Ed Koch

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Ed Koch (1988)

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch [ kɒtʃ ] (born December 12, 1924 in New York City ; † February 1, 2013 ibid) was an American politician . He was Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989 .

Life

Until the election as mayor

Ed Koch was born the second of three children to his Polish-Jewish parents in the Crotona Park East district of the Bronx , New York . His father was a furrier . During the Great Depression , the fur coat trade was bad and the family moved to Newark , New Jersey . His mother Joyce died of cancer when Ed was relatively young. From 1941 to 1943 he attended the City College of New York , in the Second World War , he was from the existing military service records and in the US Army convened, where he worked in the 104th Division of Infantry served that in September 1944 in Cherbourg in Normandy landed. In 1946 he was honorably discharged from the army with the rank of sergeant . In the same year, he enrolled as a student in New York University law school . In 1948 he completed his law degree, in 1949 he was admitted to the bar and started working in a law firm.

Between 1963 and 1965 he was chairman of the Democratic District Association of Greenwich Village , was a delegate to the New York State Party Congress in 1964 and was elected to the New York City Council in 1966 . From 1969 to 1973 he represented the 17th  congressional electoral district of New York State in the US House of Representatives and from 1973 to the end of 1977 (after the redesign of the districts) the 18th district; he was a member of Congress for nine years for four and a half terms.

Mayor Koch

The sexual identity of the “staunch bachelor ” Koch was the subject of the 1977 mayoral preselection against Mario Cuomo when posters with the slogan “Vote Cuomo, not homo!” Appeared. The Cuomo campaign team declined responsibility for these posters. Koch resisted this campaign and said, “No, I'm not a homosexual . If I were homosexual, I hope that I would have the courage to say the same. The cruel thing about this campaign is that it forces me to say that I am not a homosexual. That means devaluing homosexuality. I don't want to do this. ”In his later life, his defenses were less explicit and he refused to provide information about his sex life. In an interview he said: “What is that to me? I am 73 years old. I find it fascinating that there are people who are interested in my sex life at the age of 73. That is a bit flattering indeed! But, as I write in my book, my answer to such questions is simply, 'Get out of here!' Finally there has to be some privacy. "

Ed Koch in 1978

Eventually Koch won the election campaign against Cuomo. He himself said that he owed part of his success to Rupert Murdoch , whose newspaper, the New York Post , recommended him to voters instead of Cuomo.

On December 31, 1977, he stepped down from Congress to become the 105th Mayor of New York City. He was re-elected twice, serving in that capacity from 1978 to 1989. In 1980 he was one of the New York delegates to the National Democratic Party Congress. In April of the same year, he successfully broke a subway and bus drivers' strike by invoking the state Taylor Act : This law prohibits and fines strikes carried out by state or local workers unions authorizing the strike, which increase continuously with each additional day that the strike lasts. After eleven days, the strike was over and union members went back to work.

In 1981 he received a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York .

In 1982 he ran for governor of New York and lost the Democratic primary against his old opponent and later Governor Cuomo. Many voices attribute his defeat to an interview with Playboy magazine . In it, he described the lifestyle in the suburbs and the rest of the state outside of New York City as "sterile" and voiced concerns about the prospect of having to live as governor in the "small town" of Albany - losing many votes outside of his hometown .

In 1981 and 1985 he was re-elected mayor. In 1989 he ran for the fourth time as head of the city, but lost the primary to David Dinkins , who then beat Rudolph Giuliani in the main elections.

As Mayor, he was credited with New York City's regained financial stability. In doing so, he introduced the practice of adopting a balanced budget that was drawn up according to US GAAP . He also introduced a system that selected criminal and family judges based on suitability and set up extensive housing subsidy programs.

On his orders, all forms of discrimination against homosexuals by city officials were prohibited. Another order was to ensure that the contractors and suppliers of the city administration should also adhere to the same standards, but was restricted by a court so that it could not apply to religious organizations, as these enjoyed the protection of a federal law. In 1986 Koch signed a municipal anti-discrimination law as mayor , which the city ​​council finally passed on March 20 after several unsuccessful attempts in the previous years.

The creation of around 150,000 apartments with low rents is regarded as a lasting achievement for Koch. Homes whose owners owe property tax are forfeited in the United States. Instead of selling these houses, designated as in rem and mostly neglected for a long time, they were renovated by the city administration under Koch in a separate program at a good but inexpensive level and specifically rented to residents of the city with low and middle incomes. Ten percent of the apartments were used to prevent homelessness.

Under Koch, the city council came in a bad light when two of his close confidants, Donald Manes and Stanley Friedman , turned out to be corrupt . Shortly thereafter, he suffered a stroke in 1987, but was able to continue to perform his official duties.

After the time as mayor

In the years following his last tenure , he became a partner in the law firm Robinson, Silverman, Peatce, Aronsohn and Berman LLP (now Bryan Cave LLP ) and was a commentator, primarily for politics, but also for films and restaurants in magazines, radio and television active. In addition to a visiting professorship at New York University, he also played the role of a judge in a court program on television ("The People's Court") as the successor to the original cast Judge Wapner.

Together with his sister Pat Koch Thaler he published the children's book "Eddie Harold's little Brother". In March 1999 he suffered a minor heart attack .

Koch has always been on the electoral roll to participate in the Democratic Party primaries, but in 1981 he ran for both a Democrat and a Republican in the mayoral primaries . As a democrat, he often stepped out of line with more left-wing politics, advocating the death penalty and making a name for himself as an avid advocate of law-and-order politics. For example, he used the police to take action against the homeless and banned the use of radios on subways and buses. This stance led to severe criticism from the local American Civil Liberties Union and also from many prominent African American representatives (especially Reverend Al Sharpton ).

Ed Koch in 2007

He also demonstrated a violent love for the city of New York, which sometimes went to extremes. For example, in 1984 he strongly opposed a second phone code for New York on the grounds that it would split the population in half. Another time, in January 1987, when the New York Giants had just won the National Football League and were about to make their traditional triumph in the city, he refused by taking them to Moonachie, New Jersey, where the Giants play their home games. referred.

After his tenure, he recommended Republican candidates such as Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg as mayors, Al D'Amato as US senator , George Pataki as governor and, in 2003, George W. Bush as president. In 1980, still as mayor, he supported Ronald Reagan in the elections against Jimmy Carter .

As a Jew he now wrote about Israel and against anti-Semitism . He criticized President Obama for criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel's controversial settlement policy. He also worked for the conservative Newsmax magazine and appeared in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 , where he defended President Bush and the war in Afghanistan and Iraq . He was also the protagonist in the anti-Michael Moore film FahrtHYPE 9/11 and said that Iraq should have been attacked without weapons of mass destruction.

On February 1, 2013, Koch died of heart failure .

Books

  • The Mandate Millstone. US Conference of Mayors. 1980, OCLC 40152378 .
  • How'm I doing? The Wit and Wisdom of Ed Koch. Lion Books 1981, ISBN 0-87460-362-5 .
  • with William Rauch and Clare Boothe Luce: Mayor. Simon & Schuster, 1984, ISBN 0-671-49536-4 .
  • with William Rauch: Politics. Horizon Book Promotions, 1989, ISBN 0-671-53296-0 .
  • with John Cardinal O'Connor: His Eminence and Hizzoner: A Candid Exchange: Mayor Edward Koch and John Cardinal O'Connor. William Morrow & Company 1989, ISBN 0-688-07928-8 .
  • with Leland T. Jones: All The Best: Letters from a Feisty Mayor. Simon & Schuster 1990, ISBN 0-671-69365-4 .
  • with Daniel Paisner: Citizen Koch: An Autobiography. St Martins Printing 1992, ISBN 0-312-08161-8 .
  • Ed Koch on Everything: Movies, Politics, Personalities, Food, and Other Stuff. Carol Publishing 1994, ISBN 1-55972-225-8 .
  • with Herbert Resnicow: Murder At City Hall. Kensington Publishing 1995, ISBN 0-8217-5087-9 .
  • with Wendy Corsi Staub: Murder On Broadway. Kensington Publishing 1996, ISBN 1-57566-186-1 .
  • with Wendy Corsi Staub and Herbert Resnicow: Murder on 34th Street. Kensington Publishing 1997, ISBN 1-57566-232-9 .
  • with Wendy Corsi Staub: The Senator Must Die. Kensington Publishing 1998, ISBN 1-57566-325-2 .
  • Giuliani: Nasty Man. Barricade Books 1999, ISBN 1-56980-155-X .
  • with Stephen P. Graham: New York: A State of Mind. Towery Publishing 1999, ISBN 1-881096-76-9 .
  • with Daniel Paisner: I'm Not Done Yet !: Keeping at It, Remaining Relevant, and Having the Time of My Life. William Morrow & Company 2000, ISBN 0-688-17075-7 .
  • with Pat Koch Thaler: Eddie, Harold's Little Brother. Grosset & Dunlap 2004, ISBN 0-399-24210-4 .

credentials

Web links

Commons : Ed Koch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Ed Koch  - Quotes
  • Ed Koch in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
  • Ed Koch in the nndb (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edward I. Koch: Ex-Mayor of New York Dies. Obituary. In: New York Times . P. 3. published and accessed on February 1, 2013.
  2. ↑ In the original: “What do I care? I'm 73 years old. I find it fascinating that people are interested in my sex life at age 73. It's rather complimentary! But as I say in my book, my answer to questions on this subject is simply Fuck off. There have to be some private matters left. " (Online)
  3. ^ Ian Frazier: Hidden City. . In: The New Yorker . November 28, 2013.
  4. ↑ Koch Outraged By Obama's treatment of Israel Over Housing Construction. ( Memento from July 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Fox News. April 1, 2010.
  5. ^ Edward I. Koch: Ex-Mayor of New York Dies. Obituary. In: New York Times . P. 3. published and accessed on February 1, 2013.
predecessor Office successor
Abraham D. Beame Mayor of New York City
1978–1989 		David Dinkins
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Ed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Edward Irving (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician, Mayor of New York
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 1st February 2013
Place of death New York City