Councilor Flynn Responds to the Newly Released Boston Rodent Action Plan

BOSTON – With the release of the city’s Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP), Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn believes that although there are positive steps outlined on ways to address our pest control crisis and better coordination among our dedicated city departments, the plan falls short of the recommendation of both Councilor Flynn and the study’s author, renowned rodent urbanologist Dr. Bobby Corrigan, that the city revisit the idea of formally creating a “rat czar” like New York City has implemented. Moreover, after talking with residents and businesses across the city for years, Councilor Flynn takes issue with the analysis of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) that our current pest control crisis does not pose a high public health threat to the residents of Boston and their families.

Councilor Flynn has long advocated for the city to focus on the growing problem of pest control and rodent mitigation issues, which were exacerbated during the pandemic when restaurants closed and rats began showing up in more residential areas searching for another food source. Flynn has called for hearings every year on pest control going back to the start of the pandemic in 2020. Last year, he met with New York City’s Director of Rodent Mitigation, or “Rat Czar”, Kathleen Corradi, to discuss both the logistics of working with a number of different city departments to tackle this quality of life issue, as well as specific strategies to deal with the growing rodent population in municipalities across the country.

In fact, after calling for a hearing on the creation of an Office of Pest Control in January of 2023, Councilor Flynn introduced an ordinance at the Boston City Council in January of this year and held a hearing to formally establish one in the City of Boston. He also met earlier this year with relevant city departments and Dr. Corrigan to discuss their work in formulating this report and offered recommendations.

“I’d like to thank Dr. Corrigan and our dedicated city departments for focusing on working together to address some of the recommendations we discussed related to overall trash containerization and mitigating the opportunity for rodents to thrive, community walkthroughs, targeting commercial areas and sewers, among others. However, although Dr. Corrigan recommended that we revisit the idea, the Boston Rodent Action Plan does not formally create a ‘rat czar’ to be the dedicated point person solely focused on coordinating all city departments to address our pest control crisis,” said Councilor Flynn. “Moreover, although the Boston Public Health Commission indicated that rats do not currently pose a high public health threat to the residents of Boston – I adamantly disagree. When I hear about a rat in a child’s crib, it is clear to me that this is a public health emergency. We should not be downplaying the impacts that this significant quality of life issue is having on neighbors across the City of Boston. Public education campaigns and language access in every neighborhood of Boston is also critical to ensure all of our residents are invested in working together to make sure their trash is disposed of properly.”

For more information, please contact Councilor Flynn’s office at 617-635-3203 and [email protected].