New York Icon : Ed “How’m I doing?” Koch

Koch was born in 1924 in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. His father worked as a furrier. During the Great Depression, when sales of fur coats and other luxury goods sharply declined, and the family moved from New York City to Newark, New Jersey. He enlisted into the United States Army in 1943 where he served as an infantryman with the 104th Infantry Division, landing in Cherbourg, France in September 1944. He earned two Battle Stars as a Combat Infantryman. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant in 1946. In that year, Koch began attending the New York University School of Law and spent his summer working as a busboy in a hotel in the upstate New York spa town of Sharon Springs. Koch received his law degree in 1948, was admitted to the bar in 1949, and began to practice law.

Koch began his political career by once describing himself as “just a plain liberal” ,but his political career he has been more of a maverick endorsing both Democrats and Republics much to the consternation or both parties.

For all his many years of involvement in politics Ed Koch is most known for Being the Mayor of New York during the “Son of Sam” Bronx is burning” period when the city faced serious financial pressure. In 1977, Koch ran in the Democratic primary of the New York City mayoral election against incumbent Abe Beame, Bella Abzug and Mario Cuomo, among others. Koch ran to the right of the other candidates, on a “law and order” platform. According to historian Jonathan Mahler, the blackout that happened in July of that year, and the subsequent rioting, helped catapult Koch and his message of restoring public safety to front-runner status. Koch also attributes some measure of credit for his victory to Rupert Murdoch’s decision to have the New York Post endorse him in both the primary and the general election. Koch won the initial vote in the Democratic primary, as well as a runoff vote held between him and Cuomo. In the general election, also held in 1977, Koch beat Cuomo, who ran on the Liberal Party ticket, and Roy M. Goodman, running on the Republican ticket.After winning the election, Koch resigned from Congress to become the 105th Mayor of New York City.

As Mayor his catch-phrase was “How’m I doing?” it became his mantra .When walking down the street, he would often use that question as a greeting to the people he talked to. Koch was also famous for baking cookies and passing them out to protesters near city hall. Among his many adventures as mayor in April 1980, he successfully broke a strike by the city’s subway and bus operators, invoking the state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by state or local government employees and imposes fines on any union authorizing such a strike that steadily escalate each day the strike continues. On one morning he famously walked to City Hall across the Brooklyn Bridge, in solidarity with the many commuters who had chosen to walk to work. The strikers returned to work after eleven days. Still active in politics and still as much of an out spoken maverick as ever Ed Koch will always be remembered most to New Yorkers as the 105th Mayor ,a mayor in those very dark days at a time when the city was on the brink or disaster.

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One Response to “New York Icon : Ed “How’m I doing?” Koch”

1. york city events says:

   March 18, 2010 at 9:13 pm

   [...] tour, new york city, rebecca chopp, swarthmore college. Leave a Reply. Name (required) Mail …New York Icon : Ed Koch | Manhattan StyleKoch began his political career by once describing himself as just a plain liberal ,but his [...]