Chicago is the "rat capital" of the U.S., according to a survey of four big cities released by the apartment searcher platform RentHop.com, which said rodent complaints there jumped 55 percent over the past three years.
Comparing rat complaints per 100,000 residents, Chicago topped RentHop's list with an average of 1,876.09 complaints. Washington, D.C. came in second with 725.68 complaints, or 5,036 total. Boston was third with 363.16 per 100,000 residents, or 2,488 total complaints.
New York City, surprisingly, came in last in the four-city survey with an average of 222.11 complaints per 100,000 residents, of 19,152 total complaints in 2017, according to RentHop.
(New York City, though, has by far the most colorful rat news stories.)
RentHop said rat complaints topped 50,963 this past year, compared to 32,855 in 2014. It said the city's garbage accumulation and compacted buildings made for great locations "for these rats to seek shelter and food for survival."
The website said the "presence of these furry critters poses a threat to city dwellers due to the fact that they are capable of spreading diseases and cause allergic reactions to humans and animals."
RentHop wrote that the Logan Square, Englewood, and West Ridge neighborhoods generated the most rat complaints in Chicago while downtown had the fewest complaints.
Chicago city officials pushed back against the report, telling the Chicago Tribune that RentHop's rat total for the city was inaccurate. The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation reported to the newspaper that it received 42,670 requests for rodent abatement from residents in 2017.
City officials said its official total eliminated duplicate complaints and proactive rodent abatement cases that the streets and sanitation department keeps tabs on, according to the Tribune.
"Rodent complaints are not an accurate indicator of the rat population in an area, however they do show that Chicagoans care about the health and safety of their communities," Marjani Williams, spokeswoman for Streets and Sanitation, told the Tribune.
"(Streets and Sanitation) encourages residents to report rodent activity to 311 so that our crews can quickly investigate and address every sighting."
The New York Post took a jab at its big-city foe, writing: "The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce won't be bragging about the Windy City winning this title: It's the nation's 'rat capital.'"
The Daily Wire took a political stance on the news, pointing to the city's mayor and well-known Democrat Rahm Emanuel.
"The city of Chicago, where former Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel is mayor, has been named in a new study the 'rat capital' of the nation," the website trumpeted.
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