There's been a lot of smug talk coming from back East about how New York City continues to thrive and evolve and is home to lots of movie sets and cool TV shows and bands and art and authors, while L.A. has hit a funk, with the goofy, vaguely embarrassing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, sky high unemployment and homeless people in RVs dumping their sewage on the streets of our most important tourist attraction, Venice Beach.

So here we begin an occasional series, to be called “New York Shitty.” We're not boosting L.A. That would be lame. Instead, we'll be attacking New York City. First up, the New York City bedbug infestation is reaching epic proportions.

The Niketown on 57th Street in Manhattan was infested over the weekend and has closed indefinitely. As New York magazine's Daily Intel notes, given all the travel bedbugs are doing this summer, they needed some new kicks.

Last month, fashion magazine Elle got infested, New York reported.

Here in L.A. we haven't exactly been totally free of the nocturnal bastards, which feast on human blood and are incredibly difficult to eradicate. We reported to you on an entire building suffering from bedbugs, but the situation in New York City has gotten out of hand.

On the upside, the bedbug problem has drawn attention away from the city's always booming rat population.

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