Here's Proof That New Yorkers Like to Complain
New Yorkers, it has been said, like to complain.
Finally, there's proof.
It comes from the bowels of the municipal archives on Chambers Street, where thousands of complaints to the mayor have been unearthed from more than 30,000 boxes of official correspondence going back to the 1700's.
The parade of squeaky wheels includes a merchant requesting money to make up for income lost in a smallpox scare, a father angry that his 12-year-old son was allowed into a vaudeville show, and a widow with a bloody knee and dirt backing up into her drain.
These letters and several dozen of others have been compiled by a conceptual artist named Matthew Bakkom into a tabloid-size booklet called "The New York City Museum of Complaint," which he will hand out in parks in Lower Manhattan in the next week.
In the view of Mr. Bakkom, complaint forms the very foundation of civic life.
Read entire article at NYT
Finally, there's proof.
It comes from the bowels of the municipal archives on Chambers Street, where thousands of complaints to the mayor have been unearthed from more than 30,000 boxes of official correspondence going back to the 1700's.
The parade of squeaky wheels includes a merchant requesting money to make up for income lost in a smallpox scare, a father angry that his 12-year-old son was allowed into a vaudeville show, and a widow with a bloody knee and dirt backing up into her drain.
These letters and several dozen of others have been compiled by a conceptual artist named Matthew Bakkom into a tabloid-size booklet called "The New York City Museum of Complaint," which he will hand out in parks in Lower Manhattan in the next week.
In the view of Mr. Bakkom, complaint forms the very foundation of civic life.