Samuel reports:

Today I was inspecting buildings when I got a letter from somebody who needed an inspection at 97 Orchard Street. Some  inspectors and I went to 97 Orchard Street. When we got to Orchard Street we saw the building and we met the landlady on the steps of the house and went in. the place was dirty. there were mice cockroaches pieces of news paper and cloth.

The landlady told us that all her tenants were just throwing their stuff on the floor and that attracted mice and cockroaches. We asked her if she had any toilets that worked. She said she had two toilets in the hallway but   only one worked. She showed us the toilet and she pulled the lever but the toilet didn’t flush. She told us that the person who works for the plumbing doesn’t do a very good job so that’s why the toilets weren’t working. We asked her if she had any animals in her tenement. She said that one of her tenants had a chicken but the tenant always said that she didn’t have one. The landlady said that we could talk to the tenant, so she led us to the tenant’s apartment.

When we went into the tenant’s apartment we saw cockroaches everywhere. I had to sit near a dead cockroach. I asked the tenant  if she had any livestock in her room. She said that she had no livestock in her room. A new tenement inspector said “What is the chicken feather doing here and you said you don’t have a chicken!”  One of our bosses told the new Inspector that we should be nice.

We said that she had many cloths that were dry near the stove. We told her that was a fire hazard and she had to move the cloth before her house caught on fire. The tenant said that the cloth was damp and there would be no fire.  We asked her a question which was, “Do you have any running water in your apartment?” The tenant said that she didn’t have any running water and she was very thirsty. The only way she could get water was to go up three flights of stairs  to her neighbor’s room to get it.

Then we finished up our inspection. We went back to headquarters to see if the building passed or not. We all agreed that 97 Orchard Street did not pass the inspection. We talked about the landlady and the tenant. We tried to find a way for both of them to get what they need. We talked about all the vermin ( Rats and cockroaches) we had seen. 

After our meeting a couple of us went to a place to get bialys. I got a garlic bialy and so did most of us but one got onion. After bialys we went to go get some pickles. I usually don’t like them but this time I did. That was my day.