Brooklyn Leads City in Rat Complaints
For the second time this year, the team at MIT’s data visualization lab, You Are Here, have blown us away with some little known facts about Brooklyn. The first time around, they showed us which roadways were the sites of the most reported bike accidents—Bedford Avenue, Broadway, and Atlantic Avenue, in case you missed it—and this week, they’ve put together an equally important visualization of the city’s registered rat complaints. And would you believe it? Brooklyn leads the rat pack.
According to the new report, which compares rat complaints with borough populations, 31 percent of rat complaints via 311 came from Brooklyn (which makes up 30% of the city’s population), compared to the 22 percent of complaints registered by each Manhattan and Queens. In other words numbers, between January 2010 and September 2013, Brooklyn residents filed 11,830 of the city’s 38,163 rodent-related complaints.
The following zip codes had the highest number of complaints: 11221 (central Bushwick, Bed-Stuy) with 905 complaints; 11207 (south Bushwick, East New York) with 757 complaints; 11233 (south Bed-Stuy, west Crown Heights, East New York) with 753 complaints; and 11216 (south Bed-Stuy,Crown Heights) with 671 complaints. Central Brooklyn has it bad.
Check out the only slightly disturbing timelapse visualization here and read DNAinfo‘s recent anti-rat guide for more information on dealing with New York’s least favorite residents.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk