NYC Mayor Adams hit with another fine for rat infestation at his Brooklyn rowhouse

NEW YORK — New York Mayor Eric Adams has been slapped with another $300 ticket for allegedly failing to root out a rat infestation at his Brooklyn rowhouse, city records show.

The new fine marks the fourth rat-related summons the rodent-despising mayor has been hit with since May 2022 over an evidently stubborn infestation in the front yard of his four-story building on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The latest pest penalty, which was issued by a Department of Health inspector on Sept. 15, alleges Adams has failed to “eliminate” the infestation, as evidenced by “fresh rat droppings” that “were observed at front right in the garbage storage area and near the property line,” according to a copy of the summons reviewed by the New York Daily News.

The inspector also wrote that she spotted multiple “rat burrows” in the yard: “One active rat burrow was observed in the pavement at the base of the black fence in the garbage storage area at front right; One active rat burrow was observed at the main entrance staircase at front left on the left side of the base step on the property line.”

The ticket lists the minimum penalty for the infestation as $300. It could balloon as high as $600, though, the paperwork notes.

Spokespeople for Adams did not immediately return requests for comment Friday afternoon.

Should he choose to contest the ticket, Adams has the opportunity to appear at a hearing on Oct. 31, according to city records.

Public attention on rats at the mayor’s Bed-Stuy digs started amassing last spring, when the Daily News first reported that he was dinged with a $300 fine for failing to address the infestation in his yard.

The mayor got that violation dismissed after dispatching a City Hall attorney to help challenge it and appear at a hearing on his behalf. In filings, the attorney, Rahul Agarwal, told a presiding officer that the mayor had shelled out $7,000 in pest mitigation services to try to get the infestation under control.

But the efforts apparently didn’t resolve the problem, as Adams was slammed with two more $300 rat tickets last December. He challenged those tickets, too, and got one of them dismissed, while he paid off the other one.

Adams has made rodent mitigation one of his top policy priorities as mayor, even appointing a citywide “rat czar” earlier this year whose sole job is focusing on ways to exterminate the foul four-legged creatures.

The anti-rat efforts appear to be having some impact. Adams’ latest Mayor’s Management Report says rodent sightings in the city’s four “rat mitigation zones” — areas where the administration’s deploying extra resources to fight the scourges — dropped by 45% this summer as compared to last summer.

One of those zones, which spans Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and Prospect Heights, includes the mayor’s Lafayette Avenue home.

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