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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

issue.

I'll give you just one other story about the MacDougal Area Neighborhood Association. I formed it in 1963. It came about as a result of the fact that in that election Carmine made the mess on MacDougal Street the issue in the district leadership campaign, and it was a mess. There were tens of thousands of people on MacDougal Street. This was the height of coffee house operation and guitar playing, and you'd walk on MacDougal Street, which is a residential neighborhood -- people live there; 1500 people live in a three-block area, mostly all Italian -- and here these people are coming from all over the city and they have no regard for the neighborhood and they would piss in the doorways and the people were just incensed. They couldn't send their kids out on the street. This is a residential neighborhood; this is not Times Square. And Carmine recognized that issue, and he ran on it, and he lost. He didn't lose by much, 41 votes.

I realized that this was a legitimate issue. So I went to work, and I formed... It was a stroke of genius. What I did was: I called a meeting. And I first asked the church at Carmine Street, Our Lady of Pompeii. I called up the priest and I said, “I want to do something about MacDougal Street. I want to have a community meeting. Can I use the church community room?” He said, “Of course.” And a couple of days later I get a call from the chairman of their board of directors, whatever it is; the father's club, I think it's called: the trustees. This fellow -- Fontana was his name -- said, You can't have the





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