Seen & Heard: Rats!

RATS ON WHEELS
J. sent this gruesome photo of a rat’s nest established under the hood of his car in less than a week. He says Jay Street is completely overrun with critters. I know I can’t navigate the corner of Duane and Greenwich at night without a mild panic — I walk down the center of the street and step lively. Maybe it’s time for a check-in with the DOH to see what’s the latest rodent count…

SLOW ART AT THE BRANDY LIBRARY
A Scottish whisky maker, Glengoyne, has installed a piece of art at the Brandy Library that will reveal itself over the next 50 years — as does its whisky. The piece was created using a printing technique with ink that will develop based on its exposure to ultraviolet light, revealing the words of a new poem by NYC-based poet Alison Malee about the concept of time.

TENNIS AT BROOKFIELD
Tennis players John Isner, Shelby Rogers and Lauren Davis will play in the annual celebrity match and community event at Brookfield’s court set up in the North Cove on Saturday, August 28, from 11a to 5p. There are clinics from 11a to 1p and the match will go on at 4p. There will also be demonstrations, games and prizes for the public.

PAUL THEK AT ALEXANDER AND BONIN
Alexander and Bonin will host a show of major works from Paul Thek, opening Sept. 7 through Oct. 16. The exhibition includes major works from all periods of the artist’s career, beginning with Untitled (Meat Piece with Chair), 1966, from the iconic series Technological Reliquaries. The exhibition also includes “picture light” paintings and newspaper paintings from the 1980s. “The dissonance of the two surfaces, glass and wax, pleases me: one is clear and shiny and hard, the other is soft and slimy,” he said of his work. “I try to harmonize them without relating them, or the other way around. At first, the physical vulnerability of the wax necessitated the cases; now the cases have grown to need the wax. The cases are calm; their precision is like numbers, reasonable.”

 

8 Comments

  1. I can vouch for the rat problem. I parked my car @ Jay and Stable (over a storm drain). The next morning I had no a/c. Rats had chewed thru the a/c wiring.

  2. rats are everywhere in tribeca. Duane st bw west broadway and broadway they run around literally furing day and same with those huge waterbugs. Its out of control like it was 20 years ago. I am afraid to walk my dogs on a damn sidewalk and where flip flops. Need some reporters to do a story so maybe this city will do something.

  3. Reade Street also has a chronic rat problem as they occupy any vacant building and the decrepit iron work above vaults and at building entrances. Despite the best efforts of restaurants, the rats have plentiful food supplies and places to hunker down. Frequent calls to 311 and messages to CB1 and the DoH have not resulted in any action and the problems continues to escalate.

  4. Curious. I’m staying at my daughter’s on Jay street. A couple of days ago, on Tuesday, before 4:30 pm, a non garbage day, someone put out three white garbage bags in front of three different buildings. Rats started on them in the early evening.

    Is someone deliberately trying to create a problem?

  5. Could the proliferation of rats have anything to do with bits of edibles left over from the proliferation of dining areas in the streets?

    • I think it has more to do with the road construction. I walked by Worth street last night and rats were scurrying all around the open pits.

  6. Our building just redid our Jay St. sidewalk to seal the cracks and to prevent rats from getting into our building. Our super only puts the garbage bags out in the morning of the pick-up days. Please report garbage on the streets at other times by calling 311.

  7. Came to the Brandy Library specifically to check out this art piece. Literally no one knew about it. I asked the host when I walked in, knew nothing. I asked several of the bartenders, finally one pointed me to it.. they didn’t know that it would reveal itself.. Maybe I was expecting too much, but shared the story with all of the staff tonight..

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