Lower East Side now No. 1 in rat rankings

Coming in second place has never felt so good.

Community Board 12 cheered the news that Uptown no longer ranks as having the worst rat problem in Manhattan, members said at a meeting last week.

"I'm happy to announce that we're no longer number one," CB 12 district manager Ebenezer Smith boasted to scattered applause and laughs during the board's full meeting on Nov. 24. "We're now number two."

The Department of Health's rat indexing of the borough put Uptown in the top spot last year, with a whopping 14.65% failure rate among all Manhattan community districts. The department ranks district based on measures of active rat signs, such as fresh tracks, droppings, holes and gnaw marks.

Community District 3 -- which covers the Lower East Side, East Village and parts of Chinatown -- earned the new No. 1 ranking for 2015, the Health Department said.

In recent years, Community District 12 beat out neighborhoods like East Harlem and Chelsea.