Health inspectors, embarrassed by the bungling that allowed rats to overrun a Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell, are now flunking one out of every four restaurants they visit, according to figures released yesterday.
The Health Department reported that 25.2 percent of the 28,955 eateries inspected in the 2007 fiscal year, which ended June 30, failed their initial exams. A year earlier, the failure rate was 19.9 percent.
“This doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Rob Bookman, a lawyer for the New York Nightlife Association.
“I think it’s probably reflective of the larger number of violations they’re issuing in general. Their position seems to be compliance through fines.”
Bookman said TV footage last February showing rats scampering around the KFC/Taco Bell franchise a day after an inspector’s visit certainly worsened the situation.
In fact, inspectors cited “signs of active rats” as a reason for failure in 48 percent of the cases.
Officials explained that inspectors received additional training after the highly-publicized incident, which made them more aware of rodent problems and led to more violations.
In the six weeks after the rat discovery at Taco Bell, the Health Department shut down 200 restaurants around the city.
The statistics were released as part of the latest Mayor’s Management Report, a semi-annual report card on the performance of city agencies.
As usual, mayoral aides emphasized the positive in the self-graded, 202-page review.
Of 64 measurements spotlighted in an accompanying press release, only 12 were negative.
In places, the spin was palpable. The number of families entering the shelter system soared from 9,184 to 10,165, the largest one-year jump since Bloomberg took office in 2002.
But the press release chose to report the figure under the headline “Indicators of the Street Homeless Population Declined,” a reference to the estimated 2 percent drop in people living on the street.
Overall, core services held up well.
Crime was down for the 16th consecutive year, with 123,136 major felonies reported, a 5 percent decline from 2006. Response times by cops, firefighters and ambulances all improved. Streets were rated the cleanest in 33 years. School classes were generally smaller.
But the Fire Department, under intense scrutiny for its lack of inspections of the troubled Deutsche Bank building, reported small decreases in inspections. A spokesman said such a slight fluctuation was considered “normal.”