Ed Koch

Ed Koch

Former Mayor, New York City

Ed Koch was the 105th Mayor of New York City, serving 3 terms, from 1978 to 1989. During his time as Mayor, Koch oversaw the city’s resurgence from a severe recession, helped to develop low-income housing, and created legislation that prohibited discrimination by the government based on sexual orientation in the areas of employment, housing and education, among many other achievements. The author of 8 books, including “Citizen Koch” and “My Fight Against Anti-Semitism,” he hosts a show on Bloomberg Radio, was recently a judge for “The People’s Court,“ and writes columns for a variety of publications. Born in the Bronx, Koch achieved the rank of Sergeant while fighting in World War II, before completing his law degree at NYU. He lives in Manhattan.

3mins
Though Ed Koch served terms as mayor and has been celebrated as the “quintessential New Yorker” ever since, his decision to close down a Harlem hospital is still a source […]
1mins
Aside from medical issues, the beguiling effect of letter-writing is the only thing that the former mayor is losing sleep over.
3mins
Conventional wisdom says it take 10 years in the city to become a “New Yorker.” According to Ed Koch, however, all it takes is 6 months, a quicker mouth and […]
1mins
Party divisions ruin friendships, and New York is just one of many cities begging Washington for fiscal relief.
3mins
They must be educated, says Ed Koch, who was an early champion of anti-discrimination measures in the mid-1980s.
5mins
There are a variety of reasons why Ed Koch remains one of New York’s most esteemed former mayors.
6mins
Ed Koch remembers his first days as New York’s surprise mayor and his early confrontations with municipal unions.
3mins
Amid Greenwich Village’s days of Bohemianism, dime beers and a radical Village Voice, Ed Koch was “a liberal with sanity.”
5mins
After a $1,000,000 doctor bill, Ed Koch is in favor of whatever reform legislation, with all of its warts, makes it through the Senate.
5mins
If the president doesn’t exercise his authority to get out of Afghanistan, he will not only lose the Democratic majority in the House, he will also go down as a […]
3mins
After serving in the Battle of the Bulge, in which 19,000 of his fellow Americans were killed, he had a hardened attitude: “I’m not afraid of death. Death is a […]
3mins
The legendary mayor endured two fortuitous losses in his early political career: one while campaigning against Eisenhower, and one that helped him avoid Albany, “a fate worse than death.”
1mins
The former mayor’s family had to abandon New York for Newark during the Great Depression.