Sunday, October 19, 2008

Astoria is a rat playground

“I was surprised and disturbed to see a large Norway rat about 14 inches long,” Tom Dooley said. “It was running back and forth in the garbage carrying food in its mouth. Perhaps even more disturbing was that it was not alone. There was a steady stream of different rats, perhaps dozens.”

Rats running rampant in Astoria

Dooley began taking photos of the critters with the intention of filing a complaint, when nearby residents gathered around expressing their concern and outrage at the problem. Dooley believes that the rats might be coming from the construction site that is next to O’Neill’s residence or from the Trade Fair supermarket that is on 30th Avenue and 30th Street.

“The people that live near the Trade Fair are aware of the rats,” O’Neill pointed out. He said that the supermarket has its dumpster open, overflowing with food, welcoming the rats.

However, not everyone in the community has seen the rats.

“We haven’t had any new information about the issue,” said Andrew Moesel, spokesperson from City Councilmember Peter Vallone’s office.

Lucille Hartmann, district manager of Community Board 1, which includes Astoria and Long Island City, said that her office had not heard anything about the situation from any resident.

“No complaints have been called in,” Hartmann said.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Astoria also has a problem with rats of the two legged variety, not just the ones with four legs!

Anonymous said...

So Dennis Gallagher, after being shunned by his community and thrown out by his wife, has found his way to Astoria. Good riddence!

Anonymous said...

What do you mean, Wade?

Anonymous said...

There are rats running all around Astoria - you can drive up a street and see them running in front of you.

It was never like this a few decades ago.

There are a bunch of trashy filthy people that have moved in over the years.

Anonymous said...

The dirty people are among the tweeded, we only notice that they drive out the pesky middle class, and support the machine.

We see nothing else.

Anonymous said...

Lucille is a nice person, but like CALDC and other community groups, the leadership has been replaced by order takers.

Nice people, though....

Who cares? The community is going down the tubes and its leadership is busy ripping out the pipes.

They are taking the money and run.

Anonymous said...

We have always had this problem since Astoria is on the East River. Noway rats are also known as "River Rats" and some are the size of large terriers.

They are extremely intelligent and quickly learn to avoid poisons.