Rats! Downtown's Dirty Secret is Getting Food To-Go

A "Banksy" stencil of undetermined provenance, courtesy of our Flickr Pool's +Russ

The other night I was standing in the alley by the Triple Door--I just was, okay!--and my friend was telling me how one time he stepped out there for a smoke after a show. A rat emerged from somewhere, zoomed around the corner, and darted toward the Triple Door doors. At the entryway, it hit a pillar and bounced off. It was dazed a few seconds, "just like a cartoon," then ran in.

"Anyway," recounted my friend, "I came back for another show and just as I was talking about how I'd seen this rat last time, another one ran right past us."

KING 5 reports that the anecdotal alley-rat population boom may be related, ironically, to the city's Clear Alleys program. The city got rid of dumpsters (to curb the drug-dealing and -taking that went on behind them, among other things), and now trash is put out in plastic bags--which the rats have learned to chew through. The result is not exactly the every-48-years black rat plague of northeast India, but easy access to food scraps is a proven way to get more rats in a hurry. (Switching to toter trash cans, especially for food waste, is the next action item.)

The area around First Avenue and Yesler is, according to Seattlepi.com commenters, rat central. "If you ever find yourself waiting for a bus at the stop [at First and Yesler], you can watch tons of them coming out of the storm drain in front of the bar," writes one. "I have been through Pioneer Square many times in the evening and many times I feel like I have to step over them to walk," is the unsettling description from another.

Seattle Post-Globe spoke with a West Seattle woman who twice had rats climb out of her toilet. This advice, from rat inspector Don Pace, seems worth passing along for its preventive value: "Pour 1/2-cup baking soda into the toilet, followed by 1/2-cup vinegar, then rinse with 4 cups of boiling water to cut grease (which attracts rats) in pipes."

Currently, Pace and Carol Coombs are all the resources that Public Health for Seattle/King County have to address the problem, so for them, that switch to rat-proof trash containers probably can't come soon enough.