The brown rat has lived in New York City since the time of the Revolutionary War, or thereabouts. And for at least a century, city officials have tried, and failed, to eradicate it.
And so it was that on Wednesday, centuries after the Rattus norvegicus first stowed away on a New York-bound ship, New York City tried again, advertising for a newly created position of “director of rodent mitigation.”
The unusually irreverent job posting, first reported by Gothamist, seeks someone equipped with a bachelor’s degree, five to eight years of relevant experience and, “most importantly, the drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy — New York City’s relentless rat population.”
It suggests that the ideal candidate should possess the “stamina and stagecraft” to defeat the army of rats, described as “cunning, voracious, and prolific.” The job will pay between $120,000 to $170,000.
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Mayor Eric Adams, to be sure, has a lot on his hands. Record levels of homelessness. A budget teetering on the brink. Stubborn crime rates. But there are few more consistent through lines in the mayor’s public career than his fixation on rats.
Mr. Adams, who has said he kept a rat as childhood pet, has tied his fixation to the “trauma” that rats have inflicted on New York City families. In the first 11 months of his administration, he has made no fewer than six announcements that were cast, at least in part, as anti-rat efforts.
In perhaps his most famous act in his prior job as Brooklyn borough president, he hosted a demonstration of a newfangled rat trap that involved ladling drowned rats out of a vat.
Some sanitation experts worry Mr. Adams’s rat focus risks diverting attention from more pressing needs, like the city’s flailing commitment to all but eliminate residential trash by 2030.
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But Mr. Adams’s anti-rat mission is in keeping with his larger goal of tamping down on disorder and making New Yorkers feel safe. He has reinstituted anti-crime units that, in their previous iteration, were prone to violence. And on Tuesday, before he flew overseas to the World Cup in Qatar by way of an antisemitism conference in Greece, he announced an initiative to more aggressively hospitalize some mentally ill homeless people against their will.
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The rats initiative was handled with a bit less seriousness.
“Despite their successful public engagement strategy and cheeky social media presence, rats are not our friends — they are enemies that must be vanquished by the combined forces of our city government,” said the job posting, which was written by a City Hall speechwriter. “Rodents spread disease, damage homes and wiring and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers in an effort to take over human jobs.”
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When The New York Times sent the posting to Juan Ignacio Sanguinetti-Scheck, a postdoctoral fellow in organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University who has studied rat behavior, he asked if The Times was “pranking” him.
“No way this is real,” he said via email.
It is.
And so it was that on Wednesday, centuries after the Rattus norvegicus first stowed away on a New York-bound ship, New York City tried again, advertising for a newly created position of “director of rodent mitigation.”
The unusually irreverent job posting, first reported by Gothamist, seeks someone equipped with a bachelor’s degree, five to eight years of relevant experience and, “most importantly, the drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy — New York City’s relentless rat population.”
It suggests that the ideal candidate should possess the “stamina and stagecraft” to defeat the army of rats, described as “cunning, voracious, and prolific.” The job will pay between $120,000 to $170,000.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Mayor Eric Adams, to be sure, has a lot on his hands. Record levels of homelessness. A budget teetering on the brink. Stubborn crime rates. But there are few more consistent through lines in the mayor’s public career than his fixation on rats.
Mr. Adams, who has said he kept a rat as childhood pet, has tied his fixation to the “trauma” that rats have inflicted on New York City families. In the first 11 months of his administration, he has made no fewer than six announcements that were cast, at least in part, as anti-rat efforts.
In perhaps his most famous act in his prior job as Brooklyn borough president, he hosted a demonstration of a newfangled rat trap that involved ladling drowned rats out of a vat.
Some sanitation experts worry Mr. Adams’s rat focus risks diverting attention from more pressing needs, like the city’s flailing commitment to all but eliminate residential trash by 2030.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
But Mr. Adams’s anti-rat mission is in keeping with his larger goal of tamping down on disorder and making New Yorkers feel safe. He has reinstituted anti-crime units that, in their previous iteration, were prone to violence. And on Tuesday, before he flew overseas to the World Cup in Qatar by way of an antisemitism conference in Greece, he announced an initiative to more aggressively hospitalize some mentally ill homeless people against their will.
Image
The rats initiative was handled with a bit less seriousness.
“Despite their successful public engagement strategy and cheeky social media presence, rats are not our friends — they are enemies that must be vanquished by the combined forces of our city government,” said the job posting, which was written by a City Hall speechwriter. “Rodents spread disease, damage homes and wiring and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers in an effort to take over human jobs.”
Sign up for the New York Today Newsletter Each morning, get the latest on New York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more. Get it sent to your inbox.
When The New York Times sent the posting to Juan Ignacio Sanguinetti-Scheck, a postdoctoral fellow in organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University who has studied rat behavior, he asked if The Times was “pranking” him.
“No way this is real,” he said via email.
It is.
Wanted: N.Y.C. Rat Overlord With ‘Killer Instinct.’ Will Pay $170,000.
The city is seeking a new director of rodent mitigation to tackle a task that many mayoral administrations have futilely taken on before.
www.nytimes.com