By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — A tree-lined block on the Upper West Side is being overrun by rats, with hordes of vermin taking over the street as soon as the sun sets, residents said.
"They own our neighborhood and they won't leave," complained security guard Ray Flores, 53, who has worked on the block for the past 11 years. “They were like little cats. They're bold now. They used to run away."
Flores said he recently had to chase a pair of rats fighting on the sidewalk away with a broom.
Superintendent Javiers Torres said he typically sees up to 100 rats a night scurrying along his block from West End Avenue to Riverside Drive. Each morning, he sees dead rats splattered on the street that have to be washed away by the Sanitation street cleaners, he said.
“Everybody’s making complaints,” said Flores, 46, whose building 340 W. 87th Street is in the heart of the infestation. “Everybody’s upset.”
The city’s complaint hotline, 311, has received an uptick of rodent complaints from the Upper West Side, with 118 complaints logged so far this year compared to 68 in 2009. Last year, 311 received 14,134 complaints about rodents across the city out of more than 18 million calls.
On a recent early-morning visit to West 87th Street, large rats with beady, glowing eyes were a common sight, as they crisscrossed the sidewalk, darted into garbage bins and slipped into building cracks.
Rat problems have been popping up across Manhattan, from an infestation at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side to a flurry of complaints at Verdi Square on the Upper West Side, where some residents say rats "dance" when the sun goes down.
In response to the problems on the Upper West Side, the Health Department has sent inspectors to the area, and recently issued five orders to property owners to better secure their trash after finding signs of rats, a Health Department official said.
Signs warning of rat poison were taped to trees and fences along the stretch Thursday, and the Department plans to return to re-inspect the sites next week.
But so far, the poison doesn't seem to have done much good, residents say.
Kateri Residence nursing assistant Arlene Davis said she’s terrorized each time she heads to work at the nursing home on West 87th Street. “At four, five in the morning, they’re jumping on your feet while you’re walking,” Davis, 45, said.
Residents have different theories about the cause of the outbreak, with many pointing fingers at shoddy garbage bins.
But Fitz Reid, president of the union that represents the city’s Pest Control Aides, blamed recent city cuts that slashed their numbers by nearly 70 percent. Five of the eight pest control aides responsible for Manhattan were laid off May 14, he said.
“We are not surprised that you have an outbreak of the rat problem,” Reid said.
The Health Department said that its overall pest control program will not be affected by the cuts.
No matter the cause, residents say the rat problem needs to be solved.
Another nursing home worker Gloria Garrett, 50, said the situation is so unbearable that she’s been avoiding West 87th Street altogether, diverting to West 86th Street on her way to and from work.
“I’m disgusting," Garrett said. "I'm terrified. It’s too many."
“I can’t take it no more,” she added. “They’ve taken over this block."
