New York City has hired a rat-catcher for $155,000-a-year, and she’s had a passion for eliminating vermin since she was just ten-years-old.
The appointment of 34-year-old former elementary school teacher Kathleen Corradi was announced by Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, and comes just months after he was ordered to pay $300 for a rat infestation in his own Brooklyn home.
Corradi has become the first-ever Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation – a position previously dubbed by Adams as ‘rat czar’ – and will lead a team of rodent experts to deal with city’s critical rat problem. Sightings doubled in the last year, according to city data.
Corradi said the city would start by reducing food waste on the streets, and Adams said a ‘rat mitigation zone’ in Harlem would see $3.5million invested into ridding the neighborhood of rodents.
New York City has hired rat-catcher Kathleen Corradi (pictured right) for $155,000-a-year
Adams said a ‘rat mitigation zone’ in Harlem would see $3.5million invested into ridding the neighborhood of rodents
In December Adams was served a summons for a rat infestation at the Brooklyn in which he lives with his son
‘This is almost a job that’s made for her,’ Adams said of Corradi during a press conference on Wednesday.
Although she was picked after a national search, she has worked at the Education Department and previously led its rodent reduction efforts, The New York Times reported.
‘Due to those efforts nearly 70 percent of schools with persistent rodent issues reached their compliance goals,’ said Corradi.
‘As New York City’s first Director of Rodent Mitigation, I will bring a science and systems based approaching to reducing New York City’s rat population.’
‘You’ll be seeing a lot of me and lot less rats,’ she added.
Her mother told The Times her hatred of rats is long-lasting. She recounted how nearly 25 years ago, a ten-year-old Corradi spotted a dead rat by some train tracks on Long Island.
In shock she distributed a between neighbors and delivered it to local officials demanding that something be done.
‘The Long Island Rail Road listened,’ said her mother. ‘They came and did rat mitigation.’
At Wednesday’s conference the city laid out on a table a variety of materials it was proposing to use in order to attack the rat population, including traps, sealant and poisons.
Adams declared a war on rats last December when he began his search for somebody to occupy the new position. ‘There’s nothing I hate more than rats,’ he said while advertising what is now Corradi’s job.
Corradi has become the first-ever Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation, but the much-awaited position was previously dubbed the ‘rat czar’
At Wednesday’s conference the city laid out a variety of materials it was proposing to use in order to attack the rat population, including traps, sealant and poisons
The mayor’s Brooklyn neighborhood is known to have rat issues and has been treating the issue through the help of the Department of Health
The position was listed as being for anyone with a background in urban planning, project management, or government work. It explained the job would require doing ‘the impossible’ to reduce the number of rats in the city.
It also suggested the right candidate would have a ‘swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor and general aura of badassery.’ A knowledge of PowerPoint was also required.
The job also required ‘stamina and stagecraft’ and the listing suggested ‘the ideal candidate is highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty.’
‘Despite their successful public engagement strategy and cheeky social media presence, rats are not our friends. 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,’ the posting said.
Adams’s rat city-wide rat issue has affected his own home too. In December, he was served a summons for a rat infestation at the Brooklyn home in which he lives with his son.
His record showed an unpaid summons penalty for $330 that he received in May – after it was found that his Bedford Stuyvesant home is flooded with the rodents.
The ‘Director of Rodent Mitigation’ job posting, for which Corradi has now been hired
Adams invited reporters to tour his basement home in Brooklyn last year, in a bid to prove that he actually lived in the city – rather than in New Jersey
When Adams was the president of the borough of Brooklyn he staged a press conference to illustrate that he did live on the property
Adams’ home serves as a partial rental property. The mayor previously failed to list his home as a rental and critics have accused him of actually living in New Jersey with his girlfriend Tracey Collins.
He previously debunked the claims last year – before he became mayor – when he invited reporters into his Brooklyn home. The mayor said he lived in the basement and rents out the floors above to pay for his son Jordan’s college fees.
Adams is registered to vote on the first floor, yet a tenant who has lived there for years is listed under the same unit in multiple documents obtained by Politico last year.
Adams’ rat issue extends outside of his home and on the streets of New York.
