New York City’s rat czar is the informal name for the Director of Rodent Mitigation, a position Mayor Eric Adams created in April 2023 to coordinate the city’s fight against its roughly two million rats. Kathleen Corradi, a former schoolteacher and longtime anti-rat activist, was the first person appointed. In December 2025, Adams signed Executive Order 63, which established a permanent Office of Rodent Mitigation inside the Mayor’s Office and gave the position formal authority to direct interagency work.1NYC Mayor’s Office. Executive Order 63
Why the City Created the Role
Rat control used to be split among the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Sanitation, Parks and Recreation, the Housing Authority, and others. Each agency handled rats on its own turf, so infestations thrived at the boundaries where one jurisdiction ended and another began. Putting one person in charge was meant to close those gaps.
The public health stakes also climbed. In 2023, the city recorded 24 cases of leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread through rat urine, which was higher than any prior year on record. That number helped push City Hall toward a dedicated leadership position rather than another round of scattered agency campaigns.
What the Office Actually Controls
Executive Order 63 requires every mayoral agency to cooperate with the Office of Rodent Mitigation, carry out integrated pest management on city-owned property, address oversight gaps that let rodent populations grow, and improve pest-management contracts.1NYC Mayor’s Office. Executive Order 63 In practice, the rat czar can direct resources and policy changes across at least six agencies: Sanitation, Health and Mental Hygiene, Parks and Recreation, the New York City Housing Authority, the Department of Education, and the Department of Small Business Services.2NYC Mayor’s Office. Mayor Adams Anoints Kathleen Corradi as NYC’s First-Ever Rat Czar
The office operates on roughly $3.5 million. That is modest for a city this size, but the office functions mainly as a coordinating body. The real spending power sits inside the individual agencies whose work the rat czar helps steer. The salary range for the Director position was posted at $120,000 to $170,000, with a bachelor’s degree and five to eight years of relevant experience required.
The Trash Containerization Rules
Rats need about an ounce of food a day, and for decades, loose trash bags on New York sidewalks supplied that food every evening. Containerization is the office’s furthest-reaching policy, and it affects nearly every building in the city.
Businesses
Since March 2024, every business that receives city collection service must set trash out in bins with secure lids. Bags directly on the curb are no longer allowed.3NYC Rules. Use of Certain Receptacles by Certain Entities That Receive Department Collection Service
Residential Buildings
The residential rules are phased by building size:
- Buildings with 1 to 9 units have had to use rigid lidded bins of 55 gallons or less since November 2024. Beginning in June 2026, they must use the Official NYC Bin specifically.4New York City Department of Sanitation. Residential Waste Containerization
- Buildings with 10 to 30 units may choose between stationary on-street containers or individual bins.4New York City Department of Sanitation. Residential Waste Containerization
- Buildings with 31 or more units must use stationary on-street containers, which are serviced by the city’s new automated side-loading garbage trucks.4New York City Department of Sanitation. Residential Waste Containerization
Set-Out Times and Fines
Trash in bins can go to the curb after 6 PM. Bags (still permitted for some larger buildings) cannot go out until after 8 PM.5NYC311. Trash, Recycling, and Compost Collection Schedule The later set-out window shrinks the hours trash sits on the sidewalk overnight.
Containerization violations carry escalating fines of $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second, and $200 for a third or subsequent offense.6NYC311. Residential Waste Containerization
Rat Mitigation Zones
Local Law 110 of 2022 directed the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to identify the neighborhoods with the worst rat activity and concentrate enforcement there.7NYC Rules. Rat Mitigation Zones Zones are set based on the share of inspections that find active infestations, the volume of rat-related 311 complaints, and the vulnerability of nearby parks.8American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 17-133.2 – Rat Mitigation Zones The initial zones cover Harlem and the East Village/Chinatown area in Manhattan, Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Bed-Stuy/Bushwick in Brooklyn.
If your property sits in a zone, expect more frequent inspections for rat activity and the conditions that attract rats, like exposed food waste and unsealed building openings. A failed inspection brings an abatement order. A follow-up compliance inspection comes two to three weeks later, and failing that one triggers a summons.9NYC Health Department. NYC’s Rat Mitigation Zones The Health Department reviews its data periodically and can expand, shrink, or add zones.8American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 17-133.2 – Rat Mitigation Zones
Other Tactics
In parks and open spaces, workers pack dry ice into active burrow entrances and seal them with soil. As the dry ice sublimates, carbon dioxide fills the tunnels and suffocates the rats inside. Applicators must be licensed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation because dry ice treatment is classified as a pesticide.
The City Council has advanced legislation to deploy contraceptive bait in areas where trash is already containerized, on the theory that rats with no alternative food source are more likely to consume it. Over multiple generations, that can shrink a colony’s reproductive output.10NYC City Council. Rat Birth Control and Rat Walks Among New Initiatives to Curb NYC’s Rat Population The office also runs “Rat Walks,” neighborhood tours where residents and city staff walk problem areas together, identifying burrows and foundation gaps.
Is It Working?
Early numbers point in the right direction. Citywide, rat sightings reported through 311 dropped roughly 18% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. Brooklyn saw the sharpest decline at nearly 29%, followed by Queens at about 22%. The Bronx was down 14%, Staten Island about 9%, and Manhattan was essentially flat with less than a 1% decrease.
Those numbers come with caveats. Fewer 311 complaints could mean fewer rats, or it could mean reporting fatigue or seasonal variation. The office tracks additional measures through its Rat Mitigation Zone reports, including the share of inspections that result in abatement orders and the share of compliance inspections that lead to summonses.11NYC Health. Rat Mitigation Zone Report The city publishes this data through mid-2025, so a fuller read on the containerization rollout should emerge as 2026 data arrives.
The strategic shift is clearer than the final verdict. New York has moved from reactive extermination to systemic prevention: cut off the food supply through containerization, then layer on birth control and targeted extermination in designated zones. Whether a single office with a $3.5 million budget can sustain that effort across a city of 8.3 million people is the real test, and it will take several more years of data to answer.