b"So, your last couple of assignments were Baisley Houses and the field work?Baisley right. From there I made superintendent, then I went to Lafayette Gardens for five years. And then Taylor-Wythe. And after Taylor-Wythe, then I went to the field survey unit.Why did you decide to work for Housing?Upon discussing with the wife, my wife is great, she guided me and we made the decision together. I went with thatand no regrets. I thought with the Housing Authority, I would have the security. You'll never get rich, but you'll be able toat least pay the bills. It was a good decision to go with the Housing Authority. I didn't know about the Local 237, but Local 237, it is fabulous. That's why after retirement I been retired over 20 years now I'm still very active.Besides your wife, was there anyone else who was suggesting that you should go into City service?When I start going out with my wife, going back to close to 55, 57 years ago, she was living in Marlboro Houses inBrooklyn. I was going out with her and all and she had a refrigerator and all. I always wanted security, always.I thought:They had a refrigerator, who fixes refrigerators? Oh, the Housing Authority and the stove. I said, Wow, wouldn't it benice to possibly be able to repair these things and work for an agency like the City of New York?That's what inspired mewhen the time came and they said, Hey, you know, you'll have a job. I have no regrets. Once you were working for the City, was there someone on the job, a coworker or a supervisor, who encour-aged you in the job? Joe Rotundo [spa?] was one. Charlie Lanza [sp?], he was the military man and all. A lot of the supervisors didn't carefor him. He was rough around the edges, but he was so great. He was the general. You just came on board and they giveyou all the tools for the job. He gave me a clipboard, very professional. A lot of the people took the job lightly, but he tookit seriously and I appreciated that. I was important enough for him to take the time. I learned a lot from some superin-tendents.You mentioned working with the Hasidic community. Was that in public housing? At Taylor-Wythe, Williamsburg. There were three projects, Taylor-Wythe, Independence Towers and Williams Plaza.They all have certain things. While I was there, I had no assistant superintendent. I am lucky I survived. Because it's asmall project, it doesn't call for an assistant, so that means you got to do everything yourself.They have high standards.I got that assignment, because, they can't put just anybody in a place like that. Otherwise, it backfires on the Housing Authority. So, I felt good that I was picked for this, but it's a lot of responsibility.What were the challenges?You mentioned it was quite political.They were very demanding. I believe it was five high rises and I had no assistant superintendent. All of a sudden, I'mgetting a brand-new boiler room. They're ripping up everything. Im reading the contract. You have to read the contractsbecause they don't even read the contracts. Everything ends up being an extra. So here, I'm getting paid to be a watch-dog. The Housing Authority is paying me and you got to oversee to stay on top of everything. If you get yourself in trou-ble, you can be pushed out. But anyway, we're doing the whole Plaza. I thought it was over, then we were getting a cycle83 "