I'm not necessarily a fan of big government doing everything for us, but I am four-square behind the city's latest potential initiative: requiring that developers hire an exterminator to wipe out the rat colony in a building prior to its demolition.
According to a DMN story, construction in neighborhoods and downtown is displacing rat families, which then apparently head next door to take up residence in neighboring homes and buildings. And that's not exactly the type of houseguest you want stopping by unannounced, particularly since the story goes into some detail about rat's sexual maturity (they apparently blow through puberty in 8-12 weeks and then can produce up to 84 pups/baby rats a year).
According to the News story, Mayor Leppert isn't exactly jumping onboard the extermination bandwagon, but he's leaving things open for consideration. Hey, the Park Cities have already legislated their way to rat-free demolitions; we might as well follow their lead on this one, too.
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