Brooklyn Raccoons Acting Like They Own the Freakin' Place

It's hard to say how big the raccoon issue is getting in Brooklyn and other places, but anecdotes of marauding raccoons playing on roofs and balconies, rooting through garbage and basically wandering around like the own the freakin' place have been increasing. Today's Times says that there are more 311 calls about raccoons and quotes an Urban Park Ranger saying that "the citywide population of raccoons has increased." Brooklyn raccoons are especially into hanging out around Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery. Although, there are many reports of them hanging around in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill and of residents getting very upset about them. (In all fairness, one Carroll Gardens resident writes "I wholeheartedly welcome the raccoons to the neighborhood.") Not so in the next neighborhood over, where a Park Slope Parents email ranted and demanded an intruding raccoon be gone: "It sounds like we have a HUGE raccoon who likes to run around our roof in the middle of the night or really early morning, lately between 3 and 4AM... I want this thing off my roof and relocated as soon as possible."

And, just moments ago, came this report of a Home Invading Raccoon terrorizing people in Carroll Gardens:

I live in Carroll Gardens and my landlord advised about 2 weeks ago that a Raccoon was spotted on our fire escape and to watch our windows. Well last weekend it paid me a visit and broke though the screen and entered my apartment going after my birdcage and frightening one of my birds to death. I managed to scare it off momentarily, it jumped back out of the hole it made in my screen. Once I closed the window it came right back and looked in again (similar to the picture in the article in the NY Times ) , and have had to keep my window locked ever since. The ASPCA wont do anything unless the animal is there at the moment you call so it looks like we will all have to just get used to them like we do with squirrels and pigeons.Minor stuff compared to last year's Prospect Park attack raccoon.
· The City's Latest Real Estate Fight: Humans Against Raccoons [NYT]