Rat Crackdown! The City's New Intolerance Policy

The New York Post reports that the [number of city restaurants] shut down since the [KFC-Taco Bell debacle](http://www.nypress.com/20/9/informationagent/agent1.cfm) has tripled.

From the Post: Health Department figures show 83 restaurants closed from Feb. 26 to March 9 - or about nine a day, excluding Sundays, when there are no inspections. Typically, the city shuts two or three a day for unsanitary conditions.

Is it just me, or is a rate of three a day also pretty scary? Many restaurateurs who have been [forced to stop dishing up] their specialties since footage of the Greenwich Village romping rats was released claim they are [victims of a backlash](http://www.nypress.com/blogx/category_blogs.cfm?day=1&startmonth=3&startyear=2007&category=983678733). Chuck Hunt, head of the New York Restaurant Association, claims that health officials solemnly swore that, as the Post puts it, “the rat controversy would not result in nitpicky inspections.” But nitpicky is such a subjective term.

Photo courtesy of [IRRI Images on Flickr ]