According to MRoudet-- or "Mr. Roudet"-- his grandmother, the nice old lady pictured to the right there (click to enlarge for maximum sadness), has been trying to report a drainage problem in front of her house for "several weeks." Finally, a city worker told her: "Put it on the Internet, otherwise nobody will do anything."
Abuelita, mind you, is 90 years old.
At first we thought the worker was telling Grandma to complain via email, which is supremely lowbrow. But Boudet, who has been frequently updating his story, believes that "what he basically said was that his boss won't do his job unless he's embarrassed publicly."
If that's the case, his point has been apparently proven. Boudet claims he forwarded on the Reddit link to his grandmother's Miami City commissioner, Willy Gort, who responded:
Mr Boudet, I will forward your request to public works, Wifredo (Willy) Gort Commissioner District 1 City of Miami
Gort is 70 years old. Old people solidarity! We called his house this morning, but the ringing had all these weird trills and no answering machine, just like when we call our own grandparents.
Boudet says that he later got a response from public works director Nzeribe "Zerry" Ihekwaba:
I will look into the complaint. In the interim, I will be visiting the location this afternoon with staff. Thanks.
Boudet's next update:
So somehow "I will be visiting the location this afternoon with staff" turned into someone else visiting tomorrow by himself.
That's today. We called the director's house this morning, and we're pretty sure we woke up his teenage daughter, who grumpily told us she had no idea where Zerry is.
We're waiting to hear from Boudet himself. Clearly, Miami is still groggy. But we won't rest until we get to the bottom of the saga of The Abuelita, The Drainage Ditch, and The Internet.
Update (9:54): Gort called us back and said that he believes somebody from Public Works has helped the marooned old lady after he forwarded on the complaint. He blamed it on 311, which "doesn't function correctly", and advised Miamians to call their commissioners instead of 311. He also scolded us: "I do this every day. Not because I'm 70, but because this is my job."Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
