The city is looking to hire a “Director of Rodent Mitigation” to work across city agencies and the private sector to address our rat problems. According to the listing posted on Wednesday, the position falls under the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Operations and the salary range is $120,000 to $170,000. Also according to the listing: Rats “are enemies that must be vanquished by the combined forces of our city government,” and they also “spread disease, damage homes and wiring, and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers in an effort to take over human jobs.”
A bit much. The job comes amidst a greater effort by the mayor and Department of Sanitation to fight rats through branding exercises. Earlier this week, the Department of Sanitation released a $48 shirt that says “The rats don’t run this city. We do,” which is itself a riff on Sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Adams’s press conference announcing that they were adjusting trash-pickup schedules by a few hours, a move they framed as historic.
The city has been taking slow steps to embrace trash containerization, starting a pilot of a few commercial bins and commissioning a study of the issue citywide. But it’s been much quicker at making the try-hard rat brand a thing. If you have “swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and general aura of badassery,” at least three references, and a high tolerance for bad jokes, the director of rodent mitigation might be the right role for you. You can apply here.
