Mayor Ed Koch (l) with
John Flannery aboard the Circle Line
If there was ever a force of nature in politics and
life, a model for talking, arguing and doing, it was Ed “How’m I doing” Koch,
the former Councilman, Congressman and three term Mayor of New York City.
We could use more politicians like Ed who cared so
deeply and worked so hard until finally his heart failed him at 88 years of age
last Friday morning.
I met Ed in person for the first time on February 2,
1973 at the East Side Democratic Club, at 350 East 85th Street, in a
second floor walk-up, over the Old Stream Bar.
The local democratic co-leader, Jerome Tarnoff,
introduced Congressman Ed Koch, who had just begun his first campaign for Mayor. This was one of Ed’s many “meet-the-candidate”
stops that night.
“This is basically a liberal town,” Ed began, “but
the people are not ideologues and will not support a doctrinaire
candidate.” He told the crowd that “one
can be a liberal without being crazy.”
Among other things he said was that “talking about
law and order is not pandering to the right.”
As for those who felt the American flag had been commandeered by the far
right, and had become uncomfortable sending the wrong signal, he passed out the
flag of the City saying, “take it, take the flag of the city of New York. Take it, it’s free.” Afterwards he told me that people take the
flag because, he said, “it’s chic.” I
wore it. So did many others.
Ed didn’t make Mayor the first run but he came back
strong and he asked if I would join his 1st Administration. I was a federal prosecutor by then and
thought I could do more where I was. He
may have been right but we all have to make our own way.
One day Ed took a walk in lower Manhattan with Henry
Stern and myself. Henry was a Councilman
at large who ran his first campaign for the office saying that the City Council
was “less than a rubber stamp.” Asked
why that was true during the campaign, he said, “because at least a rubber
stamp makes an impression.”
Ed responded that day pretty much the way you saw
him when he was “on the job,” reacting to everything around him, reaching out
to shake the hands of passersbye, marveling at street art painted up the side
of a whole brick building, talking about rent control apartments (he lived in
one in Greenwich Village that he didn’t give up even when he was the Mayor
living at the Mayor’s residence). Ed relished
the street vendors and devoured their dogs and drinks. The talk was non-stop, back and forth, with
waving arms, laughter, and about the personalities, politics and policy. Ed and the people he fought to understand and
represent were one. He was immersed in
politics and life 24/7 and anyone who saw him in his later years could see that
there was only one retirement date for this lovable, caring and sometime incorrigible
man.
When he announced for Governor, a good friend of
mine, Charles Kaiser, a New York Times reporter, and I attended the
announcement at Gracie Mansion, the Mayor’s residence. We were always Ed’s fans. The place was abuzz – klieg lights and
microphones and open pads – Ed at the rostrum loving the moment. After all, no Mayor of New York had ever won
another political office afterwards.
Coincidence or curse? Who is to
say? But it held true in Ed’s case when a
Queens lawyer, Mario Cuomo, won the nomination.
Ed would have never been happy in Albany as the Governor anyhow. During that campaign, he said, “Have you ever
lived in the suburbs? It’s sterile. It’s nothing.
It’s wasting your life.”
New York City was Ed’s town. He loved it.
He loved and needed the people as much as they needed him. He said he would never leave it, not even to
use a New Jersey burial plot. He will be
missed. He was loved by many. If only, we made politicians like Ed here in
Virginia.
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