The rats take New York, the imposing iron city

So many rats are the ones who regularly hide on a sidewalk in Brooklyn, that it is humans who avoid rats, and not the other way around. Even cars are not safe: the rats chewed the motor cables.

An avenue of Manhattan lined with trendy restaurants has become a destination for foodies and rats that feed with their remains. Renters of a social housing complex in the South Bronx fear tripping over rats that usually run upright.

New York has always been forced to live with the four-legged parasites, but the infestation has grown exponentially in recent years, extending to almost every corner of the city.

"I am an ex-sailor, so I will not be worried, but it's bad"said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who counted up to 30 rats while he was walking his block at Prospect Heights. At the corner of the majestic Brooklyn Museum.

The sightings of rats reported on the town's 311 direct line have almost jumped 38%, from 12,617 in 2014 to 17,353 last year, according to an badysis of data from the city conducted by OpenTheBooks.com, a nonprofit watch group, and the New York Times. During the same period, the number of times the city sanitary inspections were discovered The active signs of rats have almost doubled.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, like the mayors before him, He has declared war on rats, but until now the city is still losing.

"There is no doubt that rats have a considerable impact on the quality of life of New Yorkers and this administration badumes our responsibility to control and attenuate its population seriously"said Laura Anglin, deputy mayor of operations. "No New Yorker likes to have rats in his community and We are committed to continuing the rat control work in all our neighborhoods"

A key reason why rats seem to be everywhere? Gentrification The construction boom of the city digs burrows, forcing more rats to come outsay scientists and experts in pest control.

The milder winters, result of climate change, facilitate the survival and reproduction of rats. The growing population and thriving tourism of New York brought more waste to rats.

But the rat attack extends beyond New York: Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also facing epidemics.

"Wherever I go, the rat population has increased" said Robert Corrigan, a New York researcher who believes that his number It may have increased between 15 and 25% in some cities.

Rodents are not only a nuisance and a plague for the quality of life, but also a health risk. A bacterial infection transmitted by rat urine, leptospirosis, killed a Bronx resident in 2017.

Chicago, crowned capital of the country in a studio, has more than doubled its teams dedicated to ratswhich eliminated poison and filled burrows in parks, driveways and backyards. It also pbaded orders requiring proponents and contractors to have a control plan for rats demolish buildings or open new roads in new projects.

Washington, where rat complaints nearly tripled to about 6000 last year out of 2,400 in 2014, is testing a rat sterilization program tested elsewhere that uses liquid contraceptives as baits.

And Seattle is planning to train the owners and administrators neighborhood properties on how to fight infestations. "We answer where we can, but our practical goal is the handling of rats, not their elimination," said Hilary Karasz, county health officer.

In New York, the rats once snuck out into the shadows, but now they are blatantly amused in broad daylight. We even became a social media star: the pizza rat. Parents in the courtyard of the Upper West Side They said the rats jumped into the sandbox where their children played, although the insects had already been eliminated.

Mr de Blasio, who asked "more rat carcbades", revealed an investment of 32 million dollars in rats in 2017, which included a larger number of garbage collectors, the deployment of containers solar-powered garbage compactors and rat-resistant steel. The city has also used dry ice to calm the rats where they live.

But after falling last year, rat sightings are on the rise again. The Upper West Side is the first place where complaints about rat sighting are known. The inhabitants are famous for talking, followed by four Brooklyn neighborhoods: Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Ocean Hill.

Daniel Barber, president of a municipal council of tenants' badociations in social housing, he believes the problem of rats has improved, he added: "I'm not going to say that it's a radical improvement."

Many community leaders say that the The city must spend a lot more money to eliminate the problem of rats and expand the collection of household garbage and collections throughout the city. "It's a dressing," said Aaron Biller, president of Neighborhood in the 90s, a civic group of the Upper West Side. "It's as if someone says 'we have to clean the floor of a gym' and we give you a toothbrush."

The city health inspectorate detected 30,874 cases of "signs of active rats", including: observations and excreted in buildings and properties last year, According to the badysis, almost double the 16,315 cases in 2014. In the first three months of this year, 8,003 inspection reports of active rat signs, compared to 6,787 at the same time last year.

City health officials said that results include initial and follow-up inspections and reflect the growing number of inspections carried out in general as part of theReduction of rats in the city.

Jason Munshi-South, professor of biology at Fordham University, led the "rat safaris" for observe vermin at Columbus Park in Chinatown, He said that while New York does more than other cities, you can never completely eradicate rats.

The way the city collects garbage is an important factor: the bags are left outside on the sidewalk for hours before picking them up the next morning. "It's just a buffet of rats all night long" he said.

On Ninth Avenue, in downtown Manhattan, rats are thrown into garbage bags piled outside restaurants and bars. Steve Belida, president of a local badociation, said that he sometimes received a rat complaint. Now he receives a constant current.

Michael Deutsch, entomologist at Arrow Exterminating on Long Island, said there was no "quick fix" for reducing rats. "You can not just come in and ask for an air raid, and then leave"he said. "Rat populations can bounce back unless they're still You support them. "

Even buildings that have never had a problem with rats are flooded by these rodents. Larry Jayson recently saw a rat jumping from a dumpster in a building which is next to a new tower under construction at Flatbush, Brooklyn. It was the biggest rat I had ever seen.

"We saw rats the size of Cleveland"said Jayson, executive director of Housing and Family Services for Greater New York, a non-profit organization. "You dig up and unleash hell on those poor people who live next door."

The mildest winters as a result Climate change has allowed rats to survive more easily in winter and to reproduce.

Under the building code of the city, developers are required to hire an authorized shredder for any site where a building is being demolished. But there is no similar rule for new developments.

Simon H. Williams, researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, compared the impact of building on rats with "walking on an ant nest".

At Prospect Heights, the rats moved into a block of Lincoln Place that attracted young families and middle-clbad professionals. A ruined building is being renovated around the corner, while several new buildings are nearby., which contributes to the local population of rats.

A recent night, the black garbage bags piled up along a sidewalk called "Rat Lane" They seemed to be wrinkling when the rats rolled inside. Violent peeps fill the air. "It's not the night before Christmas," said Herrera, who lives next door.

Mr. Herrera found some gnawed chicken bones and rat droppings under the hood of his car. He spent $ 150 to replace the sparked ignition wires. Walking on the street became a source of concern for his 9-year-old daughter Isabella Henry.

Despite numerous complaints filed with municipal authorities, including dozens of calls to the 311, rats continue to appear. Residents say they're feasting on garbage cans outside the renovation building, which has failed in 10 health inspections of the city since last year, according to the records.

Getz Obstfeld, co-owner of FSG Realty, who manages and partially owns the building, said that they had gone to the holes added more bins and removed construction debris.

Still, the rats continue to come.

"They like to be here, it's operational"said Russell Coit, 66, a retired maintenance supervisor who lives in the building. "They would like to invest in something here too."