The elevator doors in Sardi's, the iconic Broadway eatery, slide open. Dressed in a smart suit, cap, and scarf a solitary figure emerges. A team of handlers has never been Edward Koch's style, a man who single-handily transformed himself from an unknown political underdog with little money and even fewer family connections into one of America's most recognizable mayors.
Kind, pale green eyes meet mine and as he extends his hand and with a warm handshake he says, "Ed Koch."
No "How'm I doing?" the catchphrase he bellowed to New Yorkers during his 12 years as mayor, his brash forthrightness making him one of the country’s most entertaining and popular figures.
At 85 years old, he’s a fully active partner in the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP. Combine that with hosting a radio program, a regular Tuesday night stint on NY1, the city’s 24-hour cable news channel, an online movie review show, weekly e-mail commentaries, and corporate speaking. He has no plans to retire.
Although mellowed Koch remains relevant, the goal he set upon leaving office on December 31, 1989. Relevance is at the core of one of his best-selling books, “Buzz: How to Create It and Win with It.” His other books include a memoir, “Mayor,” adapted to an Off Broadway musical, several books of fiction, and two children's books that he wrote with his sister, Pat Koch Thaler.
One of the children’s books this lifelong bachelor co-wrote was, “Eddie, Harold's Little Brother.” In that biographical work, Koch relives trying to emulate his older brother's success at baseball and comes to realize that he should focus on what he was already good at, which was telling stories and speaking in public.
Koch is a quintessential New Yorker and he’s never going to be anything but. Ever. He has a plot in Manhattan’s non-denominational Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights ready and a tombstone that reads: "Edward I. Koch, Mayor of the City of New York 1978-1989," plus slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's last words before he was killed and beheaded by Islamic terrorists, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish." Also inscribed on Koch’s tombstone is a Jewish prayer, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One," and the epitaph he wrote, "He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II." In practical New York fashion, Koch points out the cemetery is conveniently located at 155th and Broadway by subway.
Prepared for his passing, he hopes it isn’t going to happen any time soon. A skilled negotiator, he proposes a few conditions for his demise. Having survived a stroke in 1987, a heart attack in 1999, and quadruple bypass surgery last June, he doesn’t want to linger. “I had a conversation with God. Take me totally or don’t take me. No salami tactics. I will work until I die and hopefully that death will be at my desk.”
A Fighter
That feistiness served him well while he served as an infantryman in the United States Army, landing in Cherbourg, France in September 1944. Koch earned two battle stars for combat, receiving an honorable discharge with the rank of sergeant in 1946. In that year, Koch began attending New York University School of Law. He earned his law degree in 1948, was admitted to the bar in 1949, and began to practice law.
In 1956, Koch moved to Greenwich Village and became active in Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign. Stevenson lost to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Koch experienced his own defeat when he ran for Assembly in 1962. “That was the best thing that ever happened to me. If I had won the Assembly seat I’d still be in Albany and that’s a fate worse than death,” he quips.
As Democratic Party district leader of Greenwich Village, he held that office from 1963 to 1965. Koch’s service continued with his successful bid for a Congressional seat in 1969. “I first thought about running for mayor in 1973 when the fiscal crisis was starting and I thought as a member of Congress I knew more than most of the people who were thinking of running for mayor,” he says with a deep laugh, his eyes crinkling. “I ultimately ran in 1977.”
His platform, "law and order," was particularly attractive amid a recessionary, post-Vietnam decade marked by urban decay and drug-fueled violence. It helped catapult Koch and his message of restoring public safety to front-runner status.
Koch is certain of his legacy — restoring New Yorkers’ self-confidence, balancing the budget, creating a renowned housing program, and instituting a merit selection for the appointment of judges.
In just 12 years, Koch is credited with bringing the city out of bankruptcy. When asked what this experience has taught him about managing a budget when money is tight, a position many are in today, he says it is simple, “Don’t spend money you don’t have.” He credits this tenet with helping him during the first four years of his administration. “I didn’t know about running a city of 7 million people but I did know you don’t spend what you don’t have. I still have the first suit I bought; I certainly still have my bar mitzvah suit. I’m well-off, my books have made money, I’ve been in the stock market, I’ll never want, yet my lifestyle is very modest.”
He reminisces how in the Seventies, before he took office, many New Yorkers would say they were from Long Island when asked where they lived. “I gave the people of the city of New York their pride back. They would say I’m from New York proudly, and that’s because of me,” continues Koch.
More than 250,000 apartments were created with $5.1 billion provided by the city during Koch’s reign. “My housing program will never be topped,” he exudes with confidence. “I’ve always been a fighter in the cause of good government and justice and helping underdogs and fighting discrimination. The basic problems in society never go away but we had enormous successes,” he elaborates.
In true Koch fashion, when asked if he has emulated another public servant or public figure early in his career, he replies, “ I haven’t patterned myself after anybody. I’m me. I’m what God made me.”
When pressed, he says he has always admired Depression-era New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and from an overall national standpoint, President Harry Truman.
One of President Truman’s famous quotes was, “I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it.”
According to Koch, such vision is integral to successful leadership. “The other essential ingredients of leadership are intelligence, integrity, courage, and I hope I have those ingredients,” Koch comments in a self-effacing manner.
Many are surprised to learn that innately, Koch is not that exuberant politician, his public persona suggests. “I’m a very retiring, reticent, shy person,” he explains. “We all have within us shyness and theatricality and everything in between. If you’re mayor, you can’t lead people if you are retiring. You have to stand up and exhort them. I remember saying on a number of occasions, ‘If you follow me, I will lead you across the desert.’ A shy person doesn’t say that.” Today, he uses that theatricality as a corporate speaker.
Koch also taps into his personal history. Recently, in addressing a medical group, he shared with them his experience of being in the hospital after suffering a stroke. “I was petrified that I might be rendered paralyzed or unable to speak. I was taken down to a room where they were going to give me an MRI. The doctor in charge, who I had never met before, looked at me and he could see in my eyes that I was scared. He said to me, ‘Eddie, from this point on you’re not to worry. I’m in charge and I’ll take care of you.’ It was wonderful because up to that moment everyone was standoffish, they treated me like he is the mayor. I needed someone to say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.’ That doctor did it and it made all the difference in how I felt.”
It is his honesty that has made him one of the most beloved politicians of all time. This octogenarian clearly cherishes his time as mayor. “I love public service, I even love politics, I’m one of the few who even loves campaigns. It’s fun. I enjoy it,” he added.
What he calls “political chaos” in Albany has Koch infuriated. A man of action, he is assembling a coalition of civic groups that are plotting a purge of the State Legislature. His ambitious endeavor has already stirred spirited debate. Koch is still relevant. That’s a certainty.