Welcome to today's edition of Navigator, CityLab's biweekly Saturday newsletter.

Living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, walking past rats as they skitter across sidewalks and station platforms is just part of urban life. There's an entire park in the district's Dupont Circle neighborhood that lives up to its unofficial designation as a rat sanctuary, at least when I've visited.

While rat sightings are all too common in cities, the average person has little understanding of how rats manage to thrive in urban areas, and why all the poison baits and traps in the world won't rid us of the pests.

Spoiler alert: The answer is us humans.

Earlier this month, I attended D.C.'s annual Rodent Control Academy, hosted by the city's health department. The two-day course was led by urban rodentologist Bobby Corrigan, who also led us on a field trip to a "real-world infestation."

I first spoke with Corrigan in June 2020 for a story exploring how the coronavirus recovery might change cities. Urban areas were just starting to come out of their months-long pandemic lockdown, and restaurants were opening up again — many with the new option of outdoor seating. At the time, Corrigan warned that rats, which deserted commercial centers for residential areas during lockdown, would come roaring back if cities didn't rethink their waste-management infrastructure with rodent control at the forefront.

He was right: Complaints about rat sightings to the 311 service request line have soared in cities like Chicago, New York and D.C. over the last two years.

Corrigan's extensive knowledge comes from decades of experience and research. He's spent much of his career in sewers, and, in his early days, sleeping in infested buildings at night. But a two-day tutorial on ratology is more than enough to help us understand how to play our part in the fight against rats.

As Corrigan walked us through best practices and debunked myths (rats don't just thrive in squalor and filth — they live in luxury towers, too), it became clear that to stay one step ahead of these animals, we have to examine human behavior.

Rats, as it turns out, are just like us. The things that attract us — food, security, a warm place to curl up to — also appeal to them. So, as Corrigan suggested, taking those away can make the city as uninviting as possible for these resourceful urban dwellers.

Read more about my crash course on Rodent 101.

— Linda Poon

What we're writing

For your weekend listen: Our new podcast "Bedrock, USA" explores the rise of far-right candidates across the US and how these ideologies are fraying trust in local institutions. Subscribe on Apple Podcast, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The late sculptor Claes Oldenburg, with his partner Coosje van Bruggen, created giant pop art installations that rewrote the rules about art in public spaces. Meet the artists who mastered the urban spectacle.
The Battery Park City Resiliency Project promises to protect some of the most valuable real estate in the US. Can it be a model for urban flood protection?
One of the best resources for finding public toilets in New York City is a TikTok account run by a 23-year-old — but it shouldn't be that way. A new bill could finally bring more restrooms to the city.
Mumbai was built with pandemics in mind. But as the city grew, demand for denser housing overshadowed the health of residents and is worsening the spread of tuberculosis. A look at urban design in an antibiotic-resistant world.
Amsterdam's mayor is determined to hold back a tide of tourism and rethink the city's free-wheeling image as a magnet for sex- and drug-seeking vacationers.
Fun-in-the-sun photos of crowded beaches and sunbathers don't convey the true dangers of extreme temperatures. So what is a heat wave supposed to look like?

What we're following

Fighting for "the right to pee everywhere" (Lux Magazine)
What singing truth to power really means at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival (Rolling Stone)
Which panda is which? AI is helping researchers find out (NBC News)
The gig workers writing werewolf erotica from home (Rest of World)
Smoky days hurt cows, too (Wired)
A journey to Sapien Nation, a crypto-fueled metaverse that promises to build a "unifying mythology for all humanity." (The Baffler)
New York City moving companies are locked in storage wars (Curbed)

Views from the ground

From Eric P. Masi in Chicago: A "surreal" stage

This was a dance performance held in a modern lobby as celebration for people coming back to office and into the city. The video screen art behind the dancers created a surreal, luminous stage and backdrop.
I've missed public events like this, people gathering and reasons to gather spontaneously.

We love to feature reader photos from around the world to show how cities — and the ways people experience them — are unique. If you'd like to share an original photo with your fellow city enthusiasts, you can submit it along with a few sentences about what you find most interesting about it via this form, or on Instagram with the hashtag #citylabontheground.