These Are New York City's Most Rat-Infested Neighborhoods

Like many big cities, New York has a rat problem.

It's gotten so bad that the city started a "Rat Indexing" program in 2008 where city officials inspect properties, look for active rat signs and problem conditions that attract rats, and track complaints about rats in parks, public housing, and schools.

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has uploaded this info into a helpful Rat Information Portal (RIP) that shows anxious New Yorkers how their block has fared in rat violations since 2010.

New Yorkers can search by borough, address, block number, and zip code to pull up all inspection results and rat violations, as well as view the individual data on how many rat inspections have failed in your area.

We compiled the data from the most recent 2012 numbers, and found the 10 zip codes that have the worst rat infestations by the percent of initial inspections that had active rat signs as well as the percent of follow up inspections that failed, excluding all zip codes with less than 10 inspections.

10. 10456, Hines Park, Bronx (29% failure rate)

9. 11222, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (29.7% failure rate)

8. 11104, Sunnyside, Queens (30% failure rate)

7. 11215, Park Slope, Brooklyn (30.8% failure rate)

6. 11205, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn (35.6% failure rate)

5. 11211, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (37% failure rate)

4. 11216, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn (38.4% failure rate)

3. 11238, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (38.7% failure rate)

2. 11201, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn (40% failure rate)

1. 11217, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn (50% failure rate)

You can search for your neighborhood or address over at the Rat Information Portal website.

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