Central Park’s Tarr-Coyne Tots Playground is turning into a rodent playground — and parents are fed up.
Rats have become a daily menace at the popular toddler play area near West 67th Street, with multiple families reporting aggressive, oversized rodents brazenly raiding strollers and roaming freely around children. Some have been spotted leaping near kids as they snack, and even climbing into strollers — sometimes staying inside as families leave the park.
“Every single day that I go to play with my son, there will be one, two, three [rats] scurrying around and even jumping up in the area where our kids are eating their snacks,” said Amy Meyers, a 48-year-old Upper West Side mom. “They have no shame.”
Meyers, whose 3-year-old son plays there regularly, said the situation has her worried not only about the health risks at the park — but also about rats possibly making their way into nearby homes. “It’s disgusting. I’m actually quite nervous for my child to be playing here, because rats carry diseases and whatnot,” she said.
One mother recently captured a disturbing photo of a rat perched on a stroller wheel after scavenging for snacks. Others have reported similar incidents — including rats remaining hidden in strollers as caretakers unknowingly wheeled them out of the park.
Lauren, another local mom with two young kids, described rats “hopping from carriage to carriage” near the playground entrance. “I saw a rat crawl into the seat of a stroller one day in July,” she said. “Two weeks ago, I saw one crawling around the bottom of another stroller.”
Now, she actively warns other parents not to park their strollers in certain areas. “It’s happened to the point where, if I see someone parking their stroller near the entrance, I warn them not to.”
Her 1- and 3-year-old children now yell and clap as they enter the playground — a strategy to scare off lurking rodents.
Parents fear not just for their safety but for their children’s health. Sofia Genes, a 35-year-old mom, worries the rats may have contaminated the sandbox. “If their feces or urine was in the sandbox – I mean, the kids play in there all the time and, you know, kids put things in their mouths… that could be life-threatening,” she said. Rat-borne diseases like hantavirus, leptospirosis, and rat-bite fever are among the health risks.
What was once a daily routine at a beloved playground has become a stressful ordeal. “Sadly, in the last few weeks, we’ve scaled back on what were once daily visits,” Lauren said. “It’s just so unpleasant to spend your entire playground experience scanning the perimeter for rodents that may or may not dart toward your children.”
Despite these concerns, City Hall insists progress is being made in the city’s ongoing rat war. So far in 2025, NYC’s 311 service has received 6,614 rat complaints in Manhattan — slightly fewer than the 6,973 recorded at this point in 2024. Rodent sightings are also marginally down.
Mayor Eric Adams has touted a multi-pronged approach to rodent control, including appointing a $170,000-per-year “Rat Czar,” deploying an $877,000 rat extermination team to gas infestations, and mandating rodent-proof trash bins for property owners. He recently declared that rat sightings have dropped for eight straight months, saying rodents are “running scared.”
But none of the city’s rat mitigation zones — including areas in Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn — cover the West 67th Street playground.
“This being a kid-friendly zone, you’d think that would be a high priority,” said one frustrated father of two. “But it doesn’t seem like anyone is doing anything about it.”
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R–Queens) was blunt in her assessment: “Everything is getting progressively worse. Am I shocked? No. I’m horrified, but I’m not shocked.”