Dana: 2024 - First published article 

But rat populations are not evenly distributed. The 2022 legislation identified four areas with particularly severe rat problems and designated them “Rodent Mitigation Zones” (RMZs), which are home to about 1 million New Yorkers. The RMZs—one in Harlem, one in the Bronx, one in the Lower East Side and Chinatown, and one in Central Brooklyn—encompass lower-income neighborhoods, including areas with predominantly Black and Latino populations. 

Adams and his newly appointed “Rat Czar,” Kathleen Corradi, acknowledged these demographics when the RMZs were established in April 2023, framing the rodent-reduction efforts as a matter of equity. The laws were supposed to be a way to help under-resourced communities that have struggled with persistent rat infestations. 

Instead, homeowners in those areas are bearing the cost, a City Limits’ analysis of violations data shows. Brooklyn’s zone saw a particularly sharp uptick in DOHMH fines after the RMZs were established in mid-2023, on top of the already elevated level of citywide enforcement. The agency issued 3,073 rodent-related summonses in the Brooklyn zone in the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2023 (the most recent period for which RMZ-level violation data is available), a 63 percent increase from the preceding six months, according to data provided by DOHMH.

Zip code 11216, which straddles Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights within Brooklyn’s RMZ, received one rodent-related summons for every 27 residents in 2023, more than 10 times the citywide average of one fine for every 289 residents, according to Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) records. This is the highest per-capita rate of every zip code in the city, though all RMZ zip codes have violation rates above the city’s average, ranging from one fine for every 27 residents to one fine for every 228 residents in 2023.   

One block within zip code 11216, located on Dean Street between Franklin and Bedford avenues in Crown Heights, has seen a particularly precipitous uptick. It received five rodent-related fines in 2019. In 2023, it received 35, a 600 percent increase in four years.

“The summonses started escalating,” said Betty Davis, an 80-year-old retired homeowner on the Crown Heights block in question. “And they are frivolous. You could get three and four summonses for the exact same thing before you had a chance to comply.”

The fines are also expensive. They start at $300 and go up to $2,000 for repeat offenses. Davis has been charged $930 this year alone.

There are several types of rodent violations issued by DOHMH, but one of the most common, NYC Health Code 151.02(a), cites a “failure to eliminate rodent infestation shown by active rodent signs.” Some residents of the block say it’s unfair to be held accountable for signs of an infestation they couldn’t possibly control. They instead see themselves as victims of the problem, and if anything, they demand compensation for damage to their property.

“The rats were invading us,” Davis said. “And the city is depriving us of funds.”

The article is quite lengthy, and is cut short here, but I still include the rest of Dana's photos: