b"Were these built as part of the rebuilding of the South Bronx?Uh, I don't know. I'm not sure. They were places that had been kind of destroyed. You ever hear of Father Gigante?Okay, Father Gigante opened up his own sort of housing in the South Bronx. I was opening up this building and it was in his,what he considered his area. He went down and he met with the chairman of the Housing Authority and told them hewanted that building. He wanted it turned over to him so he could manage it and they said: No we're managing it. I wascalled in and said: Yeah, you better be on your toes. I was afraid he was going to sabotage my buildings, just to make melook bad. And so, I had to make sure that building was pristine and everything was taken care of and nothing was out oforder. I also had independent developers come and ask if they could speak to me. They wanted to know about the neighbor-hood and they were thinking of buying properties a block away from me and picking my brains as to this or that. And some ofthem put nice houses in. So, you know, again, you're part of the community. It was good. It was great really, you know.Well, this has been terrific.I'll send you a copy of my book when I write it. There are lots of stories.I had tenant association president who invitedme up, I don't know, to eat something or, I forget. I went in there and I almost jumped because on the couch were two life-sized dolls. She's a sweet old lady and I swear, she says: They're my children. She never had children and her husband said,if we're not having children, he's going to leave her and she never had children. She said: These are my children. And it justbrought a tear to my eye at the time. There was another tenant living in my development. Her daughter died and her daugh-ter was buried up in the Bronx over near Throgs Neck Bridge, the big cemetery over there. She would go to see her a coupletimes a week and it was really involved because she had to take a train and a bus to get there and all the way back. She was abroken-hearted woman and wanted to know if I could get her a transfer to the Project near there, which was the Throgs NeckHouses. So, we hooked that up to get her a transfer. She got an apartment, fairly high-rise, and she was able to look out herwindow and look at her daughters grave every night. But there's millions of stories.Well, the book sounds like a good idea.\x02Steven RakowskiDepartment of General Services, Elevator MechanicMember since 1976The following is an edited version of Steven Rakowskis oral history interview fromMay 9, 2016What year did you become a member of Teamsters Local 237?When I started with the City, we were members of another Local and the membership wasn't very happy with whatwas going on as far as representation. So, we reached out to find another representative for us. I was a young man at the102 "