{"id":252147,"date":"2025-09-24T22:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/252147\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T22:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:37:11","slug":"nycs-first-rat-czar-quietly-scurries-away-from-176k-gig-in-adams-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/252147\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s first rat czar quietly scurries away from $176K gig in Adams administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hizzoner\u2019s general in his war on rats<\/a> waved the white flag.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s first-ever rat czar Kathleen Corradi, has left her $176,000-a-year job, according to City Hall \u2014 and it\u2019s unclear if the position will ever be filled again.<\/p>\n

Corradi left on her own accord and will be \u201cworking to serve the city in a different capacity,\u201d according to Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 office.<\/p>\n

Corradi was named New York City Rat Czar during a news conference Wednesday, April 12, 2023. Twitter<\/p>\n

\u201dWhen I appointed Kathy Corradi to this historic, unique job, I knew she\u2019d have the drive and knowledge to send the rats packing from our city,\u201d Adams said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s a daunting, complex task, but she\u2019s handled it with confidence and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Hall officials said they were still determining next steps on whether the position would be replaced but spokespeople said that the role will continue in \u201csome capacity\u201d and that the \u201cwork will continue\u201d for Corradi\u2019s initiatives. <\/p>\n

Adams is coming to the end of his first term<\/a> this year and though he\u2019s running as an independent candidate, his re-election chances in November remain slim as he\u2019s trailing in the polls far behind Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and other candidates on the crowded ballot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if any other candidate would appoint a new rat czar if elected.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Adams introduced New York City\u2019s first-ever \u201crat czar\u201d Kathleen Corradi during a news conference at St. Nicholas Park on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 in New York, N.Y. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Corradi, who\u2019s departure was first reported by the online news outlet The City, spearheaded a number of new initiatives to target Gotham\u2019s estimated 3 million rats. Those included contraceptive programs<\/a> and public engagement \u201crat walks\u201d across the five boroughs and focusing on \u201crat mitigation zones\u201d or community board districts with the highest rat sightings.<\/p>\n

The city has also overhauled its policies on trash \u2013 an important food source for the four-legged vermin. Enforcement fines went into effect at the beginning this year for trash containerization at Big Apple properties with up to nine residential units with further rollout for larger buildings happening in 2026.<\/p>\n

UFO-like \u201cempire bins\u201d<\/a> have already started popping up in Harlem as part of a pilot program, angering some locals due to lost parking spaces.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Over the course of her over two-year tenure, the city won a few skirmishes \u2013 overall rat sightings from 2024 to 2022 dropped 4.13% while sightings in rat mitigation zones largely saw steadier drops, like Crown Heights residents reporting 145 less rodents on their local blocks.<\/p>\n

Other rat mitigation zones, like Bronx CB-4 which covers parts of Concourse and Highbridge, have seen increased rat sightings this year. Records from 311 show that at least 663 rats have been spotted this year so far, which is far above 2022\u2019s total of 546 and 2024\u2019s high of 482.<\/p>\n

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent for mayor, said through spokesperson Rich Azzopardi that the campaign hasn\u2019t \u201csettled on a rat policy; it\u2019s not a matter we want to rush or scurry through.<\/p>\n

A general view of rats near garbage cans and garbage bags in front of an apartment building on W49th Street in New York, NY on July 6, 2023. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

While noting that Cuomo supports efforts like trash containerization, Azzorpardi added that, \u201c We\u2019re chewing over whether to continue with a rat czar, or gnaw through the problem in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Republican mayoral candidate and noted animal advocate Curtis Sliwa said in a statement that while he has offered to be the city\u2019s rat czar for free, \u201cEric Adams passed, and the rats are running the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow his Rat Czar is fleeing the sinking ship at City Hall while New Yorkers are still dodging burrows, garbage and vermin; under Mayor Sliwa, we\u2019ll fund rat-fighters, not fancy titles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Mamdani campaign did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hizzoner\u2019s general in his war on rats waved the white flag. The city\u2019s first-ever rat czar Kathleen Corradi,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":252148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13239,5289,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,7835,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-252147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-eric-adams","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-rats","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115261672524885742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}