Rafi Cordova, Ward 1 Council Candidate, Unveils Plan to Solve Hoboken’s Rat Problem

Rafi Córdova today released a comprehensive plan to solve Hoboken’s serious rat problem. “While the City has made attempts to address this problem, including the new containerized garbage ordinance,  much more needs to be done,” said Rafi Córdova. “I believe we need a multifaceted approach to this issue that includes uniting public resources, businesses, and residents. That is exactly what my plan does.”

The Córdova plan is outlined below:

Create a new position for a rat czar leading a task force of sanitation, health, zoning, and construction experts:

Hoboken should emulate the strategy employed by New York City by hiring a rat czar who is solely focused on rat mitigation. The Health Department’s employees have a wide range of duties that prevent them from honing in on this growing problem; a rat czar would only be focused on rats. The holder of this office would be responsible for leading a task force combining workers from sanitation, health, zoning, and construction to walk the streets of Hoboken and issue violations to negligent property owners for issues like mismanaged waste, weed overgrowth that provides nesting material, incorrectly baited construction sites, infested parklets, etc. Likewise, the rat czar would draw on expertise from the same departments about how to tackle the issue from each angle.

Leverage best practices from other communities which have faced and solved this problem:

Hoboken is not the first community to face a problem of this nature. Among the responsibilities of the rat czar will be to keep exploring the many strategies and options that have worked elsewhere.

Second, we need to improve our prevention efforts. All our attempts at extermination are a waste of time unless we strike at the root of the problem. The following areas are key:

Waste Collection

Increase composting city-wide:

Reducing food waste in garbage collection will reduce food sources for rats. By adding funding in the City budget (and supplementary funds from the Hoboken Business Alliance) which can be offset through an increase in fines for negligent property owners, the City can expand the composting contract to provide free composting for businesses and residents.

Hire an additional garbage hauling contractor through the Hoboken Business Alliance:

The largest source of garbage in Hoboken is, understandably, food establishments. Given that garbage is not picked up every day in our business districts, this leads to bags of garbage being stored within or adjacent to businesses and mounds of garbage at the curb on garbage nights. The Hoboken Business Alliance should make it a priority to supplement garbage nights through either a private garbage hauler or the existing garbage hauler utilized by the city to minimize the amount of trash on city streets.

Add additional day of city-funded garbage or recycling pick-up through new contract:

The savings from composting will reduce the volume of garbage on normal garbage days, reducing costs to the city. The city should utilize these additional savings to institute an additional day of garbage and/or recycling pickup (piles of cardboard are prime nesting places for rats) in zones with high levels of rodent activity.

Work with neighbors to implement new garbage container ordinance:

While requiring containerized garbage bins is a step in the right direction, it is not as easy as it sounds for everyone. The administration and City Council should work on an individual basis with property owners who lack sufficient space, and those who already have garbage bins they’ve been using for years, before fines are implemented.

Explore changes to our public trash cans:

The newer and smaller solar-compacted trash bins across the first ward often fill up, get jammed, or simply don’t fit some waste items, all of which can encourage littering. They seem like a step down from the last generation of BigBelly bins. That said, they are much better than the open cylinders used in many parts of the city. We must explore upgrading to a different style of closed-receptacle bins.

Dining

Responsible outdoor dining with parklets:

The outdoor dining options via parklets have been a big boon to businesses and are popular with many. However, given that it was a need during the pandemic, we should phase out the options for parklets and instead offer streateries as an alternative. Streateries are temporary, can be taken down each night and stored inside, similar to Court Street. The City should also strongly enforce weekly power washing, require exterminators to bait on a regular basis, and prohibit the placement of garbage directly on parklets or next to trees and plant pits.

Property owners

Improve education for residents:

Significantly increase educational efforts for residents on what they can and should do to help combat the rat problem. Most significantly, instructing residents on the best practices and requirements to prevent their garbage from attracting rats.

Expand camera services to combat against illegal dumping:

Illegal dumping continues to be a major problem in Hoboken. That’s why the city should invest in security cameras in business districts, including Washington Street, to help target those who are illegally dumping and adding to garbage levels.

Hold negligent property owners accountable:

Poorly maintained properties often lead to rats burrowing, especially when there is no extermination efforts. While the recent ordinance giving the city permission to go in and exterminate in negligent properties is a step in the right direction, these property owners should be held responsible with increased fines, mandatory court appearances, and a published list of property owners who do not comply with multiple city summonses or violations. Additionally, properties with rat infestations and with multiple sanitation and health violations should lose their ability to obtain building or construction permits for one year. We will need to hire more code enforcement officers to make this a reality,

Third and finally, extermination is key. The city and private citizens have taken some steps in the right direction, but we need to expand these efforts. I will push to:

Employ R.A.T.S. dog services:

Various condo associations have already hired the R.A.T.S. dog service to literally hunt and kill rats. This strategy should be utilized in hot spots throughout the city.

Purchase SMART electronic rat traps:

In other cities, SMART rat traps are utilized to kill rats via electrocution and then collect and send data to the city. We should implement the use of these traps so we can collect precise data on the distribution of rat hot spots throughout the city and target those areas with multiple extermination efforts.