Sounds like my house. My garage pad is also below grade. It floods out if I leave the sprinkler on too long 
The sills have long since rotted away and The dirt just washes right in. Rats love it too. In 3 years I have killed about 12. 7 of them were babies and one of them seemed like the size of a small cat.
I’m near lincoln park.
Im on the other side of the rail road tracks lol
im near belmont and highland.
I dont have a rodent problem because there way to many stray cats in my backyard with rabbits lol. they use my backyard like a communal playground. they all sit around on the concrete driveway and eat the cat food my wife puts out ever morning for them.[she loves animals]
She loves animals aye…
Get a dog. That really helps with cats.
And my dog caught one rat so far.
I can see the “tracks” from my back yard.
If you ever see a guy on an fzr600 driving over them near the park, or highland…
Thats me 
Live on Steiner Myself… fucking clay made our landscaping projects a bitch. My garage also sits below grade and is all sorts of jacked up. Previous fucktard owners on the one side of the garage put tar over the slab and also took it form a two door to a 1 door.
Never seen rats, seen mice and rabbits. We have a dog who chases most critters away.
Back and at them this winter this is my project just got finish with the kitchen and bathroom mild update.
You should really stop giving advice in this thread, as you obviously don’t know what you are talking about. He lives in Tonawanda. His sump pump runs daily. Probably every 5 minutes in a heavy rain.
sorry, where i used to live it was always a mess when the sump pump ran…
Stage 1: Cleaning up the basement and moving all the stuff to the middle
Stage 2: Cleaning the walls
That my plan for the weekend right now
Stage 3: Maybe Drylok it this weekend also.
I will stud that bitch up for you and drywall it for some $, just did my buddys for him in two days, all electrical too, just buy the shit and I can bang it out.
that sounds good to me. im gonna need a extra hand to help me drywall and stud it up. shawn you might be getting a call from me lol