Gale Brewer (Manhattan 6th District) has been at the forefront of the efforts to introduce meaningful bed bug legislation in the New York City Council for the past three years. We recently had an update on those efforts.

In January of this year, as the city launched its bed bug seminars, Council Member Brewer had this to say to NY1:

“The bottom line is bed bugs must be dealt with. And they are a mental health issue if they are not a physical health issue,” said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer. “New Yorkers really need to know their government is behind them in trying to get rid of bedbugs.”

My own theory for why these efforts have not yet yielded control measures that are appropriate to the high levels of infestation in New York City is that the stigma of bed bugs prevents many New Yorkers from voicing their concerns, asking for help and supporting the legislative proposals.

Or could it be that there aren’t enough bed bugs in New York City!? Is there or isn’t there an epidemic? Will you come to the open house to meet Council Member Brewer and tell her what you think?

Thanks to Crawledon for the open house info!

GALE BREWER’S SPRING OPEN HOUSE

Sunday, May 18, 4-7PM & Monday, May 19, 5:30-8:30 PM

Council Member Gale A. Brewer’s District Office at 563 Columbus Ave. (at 87th St.)

Refreshments

Details via Manhattan Community Board No. 4 news.

• Gale Brewer’s Bed Bug Update
• NYC Bed Bug Task Force / City Council Update
• More on New York’s response to bed bugs
• New York Magazine on bed bugs

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Oddly enough, I could not find it on the NY City Council website or on Brewer’s defunct blog.
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
COUNCIL MEMBER GALE A. BREWER

CITY HALL
NEW YORK, NY 10007
TEL: 212-788-6975
FAX: 212-513-7717
www.nyccouncil.info

Brewer Bedbug Battle Continues!

February 28, 2008 - For the last two years I have worked with the Bloomberg Administration to develop a public education program to inform residents about bedbug prevention, identification, and treatment. Since early January 2008, public education seminars, led by the staff from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, have been held in Queens and Manhattan, with a third planned for Brooklyn in March.

At every gathering hundreds upon hundreds of residents have attended; it is standing room-only because New Yorkers are desperate for accurate information about bedbugs. In our outreach to the community, residents are encouraged to contact 311 if they cannot attend one of the initial launch seminars or to request a seminar for their own community. Due to the overwhelming response, HPD has partnered with Operation Hope in West Harlem to host a seminar this evening. Additional seminars for April and May are planned and HPD is also folding bedbug education into the Owner?s Night curriculum.

But we also have a lot more to do. I am currently drafting legislation requiring the City to provide large plastic bags and brightly colored “Caution! This May Contain BedBugs!” stickers to City residents in order to completely encase infested furniture and other household items intended for curb-side pick-up. Both the bags and stickers would be available through 311 and at City agency offices. Piloted by the City of Boston, this service would increase the public?s awareness of bedbugs, as well as help protect sanitation workers who pick up infested furniture. I have also introduced legislation to mandate coordination of city agencies on this topic and to focus on the transportation of new and used mattresses.

Contact: Shula Warren 347-563-1295

• Gale Brewer invites bedbuggers to her annual open house
• New York City is behind in the bed bug wars
• Second Bed Bug Seminar (2/5 in Astoria)
• Bed bugs in NYC: if we could just get Bill Murray on the case

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The first seminar is scheduled to take place on Monday, January 28 from 6PM to 8PM at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion, 1^st floor conference room, Columbia University Medical Center, 1150 St. Nicholas Avenue (at 168^th Street) in Manhattan.

The second seminar is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 5 from 8PM to 9PM at Ricardo’s Catering Hall, 21-01 24^th Avenue in Astoria, Queens.

The final seminar is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 12 from 6PM to 8PM at the Hope Gardens Senior Center, 195 Linden Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Anyone interested in attending any of these seminars is encouraged to call (212) 863-8830 to reserve a space. Translation services will be provided for Spanish-speaking members of the public.

New York Times blogger Jennifer 8. Lee also reported on the seminars. She also gave a helpful insight into what happens after you call 311:

Bedbug complaints are listed as an “emergency,” which means they go to the top of the priority list. The department sends out inspectors at night, when bedbugs tend to be more active. Typically, bedbugs are listed as a Class B violation, which gives the owner 30 days to correct the problem. The least severe violations, Class A, have to be fixed within 90 days. Class C violations, for emergency conditions like no electricity or hot water, must be corrected within 24 hours and completely dwarf the bedbug complaints.

Although we knew something about what happens when bedbuggers call 311, we had not previously heard that inspections were made at night. (I’m not sure how big a help this is, since I assume inspectors aren’t coming to call at 2 am, but still, it can’t hurt.) Lee also provided an interesting quotation from a City Councilperson who had had bed bugs:

Robert Jackson, a city councilman who represents parts of northern Manhattan, said at a news conference that his family had been plagued by bedbugs when he was young.

“They used to bite us all,” he said.”We used to wake up trying to kill them at night.”

Incidentally, Jackson was born and raised in Manhattan, according to the City Council’s biography, linked from his name above. I suspect someone in the New York City Council will soon have a contemporary story of bed bugs. I hope that when they do, they will speak out.

Lee continued,

Awareness has made people paranoid of bedbugs, which is why calls to 311 have skyrocketed, though only a part of those have ended up with violation notices.

“I think a lot of people are convinced they have bedbugs when they don’t,” Mr. Aragon said.

That is another reason they are holding the seminars, he said, so that people with skin rashes know when not to call 311.

This is certainly important– people should not panic, and should rule out other causes of itching. Knowing what different stages of bed bugs look like is key.

However, I have to admit that– having heard some 311 stories myself, and knowing how difficult it can be to find bed bug samples– I would suspect at least some of the 5000 people who called 311 last year and who were told they did not have bed bugs, did have them. Although some of the 7000 calls were doubtless panic reactions, I would not be surprised if more than 2000 were actual bed bug cases. I would like to know what constitutes evidence of bed bugs for the inspectors, and how they are trained to detect infestations. We’re told some PCOs do not visually inspect for bed bugs, finding this too difficult, time-consuming, or pointless.

Hopefully anyone who did have bed bugs, but whose HPD inspection turned up nothing, eventually found evidence and called again. However, we know that when people call for help and don’t get it, they often try other means the next time–like paying for their own treatment, or self-treating. (If neighbors are infested, both methods can fail miserably.)

The Times Ledger community newspapers also reported this week on the planned seminars.

The meetings, one of which will take place on Feb. 5 in Astoria, are a response to the rise in complaints that city residents have filed against the insects, according to City Council Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).

“It’s a problem that until recently even I wasn’t aware of. You expect something like this in a third world country but not in the capital of the world,” he said.

They cited incorrect statistics on the number of complaints citywide:

In 2005, there were only 62 bedbug complaints, which soared to 366 last year, according to the city. Astoria had the third highest number of complaints, Vallone said. Although bedbugs do not transmit any diseases, they are still pose a health crisis for city residents according to the councilman.

“Other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis but when people aren’t sleeping they can develop physical and mental problems,” he said.

Perhaps the paper meant to cite statistics for Astoria? The city reported much higher numbers of complaints in 2007 city-wide. The press release about the seminars says,

In Fiscal Year 2007 alone, the City’s 311 hotline received nearly 7,000 bedbug related complaints and HPD housing inspectors issued over 2,000 violations to building owners all across the City. By comparison, Fiscal Year 2004 saw only 1,800 complaints and less than 400 violations issued.

We should remember these are only the people who called 311 to complain about bed bugs, which it appears most tenants and no coop or condo owners do. The numbers also leave out the NYC housing authority residents who had bed bugs last year. Douglas Feiden’s December report in The Daily News reported that there were

… 1,708 verified bedbug cases in 277 public housing projects this year [2007], the city Housing Authority says.

The city and the media leave us to do the math: New York City knows of approximately 3700 tenants who had bed bugs last year. They have no data on non-NYCHA tenants who reported bed bugs to their landlords directly, nor those who called pest control operators themselves, nor on co-op, condo or other homeowners.

From where I sit, hearing the stories of New York bedbuggers daily–and knowing only a small percentage call 311 about their bed bug problem–this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Vallone is also wrong that other cities don’t consider bed bugs a crisis. Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, and San Francisco, California, are all US cities that are taking bed bugs seriously. Though responses have been limited so far, some of these cities have expended more money and energy per capita on bed bugs than New York has, by far.

And outside the US, Vancouver is also taking bed bugs seriously with a number of responses. Toronto is currently figuring out what to do.

Also this week, the New York Press blogged about the bed bug “education campaign”, and used one of Bedbugger mangy_cur’s excellent bed bug photos. Congratulations, mangy_cur!

They also linked to a thread in our forums, which we do appreciate (thanks, Emily Meredith of nypress.com!) though it’s always a little embarrassing when people arrive first via a forums thread, like a new guest coming to visit for the first time off the fire escape and through the kitchen window. But we welcome them nonetheless.

Update 1/21: CBS on the bed bug seminars; includes interview with Lou Sorkin who stresses that people need to look for the tiny, translucent nymphs which will be more common than rust-colored adults.

• Lexington, KY vs. New York, NY: a tale of two bedbugged cities
• Tomorrow’s bed bug seminar in New York (Tuesday 2/5/2008)
• Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington in NYC: latest bed bug lawsuit
• Columbia Spectator on bed bugs, again with the HPD statistic soup

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Wantmyskinback writes:

At the end of December, when I first began communicating with the Bedbugger Yahoo support group, and also reading the Bedbugger Blog, I was struck by two things. 1. the wealth of excellent information being brought to me and 2. the lack of attentiveness to this problem by my city. Many of us were/are asking, “where is Bloomberg? where is the government? what happened after the september meeting with council member Brewer and the Bed Bug Task Force? ” I wanted to know these answers too. So, I asked.

I went on the NYC.Gov link, and looked up City Council, and found my district council member who’s email address was prominently displayed. I wrote an email, anonymously from this email account (which isn’t my real one, obviously), describing my situation in detail. Within a few days I received a thoughtful and courteous response from the assistant to the council member who was assigned to follow up with me. She said in her email, that the Bed Bug Task Force from last September was still being forumed and that she would “investigate the scope of the current legislation and see if we can work on the prevention aspects (do more than just ban the sale of used mattresses). ”

My continued communications with her have led her to the Bedbugger Blog website, to the NYTimes article written by Bonnie Friedman, and then, to my delighted surprise, I recieved this reply from her saying:

I just spoke with CM Brewer’s office and they have begun having focus group meetings regarding the legislation they proposed. While the legislation is still in Committee, the focus group consists of several agencies, including Dept of Health, Dept of Consumer Affairs, and Dept of Sanitation; as well as a representative from the Mayor’s Office. The main focus of this group at this time is the formulation of an education campaign.

I suggested they invite a PCO to this focus group and a victim of bed bugs.

I immediately got on the phone with her, and exposed who I was to her (the undue shame associated with Bed Bugs as Bugalina put it is probably what stops alot of us from reporting our cases publicly). She was surprised, she told me, that only two people from my district contacted them during the month of January. That is appalling! I happen to know from my PCO that my district is literally “crawling” with bed bugs! She also spoke to me about NYCHA, which is the New York City Housing Authority which has a bed bug office, and helps people in NYC housing.

I personally urge all of you to contact your political representatives, whether you are in NYC, or elsewhere. Otherwise they do not know how many constituants in their districts are suffering. Please write your council members. Please use your government to make things happen. The only way we can get the information and to get things done is to SPEAK UP. It was quite easy to reach them via email (they have phones too), and they ARE interested in what we have to say. Unfortunately, NYC takes longer than other cities to get on it, but once we voice ourselves, they may move faster!

Notes from Nobugsonme:

Many thanks to Wantmyskinback for the update and for the reminder that we need to keep contacting government officials who may remain unaware of the scope of this problem, and who generally don’t take action unless their constituents tell them to. Use your name, tell them you’re a voter, and describe the toll bed bugs have taken on your life. You do not have to be the best writer in the world, you just have to take a minute and send an email or a note. If you want to point out information in the media, like the article by Bonnie Friedman, October’s major article in the NY Times, an article in your local paper (if you’re not in NYC), or a link to http://bedbugger.com, then it might help them begin to see what all the fuss is about.

If you’re my neighbor, in NYC, you can look up and correspond with your New York City council member by clicking here. State senators: click here to search via zip code.

Don’t forget to alert national government representatives too. US citizens can find and correspond with state senators here. (Click the wee “Find your senators” drop down menu at the top right of the screen. “Write your congress” by using the zip code searching tool on the left of this screen.

If you are not in NYC–please comment below with a link to your Chicago alderman (is it alderperson, now, Jess?) or other local government.

I can’t include local governments around the world, but if you have the tech skills to find us, you can find them by googling–most are online. Let your city and regional government know you need help with bed bugs. There is more that can be done–legislation, and perhaps even funding for better treatment of this quickly spreading problem. If you live in a country that did not see bed bugs much for 30 years, don’t take this lying down. (Sorry, I am entitled to one pun per day.) Insist politicians do anything they can to help us get good, safe, quick treatments, and necessary research.

And while you’re at it, state and US senators, Canadian, British and Australian MPs, and so on. This is not just a blog for US Bedbuggers. We get lots of readers daily from Australia, NZ, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Columbia, France, and around the world. Tell us how you get in touch with your government officials (local, regional, national), and I’ll add the links to a FAQ on activism.

If any local politicians (NYC or anywhere) are reading this (and come on folks, we all google ourselves, don’t we?) please leave a comment below. We’d love to know that you care about us, voting citizens with bed bugs.

• Gale Brewer invites bedbuggers to her annual open house
• Update on New York State bed bug legislation (parental notification re: bed bugs in school)
• Gale Brewer’s Bed Bug Update
• The NYTimes is back on the bed bugs story

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