Happy Thursday!

• Today, we dive into what city officials — and one four-legged vigilante — are doing about the rats, and "Love Is Blind."

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 62 and a low of 54.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Jim Hoell!

Today’s newsletter is 1,075 words — a 4-minute read.

Boston officials have armed city blocks with rodent-resistant trash cans, birth control and thermal cameras that can detect rat clusters, but every war has its rogue vigilante.

• In the North End, that's Lilly, a 7-year-old dachshund.

Why it matters: Boston's war on rats — or at least the Wu administration's offensive — is still young, which means neighbors of Cutillo Park still benefit from Lilly's hunting streak.

Catch up quick: Rodent experts and government officials from around the world are in downtown Boston this week for the second National Urban Rat Summit.

• Boston officials shared their multi-agency game plan for tackling the city's infamous rat problem, which entails eradicating massive infestations while taking stock of the enemy's numbers.

What they're saying: "There is a rat world right beneath our feet," says Bobby Corrigan, the rodentologist who wrote Boston's Rodent Action Plan.

• Pretending otherwise lets the problem fester, exposing the city to dangerous viruses and bacteria, he added.

Friction point: Boston-area residents are well acquainted with the rat underworld.

• Thousands of complaints every year report rat activity — not just around trash strewn on the streets, but behind apartment walls and inside cars parked on the street.
• One even bit a person in Fenway last year.

Reality check: Boston has killed rats, but the best long-term strategy is to deter them from gaining new ground, says John Ulrich, assistant commissioner of environmental services.

State of play: City workers have tested various sensors to track rat activity, some more useful than others at scale.

• Inspectors in several departments have started searching for traces of vermin as part of their restaurant or housing visits, in one case issuing violations and encouraging a landlord to get a consultant to tackle an infestation in a 12-story building in Chinatown.
• Other tools include surface-level traps that blend into building facades, steel wool and special pavement-like material in tree pits and "containerization" stations on public housing property.

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Cutillo Park, located a few blocks from Hanover Street, is a textbook case of what happens when cities don't take a rat-centered approach.

Case in point: A $1.2 million renovation in 2022 gave the park new life with playground equipment a multi-use court and a deck — the perfect hidden breeding grounds for rats.

• For a hunter like Lilly, it was a feast. She had caught multiple rats by the mouth and snapped their necks.
• For everyone else, it was a nuisance at best, or a safety hazard for the neighborhood children at worst.

Zoom in: Several complaints later, a crew ripped out the deck and two inches of sub-base, finding hordes of rats.

• The deck was reinstalled and filled in with cement restraints and gravel.
• The city finished the second project summer, adding rodent-proof bins and some Flexi-pave pavement around the trees where rats would burrow.

Flash forward: These days, Lilly sniffs around the park and usually comes up empty.

• Meanwhile, Dorothy Dasaro, her owner, picks up garbage that she says tourists leave behind.
• "People don't respect the community, but at least the people that use this park, they pick up," she says.

What we're watching: Lilly still catches the occasional rodent that slips out from an alleyway. She's spotted some small burrows developing on the street.

• Only time will tell if the battle for Cutillo Park is over, and if it can become a model for other rat-infested pockets.
• In the meantime, city workers will keep collecting data to determine just how big a threat the rodents pose and how to drive them out for good — if that's possible.

Spread the word

🌧️ The first nor'easter of the season is set to hit eastern Massachusetts early, likely rolling in this weekend. (CBS Boston)

• The storm could bring several inches of rain, high winds and beach erosion from Saturday until early next week.

💰 The state gave drone maker GreenSight a $6.42 million tax credit to try to convince the company to build a $150 million manufacturing facility in Massachusetts. (BBJ)

• GreenSight, which is based in Charlestown, is considering multiple sites in Mass. and Rhode Island.

Immigration agents arrested at least two dozen people in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River earlier this week. (GBH News)

• Some were on their way to work at a fishing plant or a supermarket, said Gov. Maura Healey, who demanded the feds share more information about the arrests.

😷 ICYMI: In what can only be described as a wildly Massachusetts story for the chronically online, the Greenfield lesbian bar Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue faced fierce backlash after it announced it would relax its mask requirements on Saturdays, starting in September. (Globe)

Today in the fight against Flock cameras, a message from "Krampus Kringle" at a Billerica Select Board meeting:

"I've been keeping a list of who's naughty and who's nice for centuries. Frankly, it's about time you people started automating it."

The intrigue: "Kringle" told Boston.com in an email that they were inspired by someone who wore a Darth Vader costume at a San Diego city meeting last month.

"Love Is Blind" fans finally have a "save the date" for the season based in Boston.

The intrigue: The show is bound to have its fill of romance, drama and, hopefully, a lobster roll or two.

The latest: Nick and Vanessa Lachey return as hosts for Season 11, which airs Oct. 14 on Netflix.

How it works: Usually, 15 men pair with 15 women from the same metro area, but they're separated into "pods" and can only hear their date's voice as they get to know each other.

• The goal is to fall in love and get engaged without ever knowing what the other looks like.
• Once engaged, the pair meets in person and moves into an apartment in their city for a month. By the end of the season, the couple marries or rejects one another at the altar.

Tell a fan

Deehan thinks he should probably not enter the MCR look-a-like contest.

Steph can't believe they met Alexis Nicole at CitySpace yesterday.

This newsletter was edited by Jeff Weiner.