Reorganized in 1977 When Mr. Koch, who campaigned in 1977 against "poverty pimps," reorganized the system, the Community Development Agency was put directly under the mayor's office.

"They are poverty pimps," he said, explaining that they were fighting for programs that paid their salaries.

Head dismissed the leaders of the petition to recall her as "poverty pimps" pursuing their own agendas.

His allies saw him as a "charitable humanitarian friend of the homeless," but his enemies saw "a poverty pimp" who wanted to turn Over-the-Rhine into a "super ghetto."

"He's a poverty pimp," he said of Mr. Thompson.

Ms. Postal called Ms. Wilson a "poverty pimp."

He came into office deriding "poverty pimps" and wresting control of poverty programs from neighborhood politicians.

It's not as insulting as "poverty pimps," the memorable phrase used two decades ago by Mayor Edward I. Koch, but it carries some of the same connotations.

Like the Bronx in the late 1970's, when "poverty pimps" and apathetic officials fiddled with fast-buck schemes while the fires raged.

Just before the speech, he referred to some black political leaders as "race-hustling poverty pimps."