He’s taking his rat beef to another level.
Mayor Eric Adams is now blaming the Big Apple’s notorious rodent population as a big reason why New Yorkers fleeing the state like rats from a sinking ship.
Hizzoner pointed the finger at the furry pests on Thursday after sobering new United States Census Bureau statistics revealed nearly 102,000 people had high-tailed it out of the Empire State within the last year.
“Some people who have children and families decide they want to go to a place where their children can play outdoors, larger green spaces, you want to see animals — you don’t see animals except for rats in New York,” Adams said when asked about the plunging population data.
“So there’s a combination of things,” he said, adding: “And we are getting rid of those rats, by the way.”
The mayor, who has repeatedly declared “I hate rats” and said confessed to being “fixated on killing” them, has long waged a war against his old foe.
He’s even gone as far as establishing the city’s first-ever “rat czar” to help stamp out Gotham’s pesky vermin population.
Still, Adams — who insisted Thursday that the city was still working to eliminate the vermin problem — acknowledged that the sky-rocketing costs of living could also be to blame for the recent net-decline in residents.
“I think there’s a combination of why people are leaving the city. The cities have become unaffordable and, you know, people who left the city during COVID for a short period of time and some decided that they no longer want to come back into cities,” Adams said.
“You [also] have the remote work option where you don’t have to be in an office space to do the job. You can do it from wherever and so there’s a perfect storm of reasons that cities are losing their population.”
“At one time you may have lost, you know, 20,000 here, 15,000 here and now when you start to add up all of those dynamics, it’s a different way of life,” he added.
The mayor suggested that the relentless influx of migrants that keep pouring into the city could help turn the abysmal figures around.
“We don’t want people to leave, but people are also moving into the city,” he said.
“You know, I’ll see first time New Yorkers over and over again — people are moving in and they have,” Adams continued.
“152,000 migrants. We give ’em a job, they become workers, they become part of our economy, like other immigrant groups have become part of our economy.”
New York was one of just eight states to a face a decline in residents between July 2022 to July 2023, the Census report found — while red states like Texas and Florida saw large spikes in population growth.
New York’s population tallied approximately 19,571,216 as of July 1, which is down from roughly 19,673,200 residents 12 months earlier, according to the latest Census data.
California suffered the biggest population blow after New York with a net-decrease of almost 75,500, the data show. Meanwhile, Texas and Florida added 473,453 and 365,205 new residents, respectively.
Some fed-up lawmakers and ex-New Yorkers were quick to blame the Empire State’s decline on crime and the sky-high cost of living.
“People are getting sick of it. The lawlessness, the protests in transit hubs. Young families no longer see this as a place to raise their children,” retired NYPD Lt. John Macari, who was born in Brooklyn but fled to Florida last year, told The Post.
“Criminals and migrants are being put ahead of everyday New Yorkers. As long as that continues, more people are going to flee.”