One of the biggest disadvantages of living in the city is the invasion of rats. You have all seen them; they are in the parks, on the streets, in the garbage and in your back yard. Estimates of how many rats there are in the city varies. Many say that New York City has one rat per person, for a total of about 8 million; other information suggests that there are 100 million rats living in New York City.
When I first moved to the East Village five years ago, I used to see them sporadically, but very rarely outside my building. Today, the number of rats that I see outside of my building on a daily basis is close to five. They are having a party every day after dark. They push garbage cans over, rip open garbage bags, in successful attempts to feed themselves and their families on leftover Chinese food and chicken.
The reasons for this invasion are many, I guess, but the increase of rats started when the parking lot next door was sold to developers and contractors started building a residential building. In addition, Mama Trini was told to stop looking after the garbage. Mama Trini has lived in the building since the 80’s and for as long as I have been there she has been making sure that residents placed their garbage and recycling in the right cans, making sure food was not spilling out from the garbage, and that the area stayed relatively clean.
Sofia Douglas said, “I have made several calls to 311 and reported this.” Douglas has a dog and is worried that he could be bitten or accidentally poisoned by rat poison.