Personal background, work in Washington D.C. as an intern in the office of Robert F. Kennedy and in the Air Force General Counsel's Office; John V. Lindsay Administration, descriptions of various positions held, recollections of housing issues and rent decontrol; Edward I. Koch [Koch] Administration: descriptions of positions held as Deputy Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development and D eputy Mayor for Operations, handling of rent control and rent stabilization, rehabilitation and new housing, South Bronx Program, tenant cooperatives, gentrification; initial confusions and resulting antagonisms of streamlining of city government; transit strike, Koch's handling and city's preparedness; controversies over reduced manning of sanitation trucks and one man police cars; success of Pooper Scooper Law; responses to de-institutionalization of mentally ill and management of homeless population; opposition to incentives for minority businesses; political impact of closing of Sydenham Hospital; comparisons of Koch Administration to Mayor David Dinkins' Administration; reflections on Koch's personality and management style; Koch's relationships with the press and Mario Cuomo.