Gnawing at the problem

Jewish New York City mayor candidate vows to tackle rats

City comptroller Brad Lander takes aim at rat-hating mayor Eric Adams with new anti-rodent campaign plank

By Luke Tress 14 April 2025, 6:45 pm Edit

Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.

A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform in New York City, January 27, 2015. (AP/Richard Drew)
A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform in New York City, January 27, 2015. (AP/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK — Jewish New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a candidate for city mayor, has sparred with his rivals about antisemitism, public safety and city transportation.

But last week, he took a break from his Passover preparations to open a new front in the race: rats.

“New York City’s trash collection policy has turned our city into an all-night rat buffet,” Lander said in a campaign video set to ominous music. “I’m in this rat race for mayor because it doesn’t have to be that way.”

“Cleaner streets, fewer rats, happier New Yorkers,” Lander vowed.

Lander took specific aim at New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who holds a famous hatred of the rodents. Adams has repeatedly voiced his loathing for rats, pledged to kill them, hosted a “National Urban Rat Summit,” appointed the city’s first “Rat Czar,” and declared, “Rats don’t run our city.”

“The rats may be listening and we want to surprise them,” Adams warned in a 2022 speech on “rat mitigation.”

“I hate rats and we want to get rid of rats. That is what we need to do. We’re going to kill rats,” he said.

There are up to 3 million rats in New York City, according to a 2023 estimate by a pest control company that reported a steep population increase in recent years.

Lander challenged the rat-hating mayor with his “comprehensive plan to combat rats once and for all.”

“Unlike Eric Adams’ ‘Rat Czar’ gimmicks and trash bin chaos, Brad’s plan is smart, scalable and actually works,” Lander’s campaign said.

Lander’s 4-page “Trash the Rats” plan calls for improved containerization, data-driven rat tracking, cameras to catch illegal dumping, and a “Rat out the Rat” campaign encouraging New Yorkers to report rodent sightings.

“We can make New York #1 in keeping rats out,” Lander’s campaign said.

Lander is a progressive with long ties to leftist New York City Jewish groups. As comptroller, he is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the city government.

The comptroller is the city’s chief financial officer and provides fiscal oversight to the mayor’s office. Lander has had a contentious relationship with Adams; the mayor once mocked Lander as “the loudest person in the city.”

Lander is running in a crowded field for the Democratic party primary, in June. Adams is running as an independent.

Lander appeared to be the first candidate in the race to roll out a rat policy.

Not all of New York’s Jews are on board with the city’s anti-rat measures, though.

Brooklyn Jewish lawmakers have opposed a Department of Sanitation rat-mitigation rule that required constituents to put garbage on the curb on Friday nights or risk fines. Legislators said the measure conflicted with prohibitions against carrying or lifting on Shabbat.

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