Mayor Koch RIP
Ed Koch, forever to be known as "Mayor," will be buried today. The stories of praise flow freely in the press now that he's gone. It's only natural, as we prefer to speak well of the dead.
I was alive when he was mayor. As a New Yorker, I appreciated his public persona. He was outspoken, frequently "in your face" positively if he liked you or what you were doing, negatively if the opposite. Fair enough.
Being a witness to his terms as mayor, I didn't really know him. I only know what the press reported. Once, after he returned to private life, I had lunch in a restaurant and he was there too, a couple of table away. He seemed rather jovial, enjoying his company and the attention he knew people in the room were giving to him. A real politician.
If I'm reluctant to be effusive in my own praise, it's for two simple reasons: one, as I said, I didn't really know him as a person, so I really can't comment on whether or not he really was a "great guy" except to note that those who did know him say that what you saw was what you got with him; two, I've got this natural reluctance to trust any politicians actions or intentions. For the most part, even with the best of intentions, a politician's desire to get re-elected will always trump any desire he might have to do any good.
Did Koch do any good? Sure. Did he somehow "save" New York, or was he responsible for "turning the City around"? I'm not so sure. What could it possibly mean if we say he did? Whatever decisions he made or supported that were good ones, he gets credit for, just as he takes blame for the bad ones. But I suppose - based on his public persona - that he would indeed take credit and own up to mistakes, at least some of them.
He certainly promoted "New York" and stood proud as a native New Yorker. I suppose that carried some weight in the City's struggle to recover from decades of government depravation, leading to its steady decline fromt he '50s through the '70s.
On the other hand, he lived in Greenwich Village in a rent-controlled apartment. Rent control is the main reason that it's impossible to find a place to live in Manhattan that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The whole city would benefit if rent control were ended, but I suspect it never will be. What politician will support that? I guess Koch wasn't outspoken enough to do anything about rent control. Then again, I'm guessing he probably thought it was a good thing, since in spite of his later occasional diverging political stands, he was and remained at heart a liberal.
Then again, let's give him credit for taking some stands that annoyed his liberal buddies. A lot of politicians wouldn't dream of doing such, even after they left office. So the man could think for himself and occasionally make an independent decision.
In the end, my personal memory of Koch will be his recorded voice on all city street sweepers telling people to move their cars so they streets could be cleaned and seeing him in that restaurant. Oh, and apparently, in spite of his always saying he wasn't an "observant" Jew, he must have had some affinity for the Creator and his Faith. Reports say his tombstone, already in place and waiting for him to placed under it, reads:
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” and the last words of murdered reporter Daniel Pearl, “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”
Ed Koch, rest in peace.
I was alive when he was mayor. As a New Yorker, I appreciated his public persona. He was outspoken, frequently "in your face" positively if he liked you or what you were doing, negatively if the opposite. Fair enough.
Being a witness to his terms as mayor, I didn't really know him. I only know what the press reported. Once, after he returned to private life, I had lunch in a restaurant and he was there too, a couple of table away. He seemed rather jovial, enjoying his company and the attention he knew people in the room were giving to him. A real politician.
If I'm reluctant to be effusive in my own praise, it's for two simple reasons: one, as I said, I didn't really know him as a person, so I really can't comment on whether or not he really was a "great guy" except to note that those who did know him say that what you saw was what you got with him; two, I've got this natural reluctance to trust any politicians actions or intentions. For the most part, even with the best of intentions, a politician's desire to get re-elected will always trump any desire he might have to do any good.
Did Koch do any good? Sure. Did he somehow "save" New York, or was he responsible for "turning the City around"? I'm not so sure. What could it possibly mean if we say he did? Whatever decisions he made or supported that were good ones, he gets credit for, just as he takes blame for the bad ones. But I suppose - based on his public persona - that he would indeed take credit and own up to mistakes, at least some of them.
He certainly promoted "New York" and stood proud as a native New Yorker. I suppose that carried some weight in the City's struggle to recover from decades of government depravation, leading to its steady decline fromt he '50s through the '70s.
On the other hand, he lived in Greenwich Village in a rent-controlled apartment. Rent control is the main reason that it's impossible to find a place to live in Manhattan that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The whole city would benefit if rent control were ended, but I suspect it never will be. What politician will support that? I guess Koch wasn't outspoken enough to do anything about rent control. Then again, I'm guessing he probably thought it was a good thing, since in spite of his later occasional diverging political stands, he was and remained at heart a liberal.
Then again, let's give him credit for taking some stands that annoyed his liberal buddies. A lot of politicians wouldn't dream of doing such, even after they left office. So the man could think for himself and occasionally make an independent decision.
In the end, my personal memory of Koch will be his recorded voice on all city street sweepers telling people to move their cars so they streets could be cleaned and seeing him in that restaurant. Oh, and apparently, in spite of his always saying he wasn't an "observant" Jew, he must have had some affinity for the Creator and his Faith. Reports say his tombstone, already in place and waiting for him to placed under it, reads:
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” and the last words of murdered reporter Daniel Pearl, “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”
Ed Koch, rest in peace.
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