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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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district, which I think was in 1972 when they had redistricting, and I got that area of the Lower East Side in exchange for their taking away from me Central Park West running from 59th to 74th, which was a very good area for me because it's all Jewish and they are very good Democrats, too.

So one day I got a call from two guys saying they'd like to come up and see me. Arturo Santiago was one of them. I can't remember the name of the other because he's not around. They came to see me and they said, “You're now our Congressman; we'd like to take you on tour of the Lower East Side,” so I went with them. It was interesting. I learned a little, saw the incredible housing, everything torn apart. And that's how our relationship started.

Now, when I ran for mayor in '73, Arturo Santiago and a couple of others said that they wanted to help me. And there was also a young woman there, Sylvia Castaneda, and one of her complaints was she wanted to get into Stuyvesant Town. And I said, “That's not hard. Stuyvesant Town is looking to get Puerto-Ricans and blacks who can afford the rate so that they can say that they aren't segregated,” because they had a history of segregation in Stuyvesant Town. And so I made an inquiry, and they were delighted to have her. She looked at the apartment and said, “I don't really like it,” and she didn't take it, after it was offered to her. That was one of the crazy things.

Anyway, Arturo Santiago put together a group of Puerto-Ricans, militant ones. They're all militant there. I have yet to meet a non-militant Puerto-Rican. And they're all very revolutionary





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