July 24, 2024 A pile of trash litters the ground along West Shore Avenue in Buffalo — a perfect way to attract vermin like rats. “They’re just lackluster when it comes to the East Side of Buffalo,” said one resident of city efforts to mitigate the gnawing problem. “We just learn to adapt to it.
” Vacant lots and trash lead to rat problem for East Side residents The residents of French Street on Buffalo's East Side have had it with the neighbors. Not the humans. The four-legged, long-tailed, toothy kind that like to hang around trash strewn on the ground.
“We had rats, man, that was like this here,” said Maurice Scott, holding his hands about a foot apart from each other. Over the past 16 years, properties in the neighborhood have been the subject of more 311 calls per person for rodent and pest control than any other neighborhood in Buffalo, according to city data. And three of the other top five neighborhoods – Broadway Fillmore, Genesee-Moselle and the Fruit Belt – are also on the East Side, bordering MLK Park to the south and east.
Experts say rat and bug problems indicate two primary "upstream" causes: poor waste management and a lack of exclusion, which is the patching of pest entry points in buildings. Indeed, the rodents are plentiful on French Street thanks to a veritable smorgasbord of garbage to choose from on the street in the heart of the city’s MLK Park neighborhood: Minute Maid bottles, McDonald’s bags, food wrappers, red Solo cups, and pl.