I'm going to have to call BS on you. NYC has never not had a rat problem.
Maybe it was the foot-long rat that scampered across his porch at Gracie Mansion. Maybe it was the upcoming November election. Whatever his motivation, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has declared war on the 28 million long-tailed vermin who outnumber New Yorkers 4-to-1.
http://www.terrierman.com/newyork.htm
Rats love New, that doesn't make them welcome
New York struggles with millions of rats
NEW YORK (AP) - Swarms of foot-long, mangy rats are the stuff of nightmares, but for residents of the Baruch Houses it's just another evening in lower Manhattan. Thousands of rats, stirred from their homes by construction, have swarmed into the public housing development. ``I have to shake my keys and throw rocks at them just to get out of my building. I can't live like this,'' said resident Christine Morton, 22. New York's rat problem extends far beyond the halls of its public housing. Bill Perkins, chairman of the City Council's Select Committee on Pest Control, estimates that there are nine rats for every person in the city - a rat population of about 70 million.
Don't tell that to John Gotti.
NYC's rat probelm is mostly with democRATS....
If you love your cat, keep it inside. Otherwise it's trespassing.
I never said rats weren't a New York "problem". I said "infestation".
Do a Google search, and look at the old records for the city. Both cats and rats were a "problem". Once the cats were gone the rat population exploded.