Mayor Eric Adams, who has made his hatred of rats a central talking point, said Wednesday that New York City will host a first-of-its kind nationwide summit devoted to fighting rodent infestations.
The National Urban Rat Summit will be held Sept. 18 and 19 as a partnership between the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University, the mayor’s office said. It aims to advance solutions to rodent mitigation by bringing together experts, including academic researchers and municipal pest control managers, the city said.
Rat-fighting has been one of the signature quality-of-life issues of Adams’ mayoralty, after rodent complaints surged during the pandemic. His efforts have included taking steps to require all trash to be stored in containers, and appointing a “rat czar,” Kathleen Corradi, to coordinate rodent mitigation among agencies.
“The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy,” Adams said in a statement. “That’s why we’re holding this inaugural summit, to bring experts and leaders from across the country together to better understand urban rats and how to manage their populations.”
There are signs that the administration’s approach is working: about 8,500 rat sightings have been reported to 311 this year, down from 8,900 through the same period last year, according to city data. There has been a bigger 55% decline in the section of Harlem where the city began experimenting with containerized garbage collection last year for residences and schools.
Corradi said in a statement that “there is surprisingly limited research on urban rats and their management,” a knowledge gap that the summit aims to fill in.
Participants are set to include experts from Seattle, Boston and New Orleans, plus other “prominent rat researchers,” the mayor’s office said. The city did not say where the conference would be held.
Under Adams, all of the city’s businesses have had to store their trash in containers since March. A long-held dream of getting all residential trash off the sidewalk now seems within reach, after the administration released a plan in February spelling out how all buildings could store trash in either small wheeled bins or large on-street containers.
A timeframe for that citywide plan will be set based on the results for a pilot effort planned for West Harlem starting in 2025. Experts have said depriving rats of easy-to-reach food sources like garbage is the most straightforward way to reduce their presence in cities.
New York Community Bancorp, disposing of assets and freeing up cash after its rescue by investors, agreed to sell about $5 billion of loans to JPMorgan Chase.
The disposal of so-called mortgage warehouse loans will bolster NYCB’s capital and improve its liquidity, with proceeds to be held in cash and securities, the company said Tuesday in a statement that didn’t disclose the terms. NYCB had told investors about two weeks ago that it was poised to do a deal of that size at par, minus a transaction fee.
The stock climbed 3.4% to $4.02 in extended trading at 7:25 p.m. in New York. It was down 62% this year through the close of regular trading.
New Chief Executive Joseph Otting is overhauling the balance sheet after concerns about the lender’s heavy exposure to New York commercial real estate sent the stock into a tailspin. The bank offered billions of dollars in warehouse lines of credit to other mortgage lenders, which could pay down the debts by selling the loans to other investors or NYCB itself, filings show.
“We are moving forward quickly to implement our strategic plan, which focuses on improving our capital, liquidity and loan-to-deposit metrics,” Otting said in the statement. “The mortgage business remains an important business for the company, and we will continue to provide our mortgage customers and partners the same great service that they have come to expect.”
NYCB said it expects to complete the sale in the third quarter, once the parties finish due diligence and hash out final documentation.
The transaction would boost the firm’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio by 65 basis points, resulting in a pro-forma ratio of 10.8% as of March 31 this year, the company said.
NYCB has been under pressure since announcing in January that it was cutting its dividend and stockpiling provisions in case loans sour. As the share price extended its tumble through additional developments, including the disclosure of material weaknesses in how the bank tracks loan risks, a group of investors led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin intervened, injecting more than $1 billion of capital into the lender and installing Otting at the top.
The new executive team has pledged to reshape the lender — known for catering to landlords of rent-regulated multifamily buildings in New York — into a more diversified regional bank. The company sold a portfolio or RV and marine loans during the first quarter.
The deal announced Tuesday “is another incremental step in shoring up the balance sheet and represents one of management’s commitments over the short term to eventually return to profitability,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Herman Chan wrote in a note.
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The long-delayed $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey is planned to cross the last hurdle to secure federal funding ahead of the presidential election.
The project’s sponsor, the Gateway Development Commission, set a target to secure the final signatures for federal funding by the end of summer, shrugging off concerns that changes in the oval office could once again thwart construction. Over a decade ago, a predecessor project was scrapped by then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“We aren’t even waiting for a full funding grant agreement, we are already under construction. That shows a level of confidence we have that this project is already in a point of no return,” Kris Kolluri, Gateway Development Commission chief executive, said Tuesday when speaking with reporters. “What we need is the final signature in a full funding grant agreement.”
Gateway is expected to receive roughly $12 billion from the federal government and once the project secures the full funding agreement it will enter into the formal contract with the federal government, securing the final financial commitment needed for the project.
The project is meant to ease congestion under the Hudson River with a new tunnel and upgrades to the more than a century-old existing tunnel. It’s also a critical update for the Northeast corridor — Amtrak’s busiest route — which carries more than 2,200 daily trains and stretching from Washington to Boston.
“The value of this project, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, is without question, a very powerful argument,” Kolluri said. “It’s imperative to get these agreements signed in the next 60 to 90 days.”
When the project was canceled by Christie in 2010, the former New Jersey governor said the state couldn’t afford it. The Gateway project was proposed a year later but eventually stalled under the Trump administration.
“Once the federal government signs a full funding grant agreement that is a solid the commitment of the federal government that they’re going to fund this,” Kolluri said, when asked if he was concerned about Trump disrupting the funding if reelected.
The massive project includes construction of a new underwater tunnel as well as replacement of the existing one that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The start of major construction, is expected to begin in July, with tunnel fully completed in 2035. New York is committing about $1.34 billion to the project, New Jersey around $308 million and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey $2.68 billion.
The Gateway tunnel is one of a number of efforts to revamp the nation’s roads, rail and bridges that President Joe Biden has been touting around the country. Biden, the nation’s most prominent train lover, said the project is key for the entire Northeast region.
Kolluri said that once the agreement with the federal government is signed, the main priority will shift to project construction management.