A new report by the apartment search the quote, rat capital of the country to come to that conclusion.

The report looked at the number of rat complaints in four cities.

It found Chicago had the most complaints in 2017, followed by New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Even after looking at the number of complaints based on each city's population, Chicago still ranked number one.

Here to help separate Chicago rat facts from Chicago, rat fiction is Don He is an associate professor and interim dean at DePaul University S He teaches a course on understanding Chicago's rats from a cultural, environmental and urban policy perspective.

And on opiates.

Welcome to Chicago tonight.

First of all, this is the first time that Chicago has been named a city in the country.

What makes this st Yeah, no, indeed not.

So Chicago has had the honor of being the Rad in the United States for quite a few years now.

This study is interesting because unlike former studies that ranked Chicago number one.

This one looked at Chicago.

City of Chicago data rat complaints as oppose receipts for rat treatments, and that through pest control.

So the former former rankings of Chicago's number one This is coming from an independent analysis based on city data and city did.

That is to say, complaints made to 311.

That's right.

Okay.

accurately interpreted, fairly analyzed.

Why would Chicago have more rat complaints anyway than other cities?

So that's a great question, and I think it's a really key point.

So what this study is showing is that we don't really know if Chicago has more rats than other cities.

In fact, I would highly doubt that the rat population is higher in Ch But it does seem to be the case that we have more complaints.

What does that mean to Chicagoans like to complain more than those in New York?

Or is it that Chicago has a stronger reporting system and has done some good education I also believe that it's true that rat complaints have gone up over the last few years, and that's clearly borne out by the data.

So what is it that's happening?

You over these years to encourage mo of rat sightings, You know, more complaints about rats?

Is that really the case that we're seeing more rats or are people just starting to get fed up and wanting to, you know, make sure that the city is aware.

So there's not necessarily a correlatio and the large and excessively large, notably large rat population.

But there are three neighborhoods that top the list of the most complaints, and those neighborhoods are Logan Square, Englewood and West Ridge.

Why might these three neighborhoods be the source of the most complaints about rats?

Another great question, Phil.

You know, there's been a lot of developments in recent years.

It's also known that development disturbs rat nests and rat burrows.

And I believe that it was the case over in the same time period.

So in 2017, Logan Square saw more demolition than any other neighborhood in the city of Chicago.

And when you demolish buildings, what happens?

You're also demolishing the nests where the rat colonies a But how about those other neighborhoods?

Englewood And what risk?

Westridge What might expla Right.

is a neighborhood that is, you know, economically not not as well as other neighborhoods in Chicago.

It is the case that there seems to be a slight correlation between the number of complaints and median rents, you know, the cost of rent in a neighb What's that?

What's the relationship?

So the more complaints that you have, the lower the rents are, the lower the the rent is in the neighborhood.

And because low rent could be a reflection of a lot of things.

That's right.

That's right.

All right.

me aningfully measure a city's rat population?

So I've been reflecting upon this actually in preparation for tonight.

And what I would like to say is that it's a good thing that Chicago has a good reporting system.

It's a good thing that people of Chicago are submitting complaints.

And I and I and I just because we have more complaints this year than in previous years, it could mean that the system is working.

It's notoriously difficult to measure rat populations.

There's no real direct way to do that.

Complaints are one measure of getting at their population, but it's not a reliable measure.

There's also a correlation, apparently, between the number of complaints and neighborhoods where people complain about dog droppings.

Expand on that If it's not too if it's not too obvious.

Right.

So it's also known to rat populations is the availability of food.

So, you know, restaurant districts tend to be popular areas that rats like to visit by dark feces as a form of food for rats.

And it is the case that when there is a lot of dog droppings out and about, you're likely to see rats.

There's one breed of rats in Chicago.

There's not multiple.

Tell us about the breed in Ch Great question.

So in general, there's two There's rattus and revenge because the Norway rat, the brown rat.

This is the rat that is common in Chicago and in most cities of the United States.

The other rat is the black rat, Rattus Rattus.

And it's a rat that is in the United States, but tends to be more prevalent on the West Coast.

It's also known as the tree rat because it likes to climb around.

Rats do not like to climb trees.

Chicago rats do not like to Th ey're good climbers, but they prefer to I see.

So s their ability to reproduce and so forth.

Yeah.

Feral rats will live as long as a year, but they're really good reproduce.

They can have up to eight litters a year and they have up So we're talking 90 almost 100 rats, 100 pups that a rat can produce.

That's right.

And in they're very smart.

Give me an example of how Just how smart are they?

So rats also a I personally have friends who have pet rats.

I when I taught my class, I had the rats visit the class.

They're a very intelligent.

They're very aware of They're very social beings.

They're very smart.

They know they Rats are known to be neophytes.

They're afraid of what things that are new.

And so they're creatures of habit.

When they're out and about, they tend to follo for safety reasons.

They tend to stay away from new things This is why beatings of rats aren't always so effective, because, again, that's something that's foreign being introduced into their environment.

Would you say how that the city of Chicago Ch icago has been pouring more and more resources as these complaints have gone up.

I admire that there is a rat program in Chicago that is very broad based.

It involves waste management, which is very key to controlling rat populations.

And we're seeing here the the th steps that Yeah.

Overflowing trash bins are a ripe source for attracting rats.

Rats.

Being mindful of our holes and buildings and garages that provide access for rats to get indoors.

Getting rid of piles of debris and wood and, you know, weeding, that sort of thing in order.

In other words, you know, removing food sources, picking up after your dog, you know, coming back to the dog feces.

So it's really about changing the environment so that you're making it not so rat friendly.

Don't tell me we're almost out of time.

But real quickly, what is your It's called Rats in the City.

What do you teach?

Who Yeah.

Thanks for asking.

So this is an introduction to the liberal art introducing a problem.

So rats in the city is a problem.

And examining that problem through three different lenses, and in this case, urban ecology, cultural studies and public po The students in the class are required to do some kind of community engagement as part of their assignments.

And so I have had students that have contacted the city and done reports and like we saw with rent, rent have become.

Well, it's a subject that all Chicagoans are interested in.

Don Lopez, thank you so much for joining us.

Very much appreciate you giving us yo My pleasure.