Transcript: Mayor Adams And Citywide Director Of Rodent Mitigation Corradi Appear Live On PIX11 Morning News

April 13, 2023

Hazel Sanchez: Well, New York City residents have some new ammunition in their battle against the rodents.

Dan Mannarino: Yes. After months of searching, Mayor Eric Adams has appointed New York's first ever rat czar. Her name: Kathleen Corradi. And Mr. Mayor and Ms. Corradi are joining us live this morning to talk about the big plans to tackle the rats that have been around forever. So good morning to both of you. Good to see you.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good to see you as well. And on the top of the interview, listen to the story of that New Yorker. Can you imagine starting your day opening your cabinet at home and seeing a rat inside? You will think about that all day, if not all year. You'll never touch that cabinet again without reflecting on it. This is a quality of life issue and a health issue that we're going to tackle.

Mannarino: So, Mr. Mayor, let me ask you this. Ms. Corradi, by the way, congratulations. Kathleen beat out 900 applicants for this position, right? Last time I spoke to you, you said she came up to you and said, "I hate rats." So besides that, what made her the perfect fit?

Mayor Adams: A couple of things. Think about this. 10-years-old, she had a survey on her block. She did a petition on her block calling for rodent mitigation, at 10. This is a person who has a real scientific approach, from her biology degree to her work in the Department of Education to do rodent mitigation. And just really emotionally intelligent, smart, understands the city, a real New Yorker, and understands how important this issue is for us.

Sanchez: So is it fair to say that this is part of the fabric of who you are, Ms. Rat Czar?

Kathleen Corradi, Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation: I guess you could say fighting rats is in my blood.

Mannarino: So let's ask you this, Kathleen. There's more than 9,000 rat complaints out of 311 just this year. If you're a New Yorker, you can't go out throughout your day without seeing them, right? So what is your first order of business for this very tall order that you have ahead of you?

Corradi: Yeah, and it is a tall order, and we're going to need all New Yorkers engaged. 311 is a great place to report if you're seeing unsanitary conditions or rat colonies. Report to us through 311, and we'll send folks out to check on it. Our strategy is fairly simple. We're going to tackle rats' access to food, water, and shelter. We're going to disturb where they live, take away their access to food, and dispatch innovative and effective extermination techniques. Take what works; we're going to scale it citywide and cut out what doesn't.

Sanchez: So Mr. Adams, just a quick question for you. The city's Health Department has an Office of Pest Control and a rodent biologist on staff. So what's the difference between what we already have in the city and what Kathleen's role is?

Mayor Adams: That is the $64 million question. This is what was happening. We had great workers at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, great workers at the Department of Parks, great workers at the Department of Sanitation, all operating in silos. And so now we are coming in with an individual who's going to coordinate all of those efforts. We have some new ways of fighting rats that we are testing currently, and we're going to look at: what do we scale up? What do we use throughout the city? They were all operating in silos. We were not looking at what were the best practices. That is over. This administration, the hallmark is knowing how to de-silo government, and this is one of the most important ways.

Mannarino: So let me ask you this, right? Let's set expectations in reality here. We're not going to get down to zero, right? Zero rats. That's just not possible, although we'd all love that. It's like the cockroaches. You're never going to get rid of them. So Kathleen, what is your expectation for the end of this year? Looking ahead to reduce the rat population, what are we talking about realistically?

Corradi: I think I said yesterday. I'll say again: rats are tough, but New Yorkers are tougher.

Mayor Adams: That's right.

Corradi: And we're going to ask everyone to join this call of action. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves across city government, get with our population to make sure they're informed and have the tools at their disposal, and build a collective effort to do everything we can to mitigate rats.

Mayor Adams: And this is what's important about what Kathleen is stating, because calling 311 is just the beginning. We have to ask ourselves: okay, what am I doing to help fight the rat problem? That's important. That's why we rolled out the litter campaign. That's why we rolled out the Pick Up After Your Dog campaign. That is why we're doing containers for our garbage and changing the hours of the garbage pickups. It's about all of us coming together to fight this problem in a real way. So this is how I'm going to gauge success. One, we currently count rats that goes into boroughs to see those numbers go down. Two – 

Mannarino: Who counts the rats?

Sanchez: I don't want that job.

Mayor Adams: The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. They use technology to do so. But also, no matter how numbers go down, we need to know that New Yorkers feel that we are improving on the problem. That's a big thing for me. I don't want to give New Yorkers stats. I want to give them the facts that they feel better about the city they live in.

Sanchez: So, Kathleen, your job: how will it coexist with positive parts of this city? Like community-run gardens that are really popular in the spring and the summer, but they really have become a haven for rats. How do you tackle that issue?

Corradi: Yeah, so like the mayor said, this is the first time there's someone sitting in a role that can coordinate efforts; that will be with the many agencies already doing this work: DOHMH, Parks, Sanitation, Department of Education, and many more. So this work, the work I'll do, is really focusing on breaking down those silos, getting best practices, making sure we're in coordination and conversation so the best techniques are the first ones we're using in our gardens, for example.

Mayor Adams: And education. Those who have community gardens, those who see boroughs outside their homes, those who see a problem with trash. How do we educate New Yorkers to know what's the proper way to be real rat fighters?

Mannarino: And keep us posted on that. We're almost out a time here, but Mr. Mayor, I do want to sneak in one off topic question.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Mannarino: And that is regarding the budget and these budget negotiations that are going on. We're talking about putting some money into controlling the rat population, but you're asking so many city agencies to cut 3 to 4 percent. You and I have talked about this on the politics show. They have until tomorrow to submit their plans. What if they don't?

Mayor Adams: Well, we know how to comply. This is the third round of PEGs, Program to Eliminate the Gap. I was clear when I was running. Think about it. Let's go back to the videotape. When I was running, I stated we were going to do PEGs. We were going to find efficiencies. These are not cuts, it's finding efficiencies. We ask everyday homeowners and New Yorkers to find efficiencies on how they run their homes. We have to do the same in government. No layoffs, no cuts in services, but finding efficiencies. And we are going to do that. My commissioners and employees are ready to tackle this difficult budgetary crisis that we are facing.

Sanchez: All right. Well, we shall see how that will unfold. Mayor Adams, thanks again for joining us this morning.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Sanchez: Kathleen Corradi, the city's very first rat czar, congratulations again to you and best of luck with this.

Corradi: Thank you.