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June 18, 2010
Ratner YES! Rat Population Control NO!!
While New York City lavishes hundreds of millions of dollars on Bruce Ratner so he can build a basketball arena that will lose even more money for the city, it's laying off dozens of pest-control workers to scrounge up a measly $1.5 million.
Gotham Gazette, A New Tactic for the War on Rats
Natalie Hunnicutt’s first assignment as a pest control aide for the city, was, she recalls, also her most memorable: crashing a party of dozens of rodents at a Queens supermarket.
“There were rats scurrying left and right and I just thought ‘Oh my goodness,’” the Brooklyn resident said. The pests were leaping over her feet and into a mountain of trash, the result of people using the store’s parking lot as a garbage dump. By the end of the day, Hunnicutt said she and seven of her colleagues removed about 400 bags of garbage from the site.
Hunnicutt continued to clean private and public properties with rodent problems for a little more than two years until the city laid her off in May.
“It hurt,” the 28-year-old said about the pink slip. In her job, she said she was “cleaning up communities and making a difference. I was keeping New York City clean.”
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where Pest Control Services resides, laid off Hunnicutt and 48 of her coworkers. That will save $1.5 million, according to the department. It will leave the department with 41 workers.
NoLandGrab: The added irony here is that Ratner's construction has been creating rat problems for Prospect Heights residents.
Posted by eric at June 18, 2010 10:51 AM