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.
Re: “But now it’s been confirmed that we’v.e get it worse than any other neighborhood in the city: …10024 and 10025 zip codes lodged 1,183 complaints about rats … the 10023 zip code lodged an additional 237 complaints”
HOORAY !!! WE’RE WINNING !!! BUT WE GOTTA GET THOSE 10023 NUMBERS UP FOR 2013!!!
TAKE THAT, FUR-LESS, TAIL-LESS BI-PEDS!!!
Rat A. Tooey
One cannot rate the rat population by registered complaints alone – there are a great many other neighborhoods with excessive rodent problems where people don’t even bother to complain about varmint anymore.
One solution (for the UWS and elsewhere): stop feeding the rats with enormous amounts of pigeon food, be it seeds, bread crumbs, rice or half-eaten pizza slices.
I believe it. I ride my bike to work downtown and take the Hudson River bike path. The other night I had to dodge 3 rats, all in the UWS portion of my trip. And noticed a dead rat on the path the next morning. I occasionally see them elsewhere, but never as many as on the UWS.
I think everyone in 24 & 25 buy a rat trap and put it somewhere in the hood. I bet that would open some eyes.
Please don’t let the dogs eat the cheese!
Could it be all the unregulated demolition going on in the neighborhood. Once they are disturbed they scatter. Developers let the rats out and destroy the street drainage. Thanks mayor Bloomberg for helping the rats take over our neighborhood.
rat poison does work. If everyone spent 5 minutes and $ 5 bucks putting out rat poison – they would be gone . The rats love when we just talk about a problem.
But rat poison has serious knock-on effects, especially to the hawks that also call the UWS home. The UWS has some of the most robust raptor populations in NYC.
If this website is any indicator, people on the UWS complain more than anyone. Hell, I’m complaining about the complaining!
Not a chance that UWS is the “rattiest neighborhood” in NYC. It’s just that the residents are more sensitive to the rat cohabitation than residents in other neighborhoods (LES, 125th St, K-town, Little Italy, Chinatown).
Perhaps this site should be more accurately called ‘West Side Rat’.