RETRIEVING DOCUMENT
Mrs. Adaeze Mbeki has three days of city relocation assistance left.
Her bed in the gymnasium ends Monday. The city extension committee meets July sixteenth. There is a sixteen-day gap between those two dates that no official document in my possession explains.
I called 311 on Thursday. The line routed me to the Department of Housing. I was transferred to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. I was then transferred back to 311. I documented all three transfers. The third representative confirmed they did not know what committee I was referring to and suggested I submit a FOIA request. I submitted the FOIA request. Average response time, they told me, is thirty business days.
The Drive
Darius shipped the hard drive from Milwaukee on June 19th. It arrived June 23rd. I have been going through it.
The uncorrupted audio from May 27th is clean. Mostly what I remembered: the shockwave, Darius saying hold on hold on hold on, glass falling, my own voice asking if he was okay. But there is approximately four minutes I did not remember clearly.
At three minutes and forty-one seconds, a vehicle arrives. Not the GDA gray vehicles — those came the next morning. This is a black SUV, parking on the south sidewalk of Wacker before the dust has settled. Two people get out. I cannot see their faces. They walk toward the impact zone. One of them is on a phone. The other is carrying a case — a meter, maybe, or monitoring equipment. They are not in GDA gear. They are in plainclothes. The SUV has Illinois plates but I cannot read the full number.
They were there before the GDA.
I do not know who they are. I am noting what I can confirm: two people in plainclothes with equipment arrived at the Wacker and Michigan impact zone approximately eleven minutes after the shockwave, before the GDA cleanup crews, and before any police tape I observed. They did not stop to help anyone. They walked toward the impact site with purpose. They were not lost.
If anyone has information about who these individuals might be, I am at the contact listed below.
The Rentals
Thirteen rejections. Mrs. Mbeki added one this week — a unit in Englewood listed at $825 a month. Income documentation submitted. The listing was removed two days after her application was rejected. It is now relisted at $875 with a new line: no Section 8, no vouchers.
She does not have a Section 8 voucher. She is not on the voucher waitlist. She told me she was not sure why that was added to the listing. She did not ask.
She said her daughter has a sleepover invitation for Monday. She does not know yet how to answer it.
Three days.
The extension committee meets in sixteen.
I will be back Monday.