NYC is still at war with rats, but Mayor Adams won the battle in his Brooklyn home

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☀️ Sunny, highs in the lower 80s.

It's Tuesday in New York City, where — for the first time since 2023 — inspectors have found no evidence of rats at Mayor Eric Adams' Bedford-Stuyvesant rowhouse.

Since taking office in 2022, Adams has been hit with five violations tied to evidence of rat activity outside his home. (Four of those citations were eventually dismissed; Adams paid $300 to settle the other.)

But Monica Reyes, an eight-year resident of Bed-Stuy, said Adams’ own victory in the war on rats should not be interpreted as a win for the neighborhood.

“As you can see. We have a rat smashed right there,” she said, pointing to flies buzzing around a dead rat at the curb.

Here's what else is happening:

• There's a special non-partisan election today to fill Staten Island's open City Council seat. Meet the three candidates vying for the job.
• Starting May 1, New Yorkers will be able to apply directly for affordable apartments once a previous tenants move out — without going through the city's housing lottery system.
• New York state lawmakers said they've tentatively agreed to a $254 billion budget deal that includes phone bans in schools, rebate checks for middle-class families and a new charge for wearing a mask while committing a crime.
• The MTA said it plans to use AI technology to analyze real-time subway station security footage and issue automated alerts to the NYPD "if someone is acting out irrationally."
• The final investigation of a deadly collapse of a Lower Manhattan parking garage in 2023 found that unauthorized demolition work and years of structural neglect triggered the event.
• Documents obtained by Gothamist show that back in 2024, the NYPD used an outdated form to put someone in jail for allegedly obstructing government administration — a charge that can apply to resisting arrest or blocking traffic during a protest — when they should've been released with a court ticket.
• A Queens man is facing felony charges after allegedly performing a surgical procedure without a license on a woman who police say is unlikely to survive.
• The top federal prosecutor in Albany said he's considering a lawsuit to force telecom and social media companies to monitor users’ conversations to catch sexual predators.
• The father of a teenager who was shot and killed on a Coney Island street corner on Sunday said he believed his son was set up by someone who called him on the phone and told him to come outside.

• The New York Hall of Science has a new exhibit that lets you simulate driving a city bus.
• With all due respect to Mayor Adams' press office, these are not "just shirts."
• Despite Gov. Kathy Hochul's push for more people to get released early from state prisons, hundreds of otherwise eligible detainees aren't being freed due to a shortage of housing options that aren't classified as "shelters."
• Authorities said Petros Krommidas, a 29-year-old Long Island Democrat who's running for a seat on the Nassau County Legislature, has been missing for nearly a week.
• A YouTuber has been arrested for pretending to pass out in his car in Times Square. (He claimed he was shooting a video of himself testing the NYPD's emergency response time.)
• Mark Carney will remain Canada's prime minister after yesterday's election.
• In other news from America's hat, the Canadian Journal of Cardiology published a new study claiming that drinking champagne, eating fruit and keeping a positive mood could all reduce the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
• Jeremy Renner's new memoir about getting run over by a snow plow is on shelves now.