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Philadelphia now has a rat czar. Veteran Department of Public Health employee Adrian Jordan has been tapped to oversee the city department’s rat reduction efforts amid what some in City Hall have called a rat emergency.
Jordan – who most recently has been the Public Health Department’s Vector Control crew chief for the health department – is now rat abatement manager.
“I am in charge of the inspectors who go out throughout the city, deal with the rat complaints. I field the complaints, I see the complaints, and I help them with whatever they need. I trained everybody,” Jordan said in a YouTube video introducing him to the public.
Now, he said he hopes to improve “the lack of coordination between city departments.”
“There’s no real way to be sure that something will happen from one way from one department to another. We tell a lot of people, ‘Yes, we’ll tell this department,’ but we have no control over the timeline, which is true,” Jordan said. “But we’re kind of left to hoping for the best, and a lot of times, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And so the ‘doesn’t’ part is what I want to fix,” he said.
The Carroll Park native has been at the Department of Public Health for over 20 years as a field investigator, environmental health inspector and crew chief; before then, he was with the Streets Department. Jordan said he appreciates the opportunity to continue working to address quality-of-life issues for his neighbors.
“I plan on making this thing work so the people can live a better life, for Philadelphia to be a better city,” he said.
Jordan’s appointment comes less than a month after City Council unanimously approved a resolution Oct. 8 urging city agencies to treat growing rat infestations in lower Northeast Philadelphia as an urgent public health and quality-of-life emergency.
It also comes two weeks after the national People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent an open letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker with the suggestion to use rat birth control instead of extermination methods like traps or poisons.
Residents in Oxford Circle, Castor Gardens and surrounding neighborhoods have reported rats entering homes, damaging property and chewing through vehicle wiring. The Council resolution details improperly stored trash, vacant properties and abandoned vehicles as contributing factors.
According to Parker, Jordan’s appointment is intended “to lead the collaborative effort and launch an action plan that identifies the lower Northeast as the first target area.”
The city offers these tips to prevent or mitigate rat infestations:
- Don’t feed the rats: keep trash in metal cans with tight-fitting lids.
- Don’t let them hide: keep tall grass, bushes, garden rocks and wood piles away from your home. Get rid of abandoned vehicles and appliances, where rats can hide.
- Don’t let them in: seal all openings that are bigger than a half-inch, including around pipes in walls, and around and in windows and doors.
- Ask for help: call 215-685-9000 or email health.vector@phila.gov if you see rats. Give the street address where you saw them and your contact information.
