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"Rat Crossing" Signs Going Up On Upper West Side
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 29, 2012
Modified Aug 30, 2012
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courtesy Joseph Bolanos
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Aug 29, 2012
Modified Aug 30, 2012
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Earlier this month, the president of the West 76th Street Block Association, Joseph Bolanos, told the Times at a city-sponsored "rat academy" that he was planning to hang up signs warning residents and pedestrians of the infestation at 52 West 76th Street. "Next week I’m putting up signs that say, ‘Rat Crossing.’ It’s like ‘Deer Crossing.’ ” Tonight, those signs will go up, not that the rats will care. "It gets really crazy around 2 a.m.," Bolanos says. "This one lady was walking her dog there the other night and she actually stepped on one—squished it. It was alarming for her and the rat."
Bolanos and other residents who attended the seminar, which was designed to offer tips on how to stem the burgeoning rat problem on the Upper West Side (thicker garbage cans, less litter, etc.), blame the trouble spot on the construction that has been going on at 52 West 76th for two years.
At the meeting, he complained that workers for Taconic Construction would discard their lunches on site and cover them with a tarp. "It was like a rat buffet," he says. Have the workers changed their behavior since all the bad press? "It's funny," Bolanos says. "They put down two metal cans with lids on them, but it's been two years. That's too little, too late." He adds, "To be honest with you, I have zero confidence in anyone doing anything."
That includes the DOH ("They're being very passive about addressing this issue"), Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer ("I used to support him, but he'll show up at whatever zip code and say whatever people will want to hear—he's running for mayor!"), and Mayor Bloomberg, who he claims is "working on his legacy more than he's caring for his constituents."
Watching the video he provided, we couldn't help notice that the rat problems on this writer's block of the Lower East Side made the one depicted in the video seem tame, and said as much. "Well that was taken a little earlier, at 10 p.m.," Bolanos replied. "I will say that I've been reading Rats by Robert Sullivan, and some of the stuff he describes in Lower Manhattan make what we're dealing with seem like Sesame Street. It's certainly a citywide problem."
Bolanos thinks that because rats are nocturnal, putting out the trash two hours before pickup at 5 a.m. rather than the night before would prevent the rats from "eating for 12 hours straight," but is facing resistance from supers and building owners, who believe the new trash system would be a problem. "But a problem is a problem—you want to take the trash out earlier or do you want rats?"
The signs will be installed around 50 feet before you reach the site, and on the east side of the street to give people "plenty of warning." Did Bolanos have any other tips to avoid the rats? Had he tried the jingling-your-keys-until-they-scatter method? "I've never heard that one. I gotta try that."
Tagged
doh
rat crossing
rat infestation
rats
Upper West Side
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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