Uptown Radio

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Jason Slotkin:
Living in Manhattan means living with rats. We’ve all seen our fair share of them. And recently, the city Department of Health issued a report on which Manhattan neighborhoods have the most.

Sounds Park Noise.
Fade up, then under

Jason Slotkin:
The other morning, at about 5:30. I went to Columbus Park on the Lower East Side – the neighborhood with the second-highest number of rat infestations, according to the report.

Sound
Park fade up, then under

Jason Slotkin:
There was some trash scattered about. Traps in some of the brush.

Sound of footsteps (Fade Up scattered)

And sure enough, a few rats scattered into bushes and their burrows at the sound of my footsteps

Sound
Burrow
Sound of bushes

Jason Slotkin:
The report says rat infestations through Manhattan have declined. But not everyone agrees that it means there are fewer rats. Robert Jackson is the city council representative for Washington Heights, one of the neighborhoods with the highest number of rat infestations, according to the report. He says the report records only rat infestations the health department has been able to confirm.

Robert Jackson:
Reported incidents may have decreased, but that doesn’t mean // The rat problem has decreased.

Jason Slotkin:
What that means is the number of residents who have called the city’s 311 hotline to report rats has increased. But those reports aren’t included in official city statistics, unless the department of health can confirm them. In some neighborhoods, like parts of Midtown, there are nearly 20 times as many complaints as the city can confirm. Residents of Washington Heights and Inwood, the other neighborhood at the top of the list, which are part of community board 12, say they’re sick of the rats. The neighborhoods are densely populated and have plenty of hills and parks where rats can hide

Ebenezer Smith:
It’s the way God made this district.

Jason Slotkin:
Ebenezer Smith works for community Board 12. He says this district needs more attention from the city.

Ebenezer Smith:
We need a special operation here. That doesn’t happen at this time because of the budget cuts,etc. etc. So, the city’s working in a flat…that apply to all the budget.

Jason Slotkin:
Smith’s talking about budget cuts that slashed the department of health’s rat management team by two-thirds, while the rat reports called into 311 have increased. But ultimately, human behavior is what attracts the rodents. Rat expert Ralph Maestre says negligent building management can lead draw them inside – and not every super is on his game.

Ralph Maestre:
I’ve seen city supers allow the garbage in the compacter room to fill up to the 3rd, 4th floor of a building before they take the garbage out.

Jason Slotkin:
Maestre says residents of buildings like that can keep food away from rats.

Ralph Maestre:
If you have vegetables on the countertop. They’ll jump up there. If you have meat on the countertop, they’ll jump up there. And they’re very good climbers.

Jason Slotkin:
We reached out to the City Department of Health several times to find out in effort to find out more about its report on rats in Manhattan. The Department never responded. We’ll have a follow-up on Uptown Radio, if they get back to us.

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A C letter grade at Gray's Papaya. Photo by Anna Maria Jakubek/Columbia Radio News

It’s been seven months since New York City adopted its new restaurant grading system, and about half the city’s restaurants have gotten letter grades for cleanliness. 13% got Cs, which means MANY violations. But  it’s unclear whether diners are paying attention.

The city’s Health Department introduced the letter grades to make diners more aware of food safety and, in turn, to put public pressure on restaurants to be clean. Health inspectors give restaurants an A for up to 13 violation points, a B for 14 to 27 and a C for more than 28. Bs and Cs can appeal, but once a grade is final, it has to be displayed up front where customers can see it.

Grays’s Papaya at 72nd and Broadway is a New York institution, famous for its cheap hotdogs, political slogans and lots of customers. And…it also has a bright orange C letter grade right in the front window.

“Oh wow,” said Mike Iannuzzi. “Um, no, I didn’t know what that was. I didn’t really pay attention to that when I walked in.”

Iannuzzi just polished off two Gray’s Papaya hotdogs. The restaurant received 35 violation points for problems like roaches, flies and contamination:

“Live roaches, nice,” said Iannuzzi. “Filthy flies on food… uh… not vermin proof that’s kinda scary.”

Iannuzzi says he has a good immune system, but he’ll avoid the Cs from now on.

“Working in the city, you come in contact with germs everyday, but you know it’s good to be able to avoid the germs when you can, so this is great,” Iannuzzi.

Others aren’t as bothered by the grade. Ruiwen Tan, a tourist from Singapore, points to the C and tells his friends the bad news. They go in anyway.

“The food is good and it’s been recommended, so we choose to ignore it,” said Tan.

Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely says this indifference may seem counterintuitive:

“So actually, it looks quite surprising that people are willing to go to restaurants that are so dirty and polluted,” said Ariely.

But he explains the willingness to put one’s head in the sand is actually a part of human nature.

“People over-weight their own experience, even if it’s not a relevant experience,” said Ariely. “You know, because the truth is, that when people experience the food in a restaurant, they don’t really know how to measure its cleanliness.”

He says diners also don’t know what the letter grades stand for. Ariely says a system based on emotion would be better.

“What does an A really mean? What does a B really mean?” asked Ariely. “If I saw maybe picture of it, that says that you know a C means that a rat ran over your plate, it would be much more vivid.”

Getting diners to pay attention is one thing, but then there’s the issue of how they should react. Andrew Rigie is the Director of Operations for the New York State Restaurant Association. The group fought hard against the public grading system. He says there’s just no reason to steer clear of low grades.

“I recognize that that restaurant is safe and sanitary enough to serve the public or the health department would close that restaurant,” said Rigie.

After all, a C is not an F.

“Hypothetically there’s over 1000 points that a restaurant could accrue from issued violations, yet it only takes 14 points to be issued a B and 28 points to be issued a C.” said Rigie.

But consumer advocate Sarah Klein says eating at a B- or C- grade restaurant is not a gamble worth taking. She’s a food attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit focused primarily on food safety issues.

“I would generally advise people not to eat at a restaurant that received lower than an A,” said Klein. “That restaurant clearly lost points for some significant violations, if they were marked all the way down to a C, and those are very real safety considerations that a consumer should take into account.”

Klein says diners who eat at Cs miss the chance to let restaurants know they need to do better. Just because you don’t get food poisoning, that doesn’t mean you should roll the dice:

“It’s like jaywalking: it’s wonderful when you make it safely to the other side of the street, but everybody agrees that under certain conditions, that could have a much worse outcome,” said Klein.

The Health Department says it will finish grading all of the city’s restaurants by the end of the year.