Complaint Dept.

Read his story: 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.