City denies construction is behind increased mice activity
Downtown Santa Monica’s recent mouse infestation has business owners and city officials baffled as to where the rodents came from.
The Los Angeles County Health Department last week temporarily closed five downtown restaurants for having mice in their buildings. The restaurants were allowed to reopen in 48 hours after passing a subsequent health inspection.
What’s troubling to businesses leaders and restaurant owners is that none of the restaurants had previous rodent problems. Every restaurant, except one, had received the highest rating from the health department.
“Our restaurants aren’t dirty,” said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of the Bayside District Corporation. “They have been caught in this situation and we’re trying to help them deal with it as best we can.”
Many downtown restaurant owners believe the recent rodent problems stem directly from the high volume of construction in the city’s commercial core over the past year.
City government has been ripping up its streets to create a downtown transit mall, making sidewalks wider and trying to make the city’s downtown core more pedestrian and mass-transit friendly.
The transit mall construction has coincided with a public works project replacing 100-year-old water mains under downtown streets, as well as a lot of private construction projects near the city’s core. At least four commercial construction projects are active on Second and Fourth Streets and there are at least another three housing projects underway near the Promenade area.
“I first started noticing the problem about the time when all this construction began,” said George Rifold, owner of George’s Bistro, a small eatery located near the center of the Promenade. “It stands to reason if you disturb their habitat (the mice) are going to move somewhere else.”
The mice moved further downtown and to the beach, Rifold said, and moved into the building where his restaurant and Bravo Cucina are located. Both restaurants were recently cleared by the health department.
Rifold is remodeling his kitchen and restaurant extensively to prevent the mice from getting in.
“I’ll have to redo the entire restaurant,” he said. “It’s costing me a fortune, but it’s either that or we get closed down.”
Rifold believes city officials need to acknowledge that construction is the cause of the problem and he wants them to help downtown businesses control the mouse population.
But city officials refuse to accept responsibility. They also deny claims by some that the city’s open dumpsters and dirty alleys are attracting mice.
“If the general upheaval of street construction were related, we would have seen the same phenomenon on Main Street during sewer construction,” said city spokeswoman Judy Rambeau. “That was not the case there and we do not think there’s a connection on the Promenade.”
El Segundo-based Innovative Pest Management was hired by the city to handle pest control matters on the Promenade, downtown alleys and dumpster rooms in the public parking structures.
The company recently added additional bait stations — little green boxes with poison inside — along the Promenade. So far, the investigation has found that mouse activity has not increased at any location.
“We’ve ruled out construction and dumpsters,” Rambeau said. “And our pest management company continues to attend to the public areas.”
Carl Doucette, an Innovative Pest Management employee, said the mice may be living under the sidewalks of the Promenade. He said when the city filled in holes where trees grow out of the sidewalks along the walkway, they may have left gaps where mice could get in and nest.
Doucette said the company has concentrated its efforts on the center islands of the Promenade, adding several new bait stations and increasing the total number to 23 along the Promenade. The company has installed between three to four bait stations in every public parking structure.
“I have seen a steady level of problems and in the city it fluctuates depending on where you are in the city,” he said. “It’s a battle the city recognizes and any time we have a problem we address it.”
Two Santa Monica-based pest control services agree that the level of mouse activity downtown has not increased in recent months.
“I don’t know that it’s any worse than it ever is,” said Robert Schwartz of Pest Control Services. “They aren’t hard to control, use the proper bait and you’ll get them.”
They said mice live close to their food sources and typically will not travel farther than 15 feet from their nests, even if there is heavy construction nearby.
“Mice usually stay within a short range,” said Phil Noud of Pestforce 1. “I don’t believe the city is responsible, and besides there is no real way to prove it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2002. Read the original PDF.