[HN Gopher] New York City hiring top rat killer ___________________________________________________________________ New York City hiring top rat killer Author : yehudalouis Score : 103 points Date : 2022-12-01 17:53 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (a002-oom03.nyc.gov) (TXT) w3m dump (a002-oom03.nyc.gov) | theGnuMe wrote: | queue the movie about this: Caddyshack 2.0 | 29athrowaway wrote: | I hope it does not end like this: | | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.atlasobscura.com/articles/h... | dang wrote: | Discussed a few times: | | _The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned | (2017)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30050420 - Jan | 2022 (4 comments) | | _The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned | (2017)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27264816 - May | 2021 (85 comments) | | _The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned | (2017)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19864148 - May | 2019 (18 comments) | | _The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14499431 - June 2017 (1 | comment) | tiahura wrote: | How about training and equipping qualified volunteers to hunt | with air rifles and offering a bounty? | itisit wrote: | The last thing NYC needs is people walking around with air | rifles. | InCityDreams wrote: | Jeeze, you must really hate freedom. Also, according to the | nra, crime would be reduced. | paxys wrote: | If your goal is to shoot more people than rats, sure. | ImprobableTruth wrote: | Provides a perverse incentive for people to breed rats/cobra | effect [1] | | [1] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_origina... | tiahura wrote: | That's why I restricted to a limited pool - it might make | oversight feasible? | fakedang wrote: | If NYC needs someone who can deal with their rats, they should | look west and think about hiring Richard Hendricks. | baidifnaoxi wrote: | Is this talking about rodents or another kind of rat? | bergenty wrote: | ralusek wrote: | Christopher Walken from Mouse Hunt. | insane_dreamer wrote: | > ... 5-8 years of full-time professional experience in a field | related to this position. | | Rat killing is a field? | libraryatnight wrote: | Animal/pest control is | zokier wrote: | Pest/rodent control? Definitely a field. Although I suspect | they are meaning public administration here. | bombcar wrote: | Perhaps they mean literally 5-8 years standing in a field | killing rats in said field. Because then you'd be outstanding | in your field. | yetanotherloser wrote: | Very good. | jiveturkey wrote: | well, yes. pest and rodent removal and such. | somerandomqaguy wrote: | Alberta, Canada maintains a team of dedicated rat exterminators | paid for by the province. Along with a near genocidal | government policy towards rats. | | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/alberta-ca... | RickJWagner wrote: | I bet the successful candidate will sound just like Bogey: | | "You.... dirty rat!" | schwartzworld wrote: | That's James Cagney, not Bogart | adamsb6 wrote: | Is this guerilla marketing for the new King of the Hill series? | daveslash wrote: | Only two people need apply: Dale Gribble of Dale's Dead-Bug | and.... Rusty Shackleford. | ComputerGuru wrote: | They should hire Joseph Carter, better known as the Mink Man! | | I still can't believe he went from someone I stumbled across on | YouTube in a low-quality shaky-cam video 10 years ago (or was it | more?) to making NYT headlines (and he deserves it): | https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/science/mink-animals-pest... | | His YouTube channel: | https://www.youtube.com/c/josephcartertheminkman | calculatte wrote: | To be most successful, you need to start with the rats at city | hall | andylei wrote: | but also | | > Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint | terminatornet wrote: | to me, the people at city hall are more clown-like, which would | require some sort of clown exterminator. | ericzawo wrote: | "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others." | monrir wrote: | "Successful candidates must be highly organized, able to burrow | into the depths of city government" | mnutt wrote: | Living in NYC with rats, I'm always reminded of Neal Stephenson's | Baroque Cycle, where Jack Shaftoe is in Paris in the late 17th | century and meets St-George, the city's preeminent rat-catcher. | St-George explains how no one is never going to exterminate _all_ | of the rats, so he instead only kills the bad kind of rats and | lets the "good" rats live, in a sort of multi-generational rat | breeding program. St-George says that he has been doing this for | many years, and his father before him, and his father before | that. Jack asks, "how do you know the rats aren't breeding YOU?" | prox wrote: | I had a similar thought today when feeding some crows. Usually | they don't like it when other people show up, and they leave or | hide for a bit in a tree or some such. So by proxy _I_ don't | like having people around since we all have to wait. It's a | nice bit of converged purpose I guess where I adapt my behavior | as well. Most people who go there are usually oblivious of any | birds. They just don't see it. | FeistySkink wrote: | What do you feed to crows? I feed other birds, but crows | never eat the same type of bird food. | Wistar wrote: | I have found that they like dry, unsalted popcorn. They | also like small kibbled dog food, and really go nuts over | dried cranberries and unsalted almonds. If there are | sunflower seeds in the mix, they are always the last to be | eaten. | FeistySkink wrote: | Them be some fancy crows. I go nuts for everything above, | save for the dog food (never tried, TBH). Thanks, I'll | try cranberries and almonds. | Wistar wrote: | The dog food is often the first to go. I tried it just | out of curiosity and found that they quite like it. | | They also like vol-au-vent or other canape. | yetanotherloser wrote: | I think (with apologies to Gerald Samper) that they might | actually prefer vole-au-vents. | datavirtue wrote: | You've never had dog food! You gotta live, man! | prox wrote: | An expert recommended it above most things. They like | some insects above all, but sunflower seeds mostly. They | _pretend_ to like bread, but they usually hide it in a | stash and don't eat it unless they really hungry. | nomel wrote: | My crow friends really liked egg yellows, cooked to a | jelly like consistency. I would poach them a little extra | long, so they weren't runny. | | The also liked dog food, but they would always dip it in | water first. | Ericson2314 wrote: | Will they put the trash in containers that go were parked cars do | today? | | If the answer is no, folks we're just wasting our time. | Justsignedup wrote: | Okay so New York is complaining about companies offering | unreasonable salary ranges... And then they offer $120k - $170k! | Like seriously that's a gigantic difference for the same one | position. | | God damn NYC. | nadieyninguno1 wrote: | So with government jobs there is an expectation of a much | longer tenure than the 3 year job hopper we have in | programming. | | You'll start on the low end and get a 2k bump per year for a | decade or two, eventually hitting the cap. | aklein wrote: | Kudos to the person who wrote the job description | bredren wrote: | There is a fascinating history of rats in New York City provided | in the book, Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the | City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. | | The author, Robert Sullivan, delivers the influence of rats and | ratting on the American Revolution. It goes so far as to draw a | connection between rats and the Boston Massacre, IIRC. | | It made me look at rats in a new way, I highly recommend this | book. | cuttothechase wrote: | This honestly appears to be a very difficult problem to solve. It | seems that to be truly be effective in rat reduction at a city | scale the fix may need to come from elsewhere and may have very | little to do with directly working on exterminating the rats. | Fixes may be needed starting from urban planning through | waste/sewage handling methods at a street level all the way up to | the city. Also not sure if there would be enough leverage and | incentives for any candidate who is going to be hired for this | job at their advertised $120K to be able to achieve that kind of | a change! Seems like another easy win for the rats at the tax | payers expense! | lizardactivist wrote: | First, it's NY, the dirtiest city in the world and planet earth's | own asshole. | | Second, if the city hasn't realized they need to introduce | containerized and properly sealed garbage collection city-wide by | now, they never will. | Invictus0 wrote: | Please. NYC doesn't have half the needles and shit that | Philly/San Francisco have. You can at least breathe the air | unlike Delhi or Beijing. | Cupertino95014 wrote: | If only rats had a natural enemy: | | https://tenor.com/view/killer-upset-kitty-gun-meme-gif-86573... | skorpeon87 wrote: | Dogs, like rat terriers, are much more effective for | exterminating rats. | huehehue wrote: | There's a group that does this, but supposedly has not made | much of an impact on the city's rat population and the | practice has stirred some controversy (content warning: dead | rats) | | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/19/new-york- | cit... | superchroma wrote: | If only there was a natural enemy of rats that didn't spread | toxoplasmosis and cat scratch fever. | Cupertino95014 wrote: | https://www.legalnomads.com/istanbul-cats/ | | "In addition, the documentary looks into the history of cat | domestication, and how in the middle ages the church tried to | get rid of cats due to their association with witches" | | only difference is, now it's "toxoplasmosis and cat scratch | fever" instead of witches. | | Do you have numbers on the prevalence of those ills? As | compared to well-known rat-borne illness? | asdajksah2123 wrote: | I'm pretty sure the rat killing nature of cats is way | overstated. Also, in an urban environment where they can much | more easily find food thrown in trash, etc., they are unlikely | to make an effort to kill rats to obtain that food. Finally, a | sufficient cat population that could eradicate a rat problem | would likely eradicate the bird population first. | buzzedword wrote: | Feels like a job for Vasiliy Fet. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y4v1l5np_o | interdrift wrote: | 120k to efficiently exterminate rats? Dang, I'd love to do that | lol | paxys wrote: | 120k isn't even going to get you an apartment in large parts of | NYC. | alar44 wrote: | Yes it will, easily. Just not in Manhattan. | acuozzo wrote: | So you take NJ Transit into Port Authority like everyone else | does. | interdrift wrote: | That's OK, I'm quite frugal, don't mind travelling with | public transport. Even if you save 50% of that it's already | enough for me. | n8cpdx wrote: | "The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement. But the | rats don't run this city. We do" has become a top tier audio | meme. I think I hear this in my head about as often as I see "(x) | Doubt" or "This is fine (dog engulfed in flames)" | | NYC really did a great job with the marketing on this. | | I think the real reason TikTok was successful is it popularized | the audio/video meme and the means for them to go viral. | | https://www.indy100.com/viral/rats-dont-run-this-city-we-do-... | lotsofpulp wrote: | Whatever it popularized is the exact opposite of what | entertains me. I was recently sent a link to tiktok that was a | video set to random music of a single screenshot of a single | tweet. | | My younger self had higher hopes for humanity. | yehudalouis wrote: | Any good ideas on how you'd implement a rat extermination | strategy? | skizm wrote: | Release a bunch of snakes? | djmips wrote: | That always goes well. | insane_dreamer wrote: | Good job security thinking. You can claim success and then | get re-hired for a job posting to "exterminate an infestation | of snakes in the city" | teeray wrote: | After retiring from the FBI, Neville Flynn (Samuel L. | Jackson) takes a job as a motorman on an NYC subway. | Meanwhile, the city hires the top rat exterminator in the | country (Christopher Walken) who uses the unconventional | technique of releasing thousands of vipers into the city's | sewers. | | Coming this summer... Snakes on a Train | aliqot wrote: | this guy https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnWoodsprimitive-archer | swinnipeg wrote: | Unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes | Victerius wrote: | How do we get the Chinese needle snakes under control once | they're done with the rats though? | Bouncingsoul1 wrote: | We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on | snake meat. | wolfram74 wrote: | Which will promptly freeze to death during the first | winter snow. | autotune wrote: | At which point we release the polar bears to continue the | fight. | motohagiography wrote: | Rats can find food anywhere in many forms, so instead of | poisoning them (which just removes competition for food from | the rest of them), addict them to a substance you can control, | distribute it everywhere freely and accessibly for a while - | and then once a large enough population of them are addicted, | you create scarcity in the substance, and they will starve | themselves and fight each other and breed less frequently in | pursuit of it. If the population starts rising again, release | more of the drug to get more of them addicted to it and repeat | the cycle. | | Spray the sewers and garbage bins with nicotine or seized | cocaine or some addictive equivalent. Killing them just kills | off the weak ones and polarizes the population, whereas a | method like this using managed addiction will keep their | numbers down and actively managed. | FinalDestiny wrote: | We call Charlie Kelly | reducesuffering wrote: | King of the Rats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2MvHuflizQ | ogoparootbbo wrote: | only caveat is the troll's toll | ars wrote: | Food. It's all about food. | | You basically need to clean the city. I've been there in the | summer - the place stinks to high heaven from uncollected | rotting food, I don't know how the locals handle it. | | You'll never be able to trap or kill your way out of this, rats | are too smart, and breed too quickly. | bagels wrote: | There are mountains of garbage on the New York sidewalks all | the time. It should surprise nobody that rats love this. | paxys wrote: | Clean up the city and rats will disappear by themselves. At the | moment you can't walk through NYC without running into large | piles of garbage on every sidewalk. No shit there's a rodent | problem. | rayiner wrote: | When I got to NYC from Chicago for an internship I spent the | first few weeks just marveling and taking pictures of the | trash piles and sending them back to my then-girlfriend. | "Honey, this one is even taller than the last one!" | bombcar wrote: | > But it gives me stuff to talk about with my friends Like | "Hey, I think them rats gettin' big!" | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5l9NYtNAw | raddan wrote: | The garbage situation in Manhattan is ridiculous. Mountains | of garbage appear every night. It's not surprising that they | have a rat problem. Plenty of other cities have addressed | this problem directly. As far as I can tell, NYC simply does | not have the political will. | | It's frankly an embarrassment. We advertise to the world the | idea that NYC is one of America's best cities, and the first | thing that people see upon arriving is mountains of trash. | autotune wrote: | And then New Yorkers have the gall to constantly make fun | of Staten Island (disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever | lived in SI). | chimeracoder wrote: | > And then New Yorkers have the gall to constantly make | fun of Staten Island | | Well to be fair, Staten Island used to be the literal | garbage dump for NYC, and being incorporated as the fifth | borough was actually the reason this stopped (because | it's illegal to dump trash within the city limits). | autotune wrote: | Right, but you kind of lose the right to make fun of it | when the garbage dump moved from SI to right in front of | your door step, and everyone else's. One fond memory back | when I lived in Manhattan is being at a small, classy, | cocktail bar that served nice drinks with an excellent | street view of garbage bags being piled up right in front | that ruined it all. | Spooky23 wrote: | I did live there and on a single family block in queens. | Typically there was two pickups a week with people using | metal cans in those days. There were plenty of rats. | | Where people go, rats follow. If you think that your | town/city/building doesn't have rats, you are wrong. | | HN commenters don't have all of the answers. Garbage bags | on the street are a nuisance, but not the problem. | floxy wrote: | >If you think that your town/city/building doesn't have | rats, you are wrong. | | I've never even seen a feral rat in real life. Might make | for an interesting Ask HN poll. Estimate how frequently | you see rats. - Haven't yet - Once | per decade - Once a year - Once a month | - Once a week - Daily | | Squirrels, yup, lots of them around. And I've seen plenty | of mice in my life, and I'm assuming that's what the owls | are eating. Beavers? Check. But no rats in 40+ years. | YMMV. | autotune wrote: | My point was not that SI is a shining example of a | garbage free paradise, more so that them making fun of it | considering their own problems is hypocritical at best. | vagabund wrote: | They've recently hired McKinsey to conduct a 20 week study | on the viability of containerization on the varying street | sizes of Manhattan, and what that might look like [0]. My | guess: they settle upon some aesthetically loud behemoth of | a trash container that's neither well-functioning nor | beautifying, and approve an attendant increase in the | sanitation department's budget to deal with the new | responsibility. But at least it will be better than the | status quo ex ante. | | [0] https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-orders-4-million- | mckinsey-stu... | ThePadawan wrote: | > "NYC doesn't have the political will to do anything" | | > "NYC recently hired McKinsey to conduct a 20 week | study" | | I mean, do I have to say anything else? The joke writes | itself. | notacop31337 wrote: | If you did a comedy show with zingers like this, I'd turn | up. | rayiner wrote: | NYC is mainly a halfway house for immigrants passing | through. It pretty much always has been. A lot of my | extended family started out there (it's got the largest | Bangladeshi population in the country) but fled to Long | Island or Texas or California once they got their feet | under them. | NovemberWhiskey wrote: | In other cities, mountains of garbage pile up in alleyways | or other just-off-the-street venues. Since there basically | are no alleyways in Manhattan, the garbage goes in the | street instead. I'm not sure the rats care very much either | way. | asdff wrote: | In other cities they provide trash bins and dumpsters. | Only in NYC do you just put a bag of trash on the side of | the road. My city doesn't even take anything that isn't | in a bin that you haven't specifically ordered pickup for | (like a big couch) | notacop31337 wrote: | Wait what are you on about? Are you serious that you just | stick bin bags on the street full? Where are the bins? | What? | | I'm not from NYC or even the US, why wouldn't you just | use bins that the bags go in? I don't understand, please | help me understand this. I'm thoroughly confused. | bombcar wrote: | Trash in NY is literally piled up for collection. | | https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=new+york+trash | | Most cities in the USA have either individual trash cans | (suburbs/low density, once a week): | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UluH0QmnwfM (ONE HOUR???) | or dumpsters/dedicated crushers (high density, can be | once a day): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDTrUs6TeNc | [deleted] | mnutt wrote: | The sidewalks aren't wide enough for the kinds of bins | needed for the amount of trash generated (NYC is dense) | and nobody wants to give up free parking spaces to put | the bins in the street as of yet. | NovemberWhiskey wrote: | You live in an apartment building that's 47 stories tall | and has 350 units. Do you expect all of the residents | individually to take bins out to the front of the | building? | macNchz wrote: | Yes, having thin plastic bags of food waste out on the | street for hours every single night is quite clearly the | fundamental issue. To me, there's an obvious path forward | in removing a few free parking spaces on each block and | replacing them with rat-proof containers, and reorganizing | the sanitation department support collecting from bins | rather than bags on the sidewalk. | | The political will is key here, since to effectively fix | the issue someone will need to stand up to the sanitation | union, who will be concerned that this new paradigm will | require fewer workers, as well as to the thousands of | seething car owners who will fight tooth and nail to keep | their free parking spaces. So far, nobody has wanted to | take on this challenge, and so the residents live with | filth as the rats continue to feast! | atyppo wrote: | Lack of political will and corruption are NYC (and by | extension NYS') biggest problems. It's incredible how | little progress is made here, how expensive projects are, | and how long it takes compared to even other union-heavy | areas like France. In this case, it would likely require | significant investment to create central trash receptacles | on each block and require taking parking spaces. Both of | which NYC politicans are too pathetic to push for. | wskish wrote: | Delivery logistics have advanced dramatically and is trending | towards near-realtime. For everything that is delivered, some | non-trivial percentage of that needs to be taken away as | trash. But there is no incentive to improve trash pickup | logistics. | | Perhaps we could pass laws that require anyone delivering | something (hi Amazon) to also take away some proportional | amount of trash, removing the externality they currently | enjoy. I am sure they would eventually be a lot more | efficient at it than the current system. | micromacrofoot wrote: | "Clean up the city" in this case means to change the behavior | of 9 million people and every single visitor. It would be | easier to train the rats operate the subway system. | pastor_bob wrote: | There are tons of rats in the subways, and until the MTA puts | up a platform wall or something like that, they're not going | away because they live off the food people throw on the | tracks. | notatoad wrote: | a few tips here: https://www.alberta.ca/rat-control- | methods.aspx | Euphorbium wrote: | Release a bunch of cats. | bberenberg wrote: | If you like cats and the general population are willing to feed | and take care of them. Istanbul has proven this approach to be | a fairly effective. | freyes wrote: | and if you play this card correctly can become yet another | tourists attraction for NYC | HeavenFox wrote: | Birds aren't gonna like this plan though | SoftTalker wrote: | The birds are pests too. Well at least the pigeons are. | Msw242 wrote: | But the birds don't run this city. We do. | vagabund wrote: | some version of releasing CRISPR-edited rats that sexually | outcompete in the first generation but produce infertile | offspring | nyolfen wrote: | wasn't this the plot of jurassic park | tetha wrote: | That reminds me of the old movie Mimic, in which supposedly | sterile insects are released to prey on other insects | transmitting a disease to children. The infertility part | didn't work and it got messy. | christopherwxyz wrote: | Basically Robert Patrick's T-1000 from Terminator 2, but | instead of hunting humans it will optimize for rats. | gs17 wrote: | The optimal way to get rid of the rats is to eliminate the | humans first so the rats do not have as much available food. | tenebrisalietum wrote: | Reimaging a system generally eliminates any remote access | tools, but if the ACPI Windows Platform Binary Table (an | executable that lives in PC firmware by design that recent | versions of Windows loads and runs automatically without | ability to disable) has been compromised through a malicious | firmware update to automatically install a RAT on power on, you | may need to go so far as to manually flash the chip holding the | firmware to a known non-compromised version. This is a highly | technical operation and not for everyone. | | Not using ACPI-based Windows-intended hardware, which will | unfortunately consist of most of the PC-based motherboards you | can purchase on the market today, can help avoid this situation | in the first place. | [deleted] | konfusinomicon wrote: | arm the homeless with blowguns and pay a per pelt bounty. then | gamify it and display the leader board in time square. | batmansmom1 wrote: | Enter: Homeless rat breeders, farming baby rat pelts for the | reward | FeistySkink wrote: | Do we then track the confirmed kills with a blackchain? | Perhaps we can have some kind of an exchange for pelts. Maybe | even have a pelt token. I'll see myself out. | konfusinomicon wrote: | rat coin, ticker symbol RAT. backed by real world artisan | rat pelts. each coin is actually an NFT representing the | actual rat, in a goofy outfit of course. too bad blow guns | are powered by the carbon dioxide emissions of people's | lungs or we would have had the greatest stable coin the | world has ever known | FeistySkink wrote: | I think we have a pitch for Sequoia ready. Perchance you | play League of Legend? | floxy wrote: | Where can one find the GPT-3 PowerPoint pitch generator? | https://thiselevatorpitchdoesnotexist.com seems | available. | IIAOPSW wrote: | You start by taking recordings of their ultra sonic squeaks, in | particular the mating calls. Then you play these recordings | back over loud speaker. As the conga line of horny rats waltzes | in, BAM! Guillotine. | droopyEyelids wrote: | There are three elements to reducing rat populations: | | Removing access to food, destruction of their warrens, and | killing the rats themselves. | | New York City can not hope to begin on this while garbage | disposal involves piling bags of trash on the sidewalk. | | Other cities address this by improving their dumpsters and | garbage cans, and while that doesn't eliminate rats, it | drastically reduces their population, and limits their ability | to spread as quickly. | | After that it becomes possible to populations further by | filling warrens and killing the actual rats. | acomjean wrote: | Somerville Ma is starting to use electric traps. It was | pretty effective, but as long as there are meals the problem | doesn't stop. | | https://www.boston.com/news/local- | news/2022/11/15/somerville... | zxcvbn4038 wrote: | "Nuke the entire site from orbit--it's the only way to be sure" | nxm wrote: | Rats would still survive | erikig wrote: | Not just survive - thrive; you'll have taken out all their | competition. | nemo44x wrote: | The qualifications for the role are very poor if you're looking | for someone to be effective: | | > Bachelor's Degree required, preferably public policy, or | related design fields, plus 5-8 years of full-time professional | experience in a field related to this position | | > Swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and general aura of | badassery | | Wouldn't you value someone who actually knows how to control | vermin populations at scale in an urban environment? Why would | you value someone who has a "public policy" degree. What even is | that? | | And why does this person need to be a funny pirate? In essence, | Jack Sparrow with a public policy degree appears to be the ideal | candidate. | | To me it sounds like they're more interested in giving off the | perception of doing something about the problem while | entertaining the public about it, rather than actually solving | the problem effectively. | linuxftw wrote: | The mayor's nephew needs a job and holds the degree, obviously. | asdajksah2123 wrote: | You see a lot of private companies add silly qualifications | like this as well. So I don't really think it indicates | anything other than the dept in question trying to be more | "hip". | | That being said, it seems clear now that everything from the | Adams administration should be treated as "giving off the | perception of doing something instead of solving the problem" | until proven otherwise. | scld wrote: | >Wouldn't you value someone who actually knows how to control | vermin populations at scale in an urban environment? Why would | you value someone who has a "public policy" degree. What even | is that? | | Probably because the real solution (not putting trash directly | onto the streets like it's 1780) isn't going to happen, so a | degree in public policy will help make it look like you're | actually going to do something. | conductr wrote: | It's a management role. They want you to understand and | navigate the bureaucracy involved in being a middle manager | in city government. Negotiating with Czar of Trash in order | to make that real solution a reality, is probably more | important than being an expert trap maker. But you definitely | want that person on your team! | jollyllama wrote: | The nature of the description makes more sense, given that. | It sounded mis-targeted at first, but I was assuming they | wanted someone who would actually be waist deep in filth | and killing. They want someone to put a hip and sanitized | face to those people, but who is also unconventional enough | to respect them. They put a line in a about being hands on, | but presumably that's a photo-op type/learning thing. | dropit_sphere wrote: | I feel like the qualifications should just be "competent | Civilization player" or something. | | Actually I think...a lot...of jobs could be filled that way? | chaorace wrote: | It has been a _long_ time since I 've played a round of | Civilization[1], but to this day I still default to framing | almost every long-term decision in terms of "building tall" vs. | "building wide". And then there's EU4, which has drilled into | me an obsession with staring a ledgers all day[2]. | | [1]: _Yaddah, yaddah... "Given the opportunity, players will | optimize the fun out of a game"_ | | [2]: _An unfortunate habit, given the heightened difficulty of | pausing IRL time_ | actionablefiber wrote: | Unfortunately, the thing that makes me competent Civilization | player is that I spend a lot of time playing Civilization | instead of working. I'd be happy to take a job on that basis, | but I'm not sure I could keep it. | slickdork wrote: | Qualification: - Swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor, and | general aura of badassery | | I dont want to be the director of rat extermination, but i | wouldn't mind working for whoever writes copy on the nyc gov job | postings. | VoodooJuJu wrote: | I actually find it pretty cringe - trying to insert | movie/cartoon tropes into real life. Definitely written by | someone raised on too much TV and internet. | nix23 wrote: | Thanks for making my day! You described exactly the picture i | had in my mind...well plus he was from London and looked a bit | like Sherlock Holmes (just for the interview of course). | | >>New York's Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation. | | That could be also the Director for IT security ;) | | Being from Europe, is that whole thing New York City humor? | It's incredible funny: | | >>New York City's rats are legendary for their survival skills, | but they don't run this city - we do. | yamtaddle wrote: | I'm picturing Quint from Jaws. | | Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this | furball for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad rodent. Not | like going down to the sewer and chasing mice and raccoons. | This rat, swallow your whole pizza slice. No shakin', no | tenderizin', down it goes. And we gotta do it quick, that'll | bring back your stock traders, put all your businesses on a | payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck | a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him | for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But | you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, | then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the | whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no | deputies, there's too many CEOs on this island. Ten thousand | dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the | tail, the whole damn thing. | | (I like that "island" still works because Manhattan) | ashwagary wrote: | I read the headline and pictured a mobster from Goodfellas. | dylan604 wrote: | I mean, how could it _not_ be? | corndoge wrote: | "Do you have what it takes? A virulent vehemence for vermin?" | | Vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of | volition? | | I'm choosing to believe this is a v for vendetta reference | nneonneo wrote: | "and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers | in an effort to take over human jobs." | | And a Ratatouille reference too! | bombcar wrote: | That was also mentioned earlier in the part about "despite | them having good PR" or whatever it was. | chimeracoder wrote: | The only reason this is a problem is because the city refuses to | use containerized trash collection (such as dumpsters). Turns | out, dumping trash bags on the street for 12 hours 3-6 times a | week is basically a free buffet for rats. | | The reason the city doesn't implement containerized trash | collection is because that would mean giving up a few free | parking spots every block. | | It got worse during COVID-19 because the city temporarily | suspended collection/extermination, which caused the rodent | population to explode, and it's never recovered from that. But | eliminating the regular meals for rats would be an easy, no- | brainer way to fix it. | pastor_bob wrote: | I once stayed at a flat in Berlin and there were rats living in | the building trash container. They would literally be scurrying | on the top of the pile when I opened it up to throw trash bags | away. Hands down my worst experience with rats, even coming | from NYC. | | This was in Kreuzberg and there seemed to be a lot of rats | there because of some abandoned buildings and construction + | fields of dirt for them to burrow in | dublinben wrote: | They could adopt Taiwan's musical garbage trucks with zero | investment in new garbage containers or loss of parking. | Garbage bags go directly from properties into the truck, | spending no time festering on the sidewalk. | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMQ1NfjPauw | chimeracoder wrote: | That would require: | | - ensuring the truck arrives at or around the same time every | week | | - forcing people to be at home to throw out their garbage | | Both of those are complete non-starters in NYC. | | Much easier to use the system that nearly every other large | city in the developed world uses (containerized trash | collection). | ruddct wrote: | An anecdote: My NYC neighborhood has seen a building boom over | the past decade. As far as I can tell, _every_ new building | puts its trash out on the street. | | Some particularly memorable examples include a 75 story | residential tower with absolutely record-breaking trash piles, | and a ~25 story residential tower with a trash collection point | on the onramp to the Williamsburg bridge. Garbage trucks have | to stop in the road to collect trash, manually, bag-by-bag, at | every stop. | | This is the policy for trash in NYC, and rats will remain a | problem as long as it stays that way. | lazide wrote: | Also probably due to corruption in the waste management | industry. Why make it efficient if it makes it harder to | graft? | lazide wrote: | Well, except that folks already get murdered over parking spots | in NYC [https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/public- | safety/2022/07/1...], [https://pix11.com/news/local- | news/queens/man-sentenced-to-10...], | [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/11/nyregion/dispute-over- | a-p... | jeffbee wrote: | Great, then removing parking will also reduce the homicide | rate, in addition to starving the rats, speeding up the bus | service, and keeping everyone from getting cancer and | dementia. Really, is there _anything_ that banning cars doesn | 't solve? | stevula wrote: | I take it you're talking about removing street parking | altogether? If they just remove a few parking spots on each | block for dumpsters, I can only see that leading to more | tension and disputes over the even scarcer parking spaces. | Why anyone would want to drive in Manhattan is beyond me. | toast0 wrote: | You're not thinking it through. If you dress your car as | a locked dumpster, you can park anywhere! | humanrebar wrote: | Accessibility for people with disabilities. | LAC-Tech wrote: | _The only reason this is a problem is because the city refuses | to use containerized trash collection (such as dumpsters). | Turns out, dumping trash bags on the street for 12 hours 3-6 | times a week is basically a free buffet for rats._ | | The US confuses the hell out of me sometimes. | | How do you get to the moon and invent the internet, but can't | figure out how to collect refuse in arguably your most | prominent city? | floxy wrote: | You may have been hypnotized by movies. - New | York City Population [0]: 8,804,190 - Population of the | United States [1]: 333,327,000 - Percent of people | living in NYC: 2.6% | | 0: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/planning-level/nyc- | populat... | | 1: https://www.census.gov/popclock/ | subsubzero wrote: | These problems were not around during the Giuliani/Bloomberg | administrations. I would look who has been the the mayor | after them for a culprit. | chimeracoder wrote: | > These problems were not around during the | Giuliani/Bloomberg administrations. I would look who has | been the the mayor after them for a culprit. | | These absolutely were problems during the Giuliani and | Bloomberg administration. People have been complaining | about them for decades. | | It got markedly worse in spring 2020 because sanitation | services were temporarily reduced, but it was an issue long | before that. | toast0 wrote: | > How do you get to the moon and invent the internet, but | can't figure out how to collect refuse in arguably your most | prominent city? | | Most of us figured out that NYC is a (very expensive) cesspit | and have no desire to live or work there. /s | pastor_bob wrote: | There's no confusion. | | The only solution are distributed dumpsters/large containers, | which are not popular because nobody wants a dumpster in from | of _their_ building | LAC-Tech wrote: | Not meaning to come off condescending, but have you | considered how other cities around the world have solved | this? | | The Taiwan solution (garbage truck comes at the same time | every day, stops briefly, you throw your rubbish in) seems | to work well. | chimeracoder wrote: | > The Taiwan solution (garbage truck comes at the same | time every day, stops briefly, you throw your rubbish in) | seems to work well. | | That requires | | - not running trash collection overnight/early morning | when people are sleeping | | - guaranteeing that the truck arrives at a consistent and | predictable time | | - forcing people to be at home at a certain time to throw | out their trash | | All of those are absolutely non-starters in NYC. | | Much better to use the solution that every other city in | the developed world uses (putting trash in dumpsters) | chimeracoder wrote: | > The only solution are distributed dumpsters/large | containers, which are not popular because nobody wants a | dumpster in from of their building | | That's not been the sticking point, empirically. The issue | is that the politicians who can implement this don't want | to give up the free parking spots. | | It's the loss of free parking that's the motivator, not the | dumpster itself. | SoftTalker wrote: | > nobody wants a dumpster in from of their building | | Yet they are happy with a large pile of black plastic trash | bags leaking all over the sidewalk in front of their | building? | jetrink wrote: | Some cities in Europe use underground containers. (An arm on | the collection truck can lift them right out of the ground. | It's pretty neat.) I wonder if that is feasible for NYC. | | 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JtoSafhvLM | DoingIsLearning wrote: | They are still not going to allow for parking spaces. They | need to be crane lifted to empty so it's a no parking area | anyway. | | Still great! No smell, less sidewalk space wasted, and | garbage trunks can be less frequent since the containers are | a huge underground volume. | chimeracoder wrote: | This would be prohibitively expensive due to the number of | underground utilities. In Manhattan, there isn't even a map | of all pipes/etc. under a given street or sidewalk, because | they were laid so long ago - every time digging is done, they | need to carefully dig it up and see what's even there and | document it. | | So there's no way to even figure out how this could be done | without doing all the digging, etc., and at that point the | expense is prohibitive. | | Not to mention that building that system would require giving | up parking spots for the construction, which would cause the | same political pushback from the same opponents, so at that | point you might as well just do above-ground collection for a | fraction of the price, since you'll be fighting the same | political battles either way. | SoftTalker wrote: | There are probably too many underground utilities in most | areas. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-01 23:00 UTC)