Park in Chicago's West Town community area is plagued with rats

CBS News

a day ago

Back in 1979, The Boomtown Rats had a hit in several countries with "I Don't Like Mondays." This particular Monday some 46 years later, there's some news you might not like — not about Boomtown Rats, but about West Town rats in Chicago.
Rats in the West Town community area on Chicago's Near Northwest Side are not a new problem by any stretch. But one viewer said they are escalating in a local park.
Only halfway through 2025, Chicagoans have already made more than 15,000 reports about rats.
A total of 862 of those complaints come from the West Town community area so far this year. There were 2,038 in the same community area throughout last year.
The West Town community area is bounded roughly Bloomingdale Avenue and The 606 on the north, Kinzie Street and in the south, the North Branch of the Chicago River on the east, and Humboldt Boulevard, Kedzie Avenue, and Grand Avenue on the west. It includes the West Town neighborhood itself, as well as the Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, Noble Square, and River West neighborhoods, and parts of the Humboldt Park neighborhood and the park of Humboldt Park.
As humans enjoy sweet summer nights in the vibrant community, so do rats. The rodents are a common sight as soon as the weather warms up.
"At sunset you'll see a lot of them," said Michael Schorsch.
Schorsch and Joe Gudstadt walked CBS News Chicago through their rat battlefield in and around Dean Park, at 1344 N. Dean St. in the Wicker Park neighborhood— parallel to Milwaukee Avenue and southwest of the corner of Paulina Street and Beach Avenue. The men have been baiting the rats, filling their holes with sand, and covering their tunnel entrances with wood.
They even drop sausages with contraceptive rat bait into the holes.
The men have literally taken matters into their own hands because they say the rat problem in Dean Park is out of hand.
"I dug up like the mounds that they built, but within a matter of weeks, they dug them back out again," Gustadt said, "so I've been trying to fight the rat war, but we haven't really been winning."
Last year, Gustadt recruited Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) to his rat-fighting team. CBS News Chicago is told the alderman personally inspected an alley near the park and documented damaged trash cans — which are the source of the animals' food.
But Schorsch suspects what is really sustaining the rats are cozy accommodations in Dean Park. Underneath the dirt and vegetation is a network of rat tunnels — a giant pest nest.
And the men emphasize that the rats aren't just going around taking garbage for food and burrowing their way through dirt.
"They'll go up in the motor, and they'll chew the wires in your car," Schorsch said.
Residents are ready to blast the beady-eyed rat breeding grounds in Dean Park at their earliest convenience — but neither they nor Ald. La Spata get to make that call. The Chicago Park District has authority over the park land.
A spokesperson said the Park District works with the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation for rat abatement operations in parks, and Streets and San will conduct a rodent control operation in Dean Park on Tuesday.
However, 311 records show such rodent control operations were conducted twice last month. But the rats are still there.
"I see them every night running by," Gustadt said.
A faded sign mounted on a pole in the area provides tips by the city that are heard over and over — the main one being not to feed the rats. The sign goes on to advise everyone to keep garbage contained within closed bins; ensure dog poop is deposited in sealed containers; keep pet food indoors; remove old tires, lumber, and other debris; and properly maintain fruit and vegetable gardens and bird feeders.
CBS News Chicago asked multiple times why the city hasn't dug up the Dean Park rat nest. The best answer provided was, "We don't typically do that."