our mayor

Eric Adams Has More Rats

Photo: johnandersonphoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Last month, it was reported that Eric Adams had an unpaid summons for having a rat infestation outside his Brooklyn brownstone. At a hearing, Adams testified that he had spent almost $7,000 to get rid of the rats, including deploying his own rat bucket. The officer dismissed the case and, as the Times put it, “It was unclear on Thursday evening whether the rats were gone, but the ticket was.”

The rats were not gone. As the New York Daily News first reported, the day after the hearing, a Health Department inspector issued two more tickets for rats outside of Adams’s Bed-Stuy spot, noting that “an active rat runway” was found along the property line. “A rat burrow was observed along the ledge of the fenceline,” the ticket read, with “fresh rat droppings” seen in front of the garbage bins. One of the tickets was also for rat “harborage conditions” like loose recyclables in the front yard. (Curtis Sliwa couldn’t help but seize the spotlight and offer to “organize a feral cat colony” to help Adams control his rats.)

Adams, who has spent a lot of time talking up the city’s rat-mitigation efforts and recently posted a job listing for a rat czar, told the Daily News his trash is covered and that he will “again challenge these violations and show that rats don’t run this city.” But for now, they seem to run a block on Lafayette Avenue.

Eric Adams Has More Rats