loved.
According to my Venetian friends, the only people who love pigeons in Venice are the tourists and the vendors of little packets of birdseed in Piazza San Marco. Residents hate the acidic droppings, which deface their homes and eat into the ancient stone.
It is illegal to feed the pigeons in St. Marks Square in Italy because the locals there find them as dirty and annoying as we do here. Get informed!
are they really?????
Perhaps you should adopt a few. These are different sort, I fear.
Rats are still repulsive, and dangerous.
This is straight up goofy. Rats and other animals spread diseases. Your hamster at home is safer because it is not in constant contact with other animals (although they still advise not to snuggle up with your pet rodents/birds and to always wash your hands after handling them). Yes, I am absolutely horrified and disgusted by a swarm of 50 rats outside of my subway stop.
I live on 96th street. There are several people who come throughout the day to scatter giant bags of birdseed and breadcrumbs. I’ve seen them pulling grocery wagons filled with crumbs, and even pull up in a car. Some of us have contacted the police, parks department, and local politicians and have been told there is nothing they can do.
When approached, the bird feeders either refuse to talk, or threaten the people asking them to stop.
It’s a horrifying situation which keeps getting worse and worse. Some of the rats are now the size of cats. I sometimes see kids playing on the median during the day, and feel sick thinking about the potential health threat.
My wife approached one of those people feeding the pigeons in The Ramble, and mentioned that she was indirectly feeding the rats. The feeder was hostile and didn’t give a darn. This is not frivolous- Gale Brewer should bring it up to the city, have a law passed, and have the feeders cited or even arrested. This is a city- everyone feels they have the right to do anything they want because it feels good to them, including feeding pigeons and rats.
Take pictures and post them..Print them and put them up on nearby poles.. Contact GALE BREWER on Columbus and 87th St..
This is why sniper rifles were invented.
A rat hunt! Now that is a new form of entertainment for fun city!!
With this information the city must take action. Let’s all write to the city’s rat czar with a link to this article. Other parts of the UWS have seen rat sitings decline with the change in garbage pick up. This is an avoidable situation.
Contact your city council rep, too. Mine is Shaun Abreu, and he has done a lot to control rats, but I think it’s Gale Brewer at 96th Street.
If you can, take pix of them and report them to the police. Having this swarm of rats is insane and a health hazard.
Please report the names of the appointed and elected officials who say there is nothing they can do, so voters can do something.
…”and we leave food out”. How about we stop leaving food out? Stop feeding the birds. Put compost in those heavy duty brown bins. I kniw we won’t get rid of all the rats but we can cut the nunber down.
I’m not against containerizing trash! But trash is food and as a species we seem to be excellent at making trash.
Sorry, but you don’t seem to be absorbing the accurate observations of the people who answered you with specific information about what is attracting the rats.
That area is disgusting. I thought it was just confined to hundreds of pigeons but not shocking to see the rats. Someone is always putting down bird seed which apparently rats also enjoy!
Same — I always avoid crossing Broadway / walking across the median on that side because there’s always a flock of pigeons, which are disgusting enough. Knowing about the rats makes me all the more glad I avoid it. Someone call the rat czar!
We really have to stop, and limit, our “acts of compassion“ in all manners on the Upper West Side. . Clearly this strategy is not working.
Oh, really? Limit our “acts of compassion” while we walk amongst human beings lying prostrate all over our streets? I think we already have.
And, by the way, since you are so concerned about rats and pigeons you might consider that people lying in their own waste all over the city–and cities all over this country–also contribute to the rat infestation.
I worry less about rats then I do about continuing to support local and state leadership that do nothing or little to to assist the unhoused we have everywhere.
Your response is unnecessarily harsh. People are on the street in that way because years ago it was decided it was compassionate to have them make their own choices instead of pushing treatment and shelter stays. It turns out that this didn’t help them or the rest of the community and a new solution is needed.
NYC is a right to shelter city. The budget for homeless services is billions every year. NYC also has a housing voucher program. To suggest the city does little or nothing is absurd.
I owe my life to these programs and to NYC. It got me out of being homeless and into my place on the UWS. I’m happy, safe, and secure in my own home going on 4 years now. These programs do work. I am living proof they do.
I leave for work around 5:15am and walk the major avenues to work (I mix it up every day). There are at least two older woman with shopping carts filled with bags of seeds and crumbs out scattering every morning at that hour; one on Broadway and the other on Amsterdam (in the high 80s). The pigeons are all around them, but In their wake there are always a few rats that scamper out to start feasting also. Apparently this need to feed pigeons is a psychological disorder.
Yes . Those people with shopping carts full of seeds and crumbs are mentally deranged. It is disgusting and makes life disgusting (and unsafe) for New Yorkers. As for feeding the birds, this is not Mary Poppins’ bird ladycrooning on the steps in London.
And it SHOULD be illegal!
I agree these feeders with carts of seeds and crumbs are mentally deranged. They won’t stop doing it unless they have no access to the food, or they just can’t walk out there at all. Getting them removed is the only thing I can thing of, although this is NYC.
I think we should throw some rat poison in with the seeds
That is rather not a good idea, cause some predatory birds (hawks, owls etc.) feeding on them. making them “seedless” is the only way.
Film them and send it to the police and to Kathleen Corradi, head of Rodent Mitigation.
Same problem at 72nd St & B’way subway stop by Verdi Square. Benches covered with bird poop. Who wants to sit there?
Also at the small square on 70th and B’way (Sherman Square). Walking there is like trying to navigate through a field of land mines. Often see a woman thowing bird seed out of a large bag. Is there anything we can do to stop them? It’s creates gross and unsanitary conditions. I’ve also noticed an increase in pigeon population.
Has anyone noticed what seems to be a large increase in th humber of pigeons, flying by your face and even touching your body? It is like a Hitchcock movie on 72nd and 73rd streets outside the entrances to the subway ( and they use all the benches as their toilets.) Come on! Gross!
I work on the UES so I also read their blogs and most of them seem a lot more aggressive about tackling things like this. Just taking a page from them…if you’re seeing this every day are you willing to take pics of the women and report it to 311?
I would be but I am not going NEAR those areas!!!
How about that crazy woman in front of the Metropolitan Museum, who cuts up bread daily to scatter for the pigeons? Shockingly, she doesn’t seem to be able to be stopped either!
The museum washes the bird poop every morning but she comes twice a day. Why isn’t it illegal to throw food on the ground? Aren’t there laws against littering?
I haven’t been to the Met in ages, just pass by it on the crosstown bus, so I haven’t this, but if it’s happening in such a congested area with museum goers/tourists then I’m surprised that something hasn’t been done to stop it.
Should be a crime.
It is a crime….its literally posted on signs next to parks schools and gail brewers office.
The same group also feeds pigeons on 89/Columbus and also in front of gristedes on 84/columbus. It is beyond disgusting.
If it’s not enforced, it’s not a crime.
Nonsense!!!!!! Hello? Are murders a crime despite attempts to enforce the law against it?? Is robbing a crime? Is stalking and terrorizing a crime? And you say if it’s not enforced it’s not a crime???
That is NUTS.
You think this is going to be prosecuted? This is a non violent crime and Bragg doesn’t prosecuted those. And if these women got arrested and charged people would complain. This is what people vote for and allow.
The same thing happens on Riverside Drive, seeds and scraps left out for vermin. In the war against stupid, stupid is winning.
The city should pay $10.00 per rat, free enterprise will take over.
Agreed. Would be less expensive than paying a rat czar salary and benefits while obviously not taking care of the problem.
Not a good idea…paying people to exterminate the rats…an economy that pays people for every animal they kill would lead to the unintended consequence of a rat population increase. Ala the cobra effect. It will happen because people would realize they can make a profit by breeding rats (or iguanas or cobras) rather than just hunting them (perverse incentive).
actually that’s not true…down on the bayou they pay people to kill the nutria….whole documentary on this
Agree. In Miami Beach, the city pays professionals $10 per captured / dead iguana, as iguanas are considered invasive species that kill indigenous wildlife. It works.
Its a lot harder to farm raise iguanas for the money. $10 for a rat would just invite people to breed rats lol
Read about the ‘cobra effect’. This has never been a good idea.
Old asian lady in the afternoons feeds the pigeons once or a twice a week, 5-6 PM. Should be illegal.
Photograph anyone feeding the rats and pigeons. Then post the photos all over social media.
These people don’t care about social media.
I’ve challenged the bread crumb people several times, and all they say is that “birds need to eat, too” We need to make it illegal and enforce the law.
‘Birds need to eat, too’. It’s amazing that these numbskulls don’t realize that birds will find what they need to eat; primarily insects, seeds and whatever they can scavenge elsewhere. They always have.
Somehow I doubt these offenders are on social media, and they were, would not be embarrassed by their actions.
I’m sure the owners of thr multi million dollar condos now being sold right there are thrilled
People dumping stuff on the pavement are littering, no? Does NYC still give fines against littering? Can dumping birdseed on a public pavement be considered littering?
I can’t imagine this level of out-of-control “pigeon feeding” being tolerated on the UES. Why should the UWS be considered a dump by the authorities?
Gale Brewer ought to gear up her team on this issue as she has done on others.
Does NYC enforce any crime involving fines?
Yes. You are fined if you steal greater than $1,000 of goods. I think they enforce that.
There are the “Pigeon People” and now there’s “Rats People” ! 🤮
Dumping birdseed and bread crumbs like this should be made illegal if it isn’t already, and the perpetrators should be arrested and heavily fined.
People love using those leaf blowers – does anyone know if there are ones that can used a vacuums? So that they blow in instead out? I’ve long wanted one to collect trash (catches trash in bag attached, air goes out the back- just like an indoor residential vaccum)– anyway. If this exists I’d love to know – and then hoover up that bird seed after they leave.
There is a leaf blower/vacuum from Toro. I have it and it works great. I use it when I have a few leaves on the lawn during summer.
Oooh. Just sitting there with a leaf blower would clean that dirty area and the noise would deter them for a while. Maybe more needs to happen in that area. Wasn’t that building used as a gallery once? It wasn’t as filthy when business was going on or when people had a reason to be on that side of the street.
Yes, it was a gallery around ten years ago.
There is a “lady” in the Hamilton Sr. House, everyone there knows who she is, that walks up & down W73rd between Amsterdam & Columbus, several times/day, feeding pigeons & attracting rodents. 100s of pigeons follow her like a pied piper (she also walks 2 dogs). She also has a very nasty mouth. I kick them away whenever I see them. No one will stop her. If anyone knows how to stop her, without talking to her, pls. post.
You kick them away???
i’ve walked that block daily…never seen her. Sadly it’s such a derelict neighborhood what’s the difference? i remember when there were stores to shop in and clean streets. i like birds so why not feed them? Nothing here to respect anymore.
73rd between Amsterdam and Columbus is derelict? Might want to check Street Easy for the cost of housing there. You got maybe a few million?
You kick the dogs?
Of course I don’t kick the dogs, I try to kick the birds away. Then she swore at me.
Why would you kick birds? It’s not their fault for being fed!
I don’t physically kick them. I stomp loud near them so they disperse. This post relates to rats that come from people feeding pigeons food causing rats mice to appear from leftover pigeon food people feeding. I can’t stand the site of people feeding pigeons anymore. I admit if the pigeon flock finished the food b4 I “shooed” them away, the food would be gone, but I cant stand there & watch some pigeon idiot feed them. So I don’t “hate” the birds, I hate the people who feed them. FINAL ANSWER
Remember these guys? They should be called in. Is there a neighborhood coalition that could contact them?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/19/new-york-city-rat-problem-vigilantes-with-dogs
I started to read your article/link. I don’t let my dog near a rat. If I see one I start to scream. She’s vacinnated against Leptosclerosis.
We have the same issue up at 110th and Broadway. A couple in an electric blue Subaru who come and dump bird seen multiple times a week. There is so much the birds never eat it all and it becomes a rat banquet.
People make a special trip to the city IN THEIR CAR to feed pigeons? This really is some kind of mental illness.
I bet I can guess who is doing this. An elderly man who lives uptown that comes to the UWS every day to feed pigeons & rats. He usually goes to Ascension Church on 107 St in the early evening & dumps birdseed or bagels there. there. He should be fined & arrested
Is he the one who also feeds the raccoons at 108 and RSD? A travesty. Nightly. And yes, a magnet for rats. Stop these people. It is littering!
People are being paid to scatter food for the rats. I have witnessed these people at the corner of 96th and CPW. They will not engage in conversation and they scurry off. It looks like a professional operation to me. Seems like some organization (criminal or other) is doing this in retribution for something. I suspect a real estate conflict of some sort.
Can I borrow some tin foil from you?
wouldn’t be surprise. rats are BIG business for the city!!!!!!!
What???
Just walk by the NYCHA building on 101 and Amsterdam.
The rats love all of the garbage on the streets and sidewalks.
NYCHA has spent millions installing central air and heating in their
buildings but can’t seem to get proper garbage bins for the tenants.
Come on, NYCHA, wake up and smell the rats!
This has nothing to do with NYCHA… the buildings on this intersection are condos that go for a million a pop.
Maybe we shouldn’t have buildings on this intersection that go for a million a pop? Talk about an infestation..
Agreed!!
Time to start arresting these people. Maybe spending a night in the slammer will deter them.
Why not use this as an opportunity, if there are swarms of rats there, put down rat poison and kill them.
Chrispy is correct. The owls Flaco and Barney presumably ate poisoned rats. We are worried that other unusual Central Park animal residents will eat them as well.
Not a good idea. If scattered loose, not in enclosed traps, the poison will also harm dogs, and possibly children too. I think we should insist on forcing those politicians in the area to have professionals deal with the situation.
Growing up on 88th Bway in the 1950s-70s, I never saw such a thing. It’s dangerous as they bring diseases. 🤢
Now I live in the burbs so we see deer, which can be dangerous by running in front of cars.
and Lyme disease
So, rats are better ?
Why is anybody surprised ?
rats are feeding rats!!!! get it through your head!!!!!!!
Can someone just go to a hardware store, buy a hundred mouse traps, and just lay them out? I’m serious.
Just go and do it.
Would Parks or Sanitation be responsible for collecting the traps?
do it!
This month???? This site has been this way for years The go in and out of the former MTA bathrooms/Arts Center 24/7. UWSers several times a day put out food for the birds, as soon as it goes out the rats pour out from under the The doors of the building for a feast The birds get nada. They are and have been of various sizes, ie young/old for years. Clear evidence of a breeding colony.
Signs have been up and Parks has cleared brush, put poison etc but the building needs to be sealed up, doors/windows etc.
Fines/arrests need to be made for endangering the public health, yes there are laws on that
Note: Parks police would have first jurisdiction here, as its owned by Parks dept,. not NYPD
This is something neither containerized garbage nor a pedestrian plaza nor an open street will solve.
The late Tom Lehrer provided the solution in one of his early songs: “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”’.
We will murder them all with laughter and merriment, except for the few we take home to experiment; my heart will be quickenin’ with each drop of strychnine we feed to the pigeons, it just takes a smidgen to poison the pigeons in the park.” (Just replace Lehrer’s “pigeons” with “rats.”)
Rhyme “rat” or “ratties” with “small amount.”
I wonder whether it has occurred to anyone to lace the birdseed with rat poison. It would leave a large mess of dead rats in the area for Dept. of Sanitation to clean up, but that would be 50 fewer rats per feeding which would soon mitigate the situation. Also, signage should be posted nearby in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean saying: “You think you’re feeding the birds. You’re not. You’re feeding the rats. You have to stop feeding them now.”
Poison is generally not a great way to control rats, and it brings a bunch of issues. Predators eating poisoned animals. Rat crawling under buildings and dying and stinking the place up for weeks. Pets dying from accidental contact with eh poison etc.
The solution to this is to have a police there for a week to warn the person doing it. If they can keep a car 24/7 in front of Duane reed we can do this.
Where is the mayor and politicians? They need to hire pest control.
WHAT MAYOR?
stop drinking cool aid!!!!! They care only for their deep pockets.
Perhaps it is the time to put up huge signs in the location itself (and better yet, add a screen with loop recordings) with the photos of the rats swarming and feasting on the crumbs people throw there for the birds. Perhaps we need to make it very clear that THIS is what’s happening. Gross? Yes, but perhaps it will give people pause and will be a concrete evidence to point at when one sees someone ‘feeding’ the birds. (I know, there’s a reason people call me “Pollyannie”)
Pollyanna is underrated.
Doesn’t NYC have a Rat Tsar? Did anyone contact them?
I know that much: I PAY FOR HIS JOB without my permission!!!!!!!
Did you contact them? Do it!
You won’t see the pigeon feeders at night but come visit anytime during the day – there are several people, some toting rolling carriers of feed, who come by regularly.
While walking on the sidewalk on RSD in the 80d I encountered a swarm of rats intermingled with pigeons feasting on scattered crumbs in broad day light! There needs to be an education campaign about not feeding birds. And maybe there is a single person scattering these crumbs on the UWS. Perhaps that person can be identified and educated.
“That person” is most likely a number of mentally ill people. Persuasion doesn’t work – consequences are necessary..
The official culture in this city resists imposing consequences unless the offense is in their now narrower felony category. Can’t there be some level-headed politicians who protect the public without going MAGA?
The only thing that can stop contamination of the city is establishing a system of fines and enforcing the law. The fines may be already there, but the enforcement literally disappeared in 2020. The police have not recovered from the movement against them, and, in light of what Mamdani proposes, we can expect only less enforcement. Social workers? Easy to imagine how effective it will be.
We have traveled to third world countries, where cities are cleaner and better managed than ours. How? Strictly enforced fines for littering and other violations, even minor. Brutal? Certainly, because fines are disproportionally high compared to average wages. It really hits their pockets when they have to pay. But it worked like a charm. Take Santiago, for example, with streets you can eat from and sparkling-clean polished underground stations that look like art galleries. We, on the other hand, have lowered our standards of living by refusing to prosecute criminals. Why is theft under $900 is not punishable? It boggles my mind. I witnessed a young woman, a drug addict judging by her appearance, grabbing stuff from shelves at Walgreen on W 94th St and Columbus, while a group of staffers was gently shooing her out. I asked the manager why they can’t be more forceful. He explained they cannot call the police because the theft was minor and cannot physically touch her because she would sue the pharmacy. They knew her well, and she knew too she would get away with it. The scene looked surreal.
You are RIGHT on every count!
Sir this is a Wendy’s, just put the fries in the bag.
As usual, Gale Brewer and friends do absolutely nothing. And everyone keeps voting them all into office.
In Brewer’s defense, the reply from Maura Kelly at the Department of Health was less than helpful. “We ask that local leaders help us get the word out about the harms of pigeon feeding and encouraging constituents not to do it.” Yeah, that will discourage the feeders.
I have high hopes for the pilot program using conternerized garbage disposal that was recently expanded in Morningside Heights. I am always at awe when I travel to Europe and notice how cities there manage to keep the streets clean, garbage properly disposed and millions of people free of having to deal with this pest. Political will is all we need to fix this problem.
After reading this article and the comments, I am thinking that an official culture of “don’t enforce” increases the likelihood that officials from the federal level will find all the more pretexts to interfere.
Just take a useless cop off the subway platform and put them on pigeon patrol. No birds should be fed in this city. Usually the feed is dangerous to dogs and in their proximity. If a bird can’t find food in this city: DARWIN!
The West 90s Neighborhood Association has mobilized an effort led by City Counci Members Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu to exterminate the rats and educate the public not to feed pigeons and other birds in these public spaces. Neil
Oh, really? And how’s that going?
we all see how, don’t we?
Join us at W90s if you believe you can help. W90snyc.org
lol where has this effort been in the last five years I’ve lived here?
There are people who literally feed the pigeons in front of milk bar next to sad Gail brewers office
Ryan, Join W90s if you believe you can help. W90snyc.org
Poisoning? Well we must all by know by now about Flaco the owl and how he died eating an animal that was poisoned. Imprisonment? From what I understand prisons like Rikers are overflowing. Fines? Feeders in all likelyhood won’t pay them. This horrific issue sounds like a good question for candidates in the Sept Mayoral Debate . In the meantime we should inundate Mayor Adams; although, despite his efforts the rat population seems to be winning the war. Truly frightening.. Why do we not find out what is being done on the east side and then copycat?
From Google AI
Specific UES initiatives
Carbon monoxide gassing: Council Member Julie Menin, whose district includes parts of the UES, has allocated funding for a program that pumps carbon monoxide into rat burrows in sidewalk tree pits.
This technique, using a machine called the Burrow Rx, was piloted successfully on the East 86th Street corridor in 2023, where it achieved a nearly 100% eradication rate in treated pits.
The program has since expanded to other complaint hotspots, such as East 75th Street, and has been praised by residents and business owners for its effectiveness.
There’s a lot of useful info there…and they do mention Falco as well.
The pigeons are bad enough, congregating on the roof, mall, and traffic lights–defecating and swarming (i.e., never cross the street there since you’ll fight your way through them or get a swarm in your face). That’s all day long. The rats are opportunistic; if there’s food, there’s rats. It’s NYC. And you’ll never convince some people that this isn’t a kindness for their flying friends. Could the BID clean-up folks do a daily sweep/removal the crumbs/bagels/slices of bread/etc.? This will continue as long as food is being left on the ground.
Yeah, and then if you cross on the south side of 96th you have to fight your way through homeless, mental ill, and/or addicted people. The entire intersection is disgusting.
We have a similar issue at 70th and Broadway/Amsterdam Avenues at Sherman Square Park. Pigeon droppings everywhere. I haven’t yet seen it get to the point of rat congregations but maybe this can be prevented.
When I politely confronted a woman in Riverside Park who was feeding the pigeons by saying, “Maybe you’re not aware that what the pigeons don’t eat, the rats will “. She replied “Rats have a right to live too” I was speechless
I’m a licensed tour guide and member of the NYC Rat Pack (members of the community trained to help mitigate rats). During my garbage and rats tour of lower Manhattan, the theme is: NYC doesn’t have a garbage or rats problem – we have a people problem. We’ve created an urban environment that allows rats to thrive. Containerizing our trash is an important step toward lowering the number of rats on the streets, but also working together to stop people from littering or feeding pigeons, squirrels, and feral cats is also crucial.
If you have a rat burrow by your building, you can safely mitigate the problem by buying dry ice pellets from a restaurant supply company, scooping the pellets into the hole(s) during the day (when rats are likely in their nest sleeping), and then breaking up and filling in the holes. This is more effective and safer than poison. Share the word with your super!
Suzanne for Mayor, hey 1 more independent, she’s got a shot.
This stuff needs to carry a heavy heavy fine. It’s just absolutely disgusting people do this and everyone else just has to live with it.
Several years ago, I reported so many rats running from 96th and Riverside – across the street and through the small area with benches into Riverside Park. There must have been 30-50! It was at sundown. They’re still going strong. Many of us have dogs, love the birds and squirrels and don’t want them poisoned. What can be done?.
Isn’t this something the new “quality of life” police squads should address?
Does anyone know how to contact these squads?
Why not simply make it illegal to feed pigeons and other wildlife? Right now, there’s no legal means to prevent people from feeding rats. Instead, we have a Rat Czar that has minimal powers to contain the burgeoning rat population via containerizing trash cans and little else.
Why can’t we use common sense and outlaw this idiotic behavior once and for all?
There’s a product that causes rat infertility – a permanent solution. Consider it something to put into the bread and seeds for the birds
Where are the rat-catching dogs, then?
Here’s a novel idea for you, Gale. Work to MAKE IT ILLEGAL!
This is all beyond disgusting and yet again we are catering to/tiptoeing around the nitwits.