These Are NYC's Most Rat-Infested Neighborhoods

NEW YORK — Even the rats play favorites. A handful of New York City neighborhoods are overrun by rodents despite a recent drop in rat sightings citywide, a new report says.

New Yorkers logged 17,353 rat-sighting complaints to the city government this past year, 9 percent fewer than in 2017, according to the RentHop report published Monday. But that's the second-largest number among the five major cities for which the real estate website analyzed 311 data.

The critters were especially abundant in Manhattan and Brooklyn, RentHop's figures show — the former logged the most complaints per square mile at 188.2, while the latter had the most complaints overall with 6,565.

The two boroughs were also home to the city's most rat-infested neighborhoods, according to RentHop. Prospect Heights residents file an average of 529.7 rat complaints per square mile each year, the highest concentration in the city, followed by Central Harlem South's 464.9, the report says.

Rounding out the top five are Yorkville with 399.3 average yearly complaints per square mile, Hamilton Heights with 336 and Clinton Hill with 334.9, according to the report.

Some of those numbers may seem large because the neighborhoods are small. RentHop calculated the averages based on the total rat complaints logged from 2014 to 2018 and the size of each neighborhood — which was less than one square mile in Prospect Heights's case, according to data scientist Shane Lee. The Brooklyn nabe saw 408 rat complaints in 2017 and 282 last year, the report says.

"(T)he normalized number considered the size of the neighborhoods," Lee said in a statement.

All of those neighborhoods except Hamilton Heights reported fewer rat sightings last year than they did in 2017, RentHop's data show.

The citywide drop last year followed Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts to tackle rat infestations, such as new trash cans and more frequent garbage pickups. But three of the five neighborhoods targeted by de Blasio's $32 million plan — Bed-Stuy, Chinatown and Little Italy — saw rat complaints increase last year, RentHop's figures show.

Some spots of the city have seen rats more frequently, although their numbers are still fairly small, the report shows. Auburndale, Queens, for instance, saw the biggest year-to-year spike in rat complaints with 22 last year, a 340 percent increase from just five in 2017, according to RentHop.

Complaints to 311 offer insights into where New Yorkers are reporting rat problems most frequently, but there are limits to its usefulness. Research has shown that different demographic groups and neighborhoods use 311 services at different rates, requiring governments to analyze other factors when evaluating complaints, according to a 2016 article in Governing Magazine.

Check out RentHop's map below to see how frequently rats are spotted in your neighborhood.