You have to be larger than life to be Mayor of New York City and Ed Koch certainly lived up to that billing. He served three terms as Mayor in the late 70’s to 1989. I lived in Fredonia most of his term, but his actions always echoed across the state, especially when he called the suburbs sterile and ridiculed the rural areas. Not a great idea and it was one of many reasons why he never became Governor.
He was a self-proclaimed liberal with sanity who endorsed many republican candidates after leaving office. A controversial master of self-promotion he was always in the media spotlight as a film reviewer or judge on The People’s Court.
To me, he’ll always be the cantankerous, brash yet loveable Mayor of New York. Whether or not I agreed with his politics no longer matters, he died this morning at the age of 88.
Last year he appeared in this fluff piece for Emperor Bloomberg, his twenty five second cameo (Yes, the bridge is named after him) blows the current mayor out of the water.
He will be buried in Trinity Cemetery, the last cemetery in New York City still doing burials, because he did not want to be buried in New Jersey saying, "The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me." An ambassador for New York all his life. A New Yorker until the end. Rest in Peace.
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