Rats! Eric Adams hit with more rodents summonses at NYC building
Rats, they’re back!
A city Health Department inspector recently hit Mayor Eric Adams with two new summonses for vermin on his Brooklyn property after finding evidence of a rat “runway” and other telltale signs of rodents at the multi-unit brownstone, records show.
The summonses come seven months after a previous Health Department inspection uncovered evidence of a rat infestation at the building on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Both instances are an embarrassment for the mayor, who has made battling the Big Apple’s chronic rodent infestations a signature initiative of his first year in office.
The fresh round of tickets, issued to Hizzoner on Dec. 7, revealed that DOHMH found evidence of a rat burrow near the property’s front fence, spotted droppings near trash cans placed nearby and discovered “signs” of a rat “runway.”
The inspector also deemed a pile of recycling in the front yard as “harborage conditions” that could encourage the nesting of additional rats.
The maximum penalty for both tickets is $500. Adams’ date before an administrative judge hearing the case is tentatively set for Jan. 12.
But Hizzoner said in a statement Tuesday that he smells a rat in this whole saga.
“As I have said repeatedly, it is so important that each of us does our part to address the rats that all New Yorkers hate, and that’s why I keep my yard clean and garbage in covered trash bins,” he said.
“I am concerned that, despite previously spending nearly $7,000 on rat mitigation efforts, I received two new summonses on the same day, even though a neutral hearing officer found that I ‘demonstrate[d] sufficient steps taken … to prevent and control infestation at [my] property.
“I will again challenge these violations and show that rats don’t run this city.”