New York City’s so-called rat czar has scurried away after a quiet-as-a-mouse tenure that was largely overtaken by trash.
Kathleen Corradi, the citywide director of rodent mitigation, departed from her position last week, Mayor Eric Adams’ office confirmed to The Independent.
In April 2023, Adams appointed Corradi to reduce the city’s rat population.
“Kathy has the knowledge, drive, experience, and energy to send rats packing and create a cleaner more welcoming city for all New Yorkers,” Adams said at the time.
The City listed several initiatives Corradi completed during her time as “rat czar,” including the “Rat Pack,” a volunteer group “deputized to educate, engage, and take action on all things rat mitigation.”
She was also featured in New York Magazine, patrolling Seward Park on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for rats. The magazine described exterminators with the city’s Parks Department filling holes in low-lying greenery with carbon monoxide to kill the rats.
But the real enemy of the rats appears to be trash containerization, an initiative by the city’s Sanitation Department, which was separate from Corradi’s efforts.
The idea is businesses and residents would put their garbage in hard, plastic containers rather than just throwing trash bags onto the curb, which would attract rats to leftover pizza and other thrown-away food.
In early May, the Sanitation Department announced a historic decline in rat sightings with April data that “proves that containerization works.”
Rat sightings were down nearly 14 percent in the city’s Rat Mitigation Zones in April, compared to the same time the year before.
Adams said in a statement obtained by The Independent that Corradi handled her job as “rat czar” with “confidence and creativity.”
“The results are clear: rat sightings are down eight straight months, and year-to-date, they’re down more than 15 percent,” the mayor said.
Adams said the “War on Rats” will continue “at full steam.”
