Rats raid courtyards, ravage cars on Bailey

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For a while now, people in Kingsbridge have been noticing their cars develop mechanical troubles after being left parked on the street along Bailey Avenue. But the breakdowns are no longer a mystery to local residents.

The culprits behind car malfunctions, according to residents, are rats. The rodents have infested the area of Bailey Avenue around the West 230s, foraging in garbage containers, burrowing in courtyards, and climbing under the hoods of parked cars to warm up near heated engines and gnaw on the wires, residents and building superintendents say. 

“That’s happened to me twice,” said Barbara, who lives at 3820 Bailey Ave. She only gave her first name. 

“The first time it happened, I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I brought it to the mechanic and they told me that especially in the winter, when you park your car, your engine is warm and [rats] can sense it, so they go in there for the warmth.” 

According to her neighbors, the problem is widespread and goes beyond car wires. 

“There’s a nest infestation in the back where the trash is, but I don’t see anybody coming back there to really give it any attention,” said Frank, who lives at 3810 Bailey Ave. He did not give his last name. 

Marian, a resident of 3340 Bailey Ave., when asked about the rats, added: “Yes, I have seen them. In the summer, it’s disgusting.”

The superintendent of 3806 Bailey Ave, Prospero Estevez, said he has been trying to deal with the rat problem since taking over the job in April. Because many rats were coming from the back of the courtyard where the garbage was stored, Mr. Estevez and his wife, Nancy, started putting the garbage into metal containers and chaining them up until they could be moved to the curb for pickup, the couple said. They also called an exterminator to bring in rat traps and poison, they said. 

“The super before didn’t do his job. That’s what most of the people said. The old super wouldn’t clean,” Mr. Estevez said. The current super and his wife said they clean the building twice a week. 

“We keep everything clean because we live here, we have a newborn grandson, we don’t want anything around him, so we try our best,” Ms. Estevez said. 

Still, “there are a lot of rats around here,” Mr. Estevez said. “If you ask any of the tenants, nobody wanted to come in here before because they were worried about it.”  

Garbage containers, some building supers who may not be doing their jobs thoroughly, and a nearby construction site or simply some landscape features that rats find attractive were all factors that neighborhood residents blamed for the infestation. 

“Someone decided that they wanted to dig into the foundation of the buildings next to us, and they’re just sitting on a mountain they are digging into,” Frank said. A nest of rodents has been found under a nearby tree stump, he added.  

“It’s basically just a big stump, but under that stump is a bunch of rats, a whole nest of them,” he said. 

Barbara, whose car’s wires got chewed on by rats, said her apartment has been clean of rodents, “but we did have a problem a couple months back with rodents in the courtyard and around the back where you drop the garbage off.” 

Getting rid of some of the vegetation, sealing up holes in the ground, fortifying hillsides in the area and setting up rat traps seemed to help, she said.  

The troubles seemed to have abated lately, when “they finally took all the shrubbery out where the fences are and put cement down, because [the rats] used to burrow in there, so you’ll see the traps that were put in,” Barbara said. 

“I think around back it’s getting better because there was a huge hill or cliff that went up to Sedgwick that collapsed a few months ago so they’ve been trying to reinforce that, so I think it’s gotten a little bit better back there,” she said.  

Despite the efforts some homeowners or building supers might take, residents expressed doubts those measures could be enough to get rid of the deeply ingrained problem. 

“Unless the city comes back here and does something we’re pretty much stuck with it,” Frank said. 

“It’s not the super’s job I guess, they have to pass them themselves every day,” he added. “Whoever owns the building, that’s their problem.”   

Official from the city’s Health Department said getting rid of rats, and paying the costs of that task, was the responsibility of landlords, who needed to comply with New York building codes. Landlords who own the apartment buildings on Bailey Avenue could not be reached for comments. 

For now, Barbara said she would try to keep rats away from her car by following her mechanic’s advice: “Put mothballs in there… and to try not to park anywhere near where the superintendents are going to be putting the garbage out.” 

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