Upper East Side Rat Sightings Surge In 2021, Complaints Show

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A surge in rat sightings across the city hasn't spared the Upper East Side, where complaints about the unwelcome rodents have jumped by 55 percent this year — and more than doubled from pre-pandemic rates, according to 311 complaint data.

As of Wednesday, people have filed 681 complaints about rat sightings on the Upper East Side in 2021. That's by far the most complaints the neighborhood has seen in the past five years, with more than a month remaining in 2021.

Across the five boroughs, rat sightings have surged by a similar amount, hitting a total of 25,000 earlier this month. Experts have said the trend is likely due to a confluence of factors related to the pandemic, including health inspectors being reassigned away from rat-patrol duty over to mass-vaccination sites; an unusually wet summer; and the closure of restaurants during the early days of COVID-19, which forced rats to scavenge outside more.

Another study of 311 complaints conducted by Renthop.com this month found that the Upper East Side was among New York's most rat-plagued neighborhoods, based on its number of complaints. (The worst-hit neighborhood of all was Harlem.)

On the Upper East Side, the most unwelcome aspect of the rat sightings may be where they're being seen: in and around people's homes. About 60 percent of this year's rat complaints have been made in residential buildings — or 410 in total.

Another 30 were sighted in commercial buildings, 19 were seen at construction sites, 38 were at vacant buildings or lots — and perhaps most disturbingly, four were recorded at hospitals. (Another 169 people listed their location as "other.")

Broken down by street, the most rat-infested stretches of the neighborhood include East 78th Street (68 complaints), East 83rd Street (54 complaints), First Avenue (48 complaints) and East 94th Street (41 complaints).

"I think they are pretty much everywhere," the leader of a Park Slope business group told Patch last week, referring to a spike in rat complaints in that neighborhood.

Although rat complaints usually spike in the summer, October 2021 marked the worst month in the past six years, according to Renthop, with 3,282 complaints – a whopping 62.7% more than October 2020.

Related rat coverage:

• Rodent Sightings Jump 29% In NYC In 2021: Study
• Oh, Rats: NYC Rodent Sightings Surge In 2021
• NYC Is Not Most Rat Infested City In US, Shocking Study Finds
• Trash, Closed Restaurants Make New York 3rd Rattiest City In U.S.

Michael Wittner and Anna Quinn contributed to this report.