Rat-a-fooey!<\/p>\n
Manhattan\u2019s East Village is experiencing a rodent resurgence with a whopping 37.6% increase in rat sightings year over year \u2014 even as reports fell dramatically citywide this year<\/a>, according to Big Apple public records.<\/p>\n Community Board 3 in Manhattan \u2014 comprised of the East Village, the Lower East Side, Two Bridges and swaths of Chinatown \u2014 saw the critters surging despite significant investments in trash containerization and other anti-pest measures.<\/p>\n Manhattan\u2019s Community Board 3 was one of just nine areas that reported an increase in rat sightings. Leonardo Munoz<\/p>\n The area generated 300 complaints between Jan. 1 to July 11 this year \u2014 up from 218 over the same period last year while most other districts saw a steep decline in rodent activity, according to a Post review of city 311 complaint data.<\/p>\n Citywide sightings dropped from 12,017 to 9,023 over the same stretch, the data shows.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first moved in, I would definitely say they were the biggest problem,\u201d said East Village resident Ahan Shah, 26, adding the rats are \u201cespecially a problem at night.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll walk in the middle of the street,\u201d chimed in 23-year-old local Nico, \u201cbecause I\u2019m scared they\u2019ll run by me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI get scared,\u201d said 20-year-old Elijah Orellana, who works as a porter at an apartment building on Canal Street in Chinatown. \u201cThey\u2019re all near the garbage bins and where all the trash bags are.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanitation department spokesman Vincent Gragnani told The Post the dramatic data can be attributed to just three problem areas in the district: Second Avenue between East Seventh Street and St. Mark\u2019s Place; East Fifth Street between Cooper Square and Second Avenue; and Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard Streets.<\/p>\n Manhattan\u2019s East Village is experiencing a ratty resurgence, even as rodent reports fell dramatically citywide this year. Leonardo Munoz<\/p>\n The latter saw an increase in rat reports by 400% compared to 2025 figures, the department said, adding that a handful of problem addresses on East Fifth Street and Broome Street account for the increase \u2014 and \u201cpotentially reflect issues inside the individual buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike some other parts of Manhattan, the East Village is still littered with piles of black garbage bags tossed onto the street for curbside pickup \u2014 a practice that sanitation officials have been pushing to nix in order to curb rats.<\/p>\n The majority of rat-related calls in the district were made at addresses with more than 10 units \u2013 which are exempt for now from DSNY requirements mandating the use of new anti-rat garbage bins.<\/a><\/p>\n To date, 70% of all trash in the city is required to be in sealed containers, \u201cand the remaining 30 percent is from high-density housing units, of which there are a high proportion in Manhattan,\u201d Gragnani said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are containerizing \u2026 trash in phases,\u201d the rep said, \u201cand by 2031, all trash will be in containers.\u201d<\/p>\n East Village resident Ahan Shah, 26, said rats are \u201cespecially a problem at night.\u201d Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n The East Village and the rest of Community Board 3 were even designated a \u201crat mitigation zone\u201d in 2022, which means the area saw more city resources \u2014 like more inspections and extermination efforts.<\/p>\n Orellana noted he would like to see the city install more public trash bins on street corners in the meantime, and attributes the influx in trash to passersby dumping loose food and garbage in residential cans.<\/p>\n The news comes as rat reports are down more than 23% citywide \u2014 a decrease so stark that Mayor Zohran Mamdani hasn\u2019t installed another Big Apple rat czar after former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 appointee Kathleen Corradi left the fledgling post last year.<\/a><\/p>\n In fact, Manhattan\u2019s Community Board 3 was one of just nine districts that reported an increase in rat sightings in 2026.<\/p>\n Other areas that saw increases in rat sightings this year include Bronx\u2019s Community Board 8 (Kingsbridge) at 14%, Brooklyn\u2019s Community Board 10 (Bay Ridge) at 8%, Manhattan\u2019s Community Board 2 (Greenwich Village) at 6.35% and Brooklyn\u2019s Community Board 3 (Bedford-Stuyvesant) at 5.79% \u2014 the latter of which is another designated rat mitigation zone.<\/p>\n Nearly every other district reported a decrease in rat sightings since last year, per city data. Leonardo Munoz<\/p>\n The city has spent millions of dollars curbing its unofficial mascot on city streets, implementing everything from a pilot birth control program<\/a> for rats in Harlem to gassing tree beds in Brooklyn.<\/a><\/p>\n