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By Ethan Stark-Miller

“Rats do not run our city,” famous rodent-hater Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed in City Hall Wednesday.

Adams announced June 28 that he is escalating his war against rats and highlighted two proposed rules aimed at reducing mountains of unsightly black garbage bags that line city streets in order to cut off the four-legged creatures’ main food source. The rules would accomplish this by requiring certain businesses place trash in lidded containers, thus preventing rodents from feasting on the refuse within them.

The mayor announced City Hall is putting forth the final version of the first rule, mandating that all “food-related businesses” containerize their trash, which was proposed last month and will be published in the City Record later this week — going into effect July 30. In addition, the city Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is starting the rule-making process for the second mandate, requiring all “chain businesses” with five or more locations to also start placing their trash in lidded bins.

“As I say over and over again, I hate rats, and rats love garbage bags, we cannot co-exist,” Adams told reporters during a City Hall news conference on Wednesday. “New York City used to be known for our mean streets, going forward, we’re going to be known for our clean streets. Today we take two giant steps forward towards that goal by announcing new rules to place our garbage paying containers.”

“These two proposals will have a transformative effect on our city and will eliminate the mountains of food waste piled up in bags and on our sidewalks,” he added. “We will keep our streets cleaner longer and make [them] less appetizing to the rodents that feed off of trash bag-type garbage disposal. And it will vastly improve the cleanliness and quality of life across the five boroughs.”

The new rules would apply to roughly 25% of the city’s businesses.

City Council Member Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), also no friend of rats, said the rules are another step in the city moving away from the old model of piling trash bags on the curb.

“This administration will not rest, I will not rest, until we defeat the rats and win the war,” Abreu said. “Look, we have done a lot as a city to really containerize trash. The old way of doing trash in the city with the bags is the old way of handling trash in the city. We’re seeing moving away from it.”