NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s rat-hating mayor has once again been ticketed for a rat infestation at his Brooklyn property.
Mayor Eric Adams’ latest ticket was issued by a city health inspector May 16 at a row house he owns in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The inspector observed fresh rat droppings and a rat burrow “at the front left base of the staircase of the property.”
The ticket, first reported by the Daily News, was Adams’ fifth rodent violation since he became mayor in January 2022.
He can contest the ticket July 7 before an Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings officer.
A spokesperson for Adams, Liz Garcia, said in a statement, “The mayor prides himself on keeping his property clean. He will review the summons and follow all standard procedures.”
Adams, a Democrat, frequently proclaims, “I hate rats!” and once tried to prove it by demonstrating a device that drowned them in a vat of caustic liquid.
He appointed the city’s first “rat czar” last year after posting a help-wanted ad seeking applicants who could commit to the “wholesale slaughter” of the pests.
Adams, who now lives in Gracie Mansion, the official mayor’s residence, challenged the previous rat tickets he got at the Brooklyn property.
Three were dismissed, but the mayor paid $300 to settle the fourth. Adams told a hearing officer he had spent $7,000 on rat mitigation at the property.