New York City has found its ‘rat czar’ to clean up the city’s rampant rodent problem.

As reported in a previous story, New York Mayor, Eric Adams, had posted an AUD $250K job ad in October last year to find someone ‘bloodthirsty’ with a ‘general aura of badassery’.

“Everyone that knows me knows one thing: I hate rats,” he said in an October 2022 press conference. 

On April 12th, Adams announced that former teacher, Kathleen Corradi, had been hired to take on the city’s growing rodent population. 

Her title: “Citywide director of rodent mitigation.” 

“You’ll be seeing a lot of me – and a lot less rats,” assured Corradi at a news conference.

While Corradi has prior experience in rat mitigation, having overseen efforts to reduce the pesky rodent population in New York City’s public schools, it was her emotional intelligence that particularly impressed the NY mayor. Corradi even collected signatures to rid her neighbourhood of rats as a child, proving rodent mitigation is in her blood. 

Corradi has plenty of short-term ideas, such as getting food and leftover waste into rat-proof compost bins, but called on the broader community to help out. 

“This is going to take all of us, Corradi implored. 

A $3.5 million investment is already slated for a “Harlem Rat Exclusion Zone”, which will cover everything from rat bait and traps to floor hardening for rat burrowing prevention. 

City data indicates rat sightings have spiked in recent years, perhaps intensified by COVID-19 measures such as sidewalk dining during the height of the pandemic. 

While a 2014 study estimated New York City’s rat population at 2 million, the current size of the city’s rat population is unknown. 

Claiming that ‘rats are symptoms of systemic issues’, it seems Kathleen Corradi is ready to take care of business with the bold declaration: “There’s a new sheriff in town.”