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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

LBH
Interview # 7
Interviewee: Congressman Edward I. Koch
Interviewer: Ed Edwin
New York City
December 29, 1975

Q:

We were discussing civil rights when we ended last time, largely the blacks. What as been your involvement with Puerto-Ricans both in your district and more broadly in the city?

Koch:

My only involvement has been with those in my district, not really in the city. I'll give you a little story about that.

In my own district there are 65,000 Puerto-Ricans. I always like to say to people, “I come from a district which is extraordinary. In the north I have David Rockefeller. In the south I have 65,000 Puerto-Ricans. In effect the richest man in the world in the north and the poorest people in the world in the south, and he thinks his one vote cancels out theirs, but with me it doesn't.” Not a bad line, and I use it. It happens to be true.

I like the Puerto-Rican constituency. It's located between Houston and 14th Street and from 2nd Avenue or 1st Avenue east to the river, and I have made a couple of friends there, and I'll tell you how I've made a couple of friends. One, I have worked very hard, and I've worked with a guy named Arturo Santiago, and I met him when I first got that area added to my












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