(no subject)

[camwyn]

Wow. CNN just said Ed Koch passed away today. Congestive heart failure, age 88.

I don't normally comment on famous-people-death-things, but... man, when I was a kid I thought once you became mayor, you were always mayor. Because Ed Koch had been mayor since, like, ever. I was dimly aware that there had been other mayors, mostly because LaGuardia Airport was named after Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, but that was the only other mayor of New York City I could name. And, yeah, there were mayoral elections but since Ed Koch always won, I kind of thought they were... I don't know, tokens. An attempt to make sure he was still doing his job, or something.

Countdown to the editorial cartoons involving Koch asking Saint Peter "How'm I doing?", anyone?

Comments

[laudre]

Koch was the mayor when I moved to the Tri-State area in the mid-80s, and I'm fairly sure I continued to believe he was the mayor for at least a year or two into Dinkins' term.

(I can only name one mayor of Bridgeport, CT, Joseph Ganim, off the top of my head, and, as far as I'm concerned, I grew up there. I had to hit Google to remember who he succeeded, and he remained in office long after I moved out of the area.)

[sdelmonte]

In some ways he never stopped being mayor of NYC, the way you get to be mayor of a place on Foursquare. Think about how much he represented this town as a very public face. And how he still influenced elections. And how there's a film about him in nationwide release today of all days. Rudy might have briefly been America's Mayor, but Koch was New York in ways Rudy (or Bloomberg) never could be.

[hellkitty]

He was such a product of NYC the kind of character that could only be made in the City, and he certainly left his mark. I wish we had more politicians like him: people knew where they stood with him.