Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Enrique
Flor
Published
January 3, 2015
For Mariano Borges, getting to a doctor’s appointment or
going out for some fresh air becomes harder each day.
The 95-year-old Cuban gets around on a wheelchair. His 70-year-old daughter
Maria Perez and his 50-year-old granddaughter Cary can barely lift his
wheelchair to carry it up and down the stairs to the third-floor unit where
they live in Northwest Miami-Dade.
It’s been almost six years since the elevators of the building where Borges
lives and those of three other buildings in the Mirassou condominium complex
do not work properly.
According to public records,
Miami-Dade County has cited Mirassou with fines
exceeding $5 million.
“The truth is that we made a huge mistake buying an
apartment in this place,” said Borges’ daughter. “It’s
been years since we had a working elevator and despite
our complaints, nobody fixes it.”
Michael Chavez, manager of Miami-Dade’s Office of
Elevator Safety, said that when the elevators of the
three and four-story buildings at the Mirassou began
malfunctioning in 2008, the county sent out infraction
notifications.
The violation penalties amounted to $5,065,120.
According to Chavez, authorities have sent out more than
5,000 notifications in the past six years requesting
that the condominium association repair the elevators.
But that has yet to be done. |
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Several elderly residents and disabled residents who
live at the Mirassou condominium in Northwest Miami-Dade have had to
rely on relatives and neighbors to help them up and down the stairs.
The elevators in the building have been broken for years. In this
photo, Aida Ortiz holds documents outlining complaints while Miguel
Corral, another resident, looks on.
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Marlene Leon, president of the Mirassou Association of
Proprietors, declined to comment about the problems affecting the
condominium complex, which includes a total of seven buildings and 310
apartments.
Representatives of the company that manages the complex, Florida Property
Management (FPM), did not respond to several phones from el Nuevo Herald
seeking comment.
In an email, Chavez said that Mirassou’s condo association often argued that
they “didn’t have money to repair the elevators.”
According to neighbors, maintenance fees for the complex varies depending on
the size of the unit but most residents pay about $300 per month.
“Everything that’s happening here is worrisome,” said Aida Ortiz, a resident
who has lived at Mirassou for eight years. “The elevators don’t work and the
people who suffer the most are elderly people and people with disabilities
who have to constantly be helped by their families and neighbors to move up
and down the stairs.”
“For years we’ve complained and it’s just gotten worse,” she said.
Maintenance problems also have affected common areas at the Mirassou
condominium located at 6075 NW 186 Street. One of the two pools at the
residential complex was shut down and has been chained under lock and key
for months.
According to neighbors, the mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 brought forth the
foreclosure of several of the complex’s units. Since then, the inhabitants
of the properties facing foreclosure remained in the apartments waiting to
be evicted but without paying for any services. But as of the last couple of
years, the majority of the apartments have been rented again.
Almost directly in front of Ortiz’s apartment, on a second floor, lives
David Jones, a 10-year-old who has a congenital malformation known as Spina
Bifida, and who also gets around on a wheelchair. In order to leave the
building, his 19-year-old brother Aikem must carry him up and down the
stairs.
“We do this because the elevator has been broken for several years,” David
Jones said.
Miguel Corral, a Venezuelan who bought a two-bedroom unit on the second
floor seven years ago, decided to move in October 2013. He lived there with
his mother, an 80-year-old woman who uses a walker. The elevator was broken
then, too, as far back as 2009, Corral said.
“It frustrates us, the level of indifference that the directors of the
association and of the company that administers the condominium have shown,”
said Corral. “No one shows face to try to find a solution.”
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