(Robert Whitcomb, New England Diary’s editor, is chairman of The Guardian.)
District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn challenged the city’s claims of progress in controlling its rat population at a recent City Council hearing. The councilor argued that successes celebrated by city officials contrast sharply with constituents’ lived experiences.
Councilor Flynn chaired the hearing, which he co-sponsored with District 9 City Councilor Liz Breadon, where residents gave testimony and questioned representatives of the Inspectional Services Department (ISD), the mayor’s Operations Cabinet, the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA).
“There’s some disconnect between what [the city] has highlighted on how things are going well and what residents are experiencing,” Councilor Flynn said after testimonies were given at the hearing. “It has not improved. It’s gotten worse. It’s a major public health, public safety, quality of life issue.”
The hearing examined the Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP), where officials highlighted new technology, sanitation improvements and the September National Urban Rat Summit as indicators of success.
But residents from Back Bay, Chinatown, Bay Village, Allston-Brighton and other neighborhoods testified about persistent infestations, inadequate trash collection and difficulty holding property owners and developers accountable.
One recurring demand, echoing the recommendation of Councilor Flynn, called for the appointment of a dedicated “rat czar” to oversee and coordinate the city’s rodent control across departments.
“Somebody needs to own this problem,” one resident testified. “Someone has to be the name and face of the solution. With 20 committees and agencies and departments, it’s very difficult.”
Residents also urged the city to reconsider allowing trash to sit out on sidewalks overnight, providing rats with an easily accessible food source.
Currently, trash is allowed to be curbside after 5pm the night before pickup. Residents said that schedule encourages leaving bags outside overnight. In downtown neighborhoods where space is limited, bagged trash is a particularly accessible food source for rats, but residents also testified that rodents even chew through hard plastic trash cans.
“Over the last year, we've been working to better understand the different options that are available to us,” said Luke Hines from the Operations Cabinet. “We've been in coordination with the streets team in identifying those different options, working with community partners to better understand what they would support and then working with the trash contractors to see what would be feasible for them.”
Another major concern was enforcement against landlords and developers whose buildings or construction sites contribute to rodent problems.
ISD Assistant Commissioner John Ulrich said construction projects subject to the city’s community sanitation requirements must provide pest control documentation before receiving permits. His department has conducted approximately 210 construction sanitation inspections since January and reported 785 violations this year. However, residents said that penalties are too lenient and are treated by developers as a cost of doing business.
Councilor Flynn closed out the hearing in disagreement with the city’s assessment of public health risks posed by Boston’s rat population. One resident, who identified himself as John and said he has lived on Acadia Street in South Boston for 23 years, testified that his son contracted Leptospirosis earlier this fall, a bacterial infection that can spread through contact with urine from infected animals, including rats.
“He was in the hospital for two weeks and ICU for a week and suffered serious liver and kidney injuries,” John said.
Another resident testified that their dog had also contracted Leptospirosis.
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) was not present at the hearing, but Ulrich characterized the number of rat-to-human infections as “relatively low” based on the word of Dr. Kathryn Himmelstein from the BPHC.
Dr. Himmelstein testified at a March 16 City Council hearing that, “contracting Leptospirosis in Boston is extremely rare, and the last reported case was in 2021.” Prior to 2021, the next most recent reported case was in 2018.