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Ed Koch, Brash Three-Term Mayor Of NYC, Dies At 88
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 1, 2013
Modified Feb 1, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 1, 2013
Modified Feb 1, 2013
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Ed Koch, the former mayor who led New York City from 1978 through 1989, died earlier this morning at age 88. His spokesman George Arzt said he passed away from congestive heart failure at 2 a.m. at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was placed into intensive care yesterday.
Known for asking constituents "how'm I doin'?", Koch was known as a brash leader who helped NYC out of its bankruptcy. However, his legacy also includes racial tensions and massive corruption. The NY Times' obituary is rich with details, from how he bragged, "I’m the sort of person who will never get ulcers. Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I’m the sort of person who might give other people ulcers," to how he called some black and Hispanic leaders "poverty pimps." Here's an assessment from the Times:
By the usual standards of measuring a former mayor’s legacy — the city he inherited, the challenges he faced, the resources available to meet those challenges and the extent to which his work endured beyond his term — historians and political experts generally give Mr. Koch mixed-to-good reviews.
Most important, he is credited with leading the city government back from near bankruptcy in the 1970s to prosperity in the 1980s. He also began one of the city’s most ambitious housing programs, which continued after he left office and eventually built or rehabilitated more than 200,000 housing units, revitalizing once-forlorn neighborhoods.
Politically, Mr. Koch’s move to the right of center was seen as a betrayal by some old liberal friends, but it gained him the middle class and three terms in City Hall. He was also the harbinger of a transformation in the way mayors are elected in New York, with candidates relying less on the old coalition of labor unions, minority leaders and Democratic clubhouses and more on heavy campaign spending and television to make direct appeals to a more independent-minded electorate.
In the end, however, he was overwhelmed by corruption scandals in his administration and by racial divisions that his critics contended he sometimes made worse.
, "He was a champion of gay rights, but his own sexuality was off-limits for discussion. And his public appearances with Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America, on his arm did little to banish the rumors. 'I have a social life,' the lifelong bachelor once said. 'But I don't discuss it.'"
Ben Smith, Buzzfeed editor-in-chief, interviewed Koch in 2002 for an obituary for the NY Sun. Smith Tweeted, "Koch enjoyed giving interviews to obituaries. He was highly amused that he outlast the print life of the NYSun, for which I wrote obit." Here's an excerpt from the obit:
Koch, New York City’s dominant political figure of the 1980s and the architect of what remains its governing political coalition, stayed politically relevant through his long political twilight, courted aggressively by figures including Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for his role as a proxy for pro-Israel Democrats willing, but not eager, to cross party lines...
“Koch had a very good first term and helped pull the city out of its doldrums, and he had a certain sense of the excesses of liberalism,” Cooper Union history professor Fred Siegel said. As time wore on, however, “he had no vision of how to run the city,” Mr. Siegel said.
Koch himself put it differently. “I consider myself to be a liberal with sanity,” he told the New York Sun (for which this obituary was written, and which ceased print publication four years before his death) during an interview at his midtown office in 2002.
His spokesman George Arzt told the Post that Koch lost consciousness after entering the ICU yesterday. Arzt also recalled how he marveled about being Koch's mayoral press secretary, "I got into the car and said I couldn't believe how a kid who grew up in Williamsburg was now sitting next to the mayor," but Koch told him, "Oh shut, up. Everybody comes from somewhere." Koch was born in Crotona Park East in the Bronx on December 12, 1924. At his 88th birthday last year, he said, "I wake up every morning and I say, Oh, I’m still in New York!"
Mayor Bloomberg, who pushed to name the Queensboro Bridge after Koch, said:
"Earlier today, New York City lost an irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion, Edward I. Koch. He was a great mayor, a great man, and a great friend. In elected office and as a private citizen, he was our most tireless, fearless, and guileless civic crusader. Through his tough, determined leadership and responsible fiscal stewardship, Ed helped lift the city out of its darkest days and set it on course for an incredible comeback. We will miss him dearly, but his good works - and his wit and wisdom - will forever be a part of the city he loved so much. His spirit will live on not only here at City Hall, and not only on the bridge the bears his name, but all across the five boroughs.
“I’m expressing my condolences on behalf of all 8.4 million New Yorkers, and I know so many of them will be keeping Mayor Koch and his family and friends in their thoughts prayers. As we mourn Mayor Koch’s passing, the flags at all City buildings will be flying at half-staff in his memory.”
And Governor Andrew Cuomo said:
"With the passing of Ed Koch, New York has lost one of our most admired public leaders. Ed Koch embodied the highest ideals of public service and his life was dedicated toward making New York - the city and our state - a better place for all. From his days on the front lines of World War II, his time in Congress, to his leadership as Mayor guiding New York City through difficult years, Ed Koch never strayed from his unwavering commitment to serving others.
"No New Yorker has - or likely ever will - voice their love for New York City in such a passionate and outspoken manner than Ed Koch. New York City would not be the place it is today without Ed Koch's leadership over three terms at City Hall. Mr. Mayor was never one to shy away from taking a stand that he believed was right, no matter what the polls said or what was politically correct.
"Many times in my life I have turned to Ed Koch for his advice and guidance. Just yesterday I spoke with the Mayor to wish him courage and strength, and let him know he was on all of our thoughts and prayers. I will miss his friendship, and we will all miss his perpetual optimism and tireless commitment to continually striving to improve our city, state, nation and world. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I send my condolences to his family and friends."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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