Rodent Control in Chinatown

Rodent Pressure in Chinatown

Manhattan's Chinatown occupies the area bounded roughly by Canal Street to the north, the Manhattan Bridge approach to the east, Worth Street to the south, and Centre Street to the west. It is one of the highest-density food market corridors in New York City — the produce markets and fish stalls along Canal Street, Mott Street, Mulberry Street, and East Broadway generate an extraordinary volume of organic food waste that supports one of the most sustained Norway rat populations in the borough.

The building stock in Chinatown is largely pre-war tenements similar to those on the Lower East Side, many dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ground floors of these buildings almost universally house retail food operations — restaurants, tea houses, bakeries, produce stands — which means the barrier between the food waste generating the rat population and the residential units above is a single floor. Norway rats that forage along Canal Street at night burrow into the foundations of buildings directly behind the market stalls.

The canal that originally gave Canal Street its name was filled in the 19th century, but the drainage infrastructure beneath the street is among the oldest in the city and creates a complex underground environment that connects the neighborhood's sewer system to the broader Lower Manhattan network. The J and Z trains run under Canal Street, and the station infrastructure intersects with the original sewer lines at multiple points.

The Columbus Park area near Bayard Street provides limited green space in the neighborhood but some vegetation cover that supports rodent harborage. The court complex along Centre Street to the west creates a transition zone with different land use that affects the rodent pressure pattern on the western edge of the neighborhood.