Remembering Former Mayor Ed Koch, Who Once Lived on Ocean Parkway
Former Mayor Ed Koch passed away this morning at the age of 88. Born in the Bronx, with his early childhood was spent in Newark, after high school his family moved to our area, living in an apartment at 320 Ocean Parkway and reportedly attending the Flatbush Jewish Center on East 5th St. He went back and forth to City College, but apparently didn’t have much time for fun in the neighborhood:
Between the hour-and-a-half subway ride every day up to the 135th Street campus and preparing for a heavy course load, Ed stuck close to home and did not become friendly with the neighbors like his mother and sister did.
Mayor from 1978 to 1989, there are of course different opinions on his performance, and neighbor Ben Smith’s obituary in BuzzFeed, in quoting another neighbor, sums up some of that feeling:
“Koch had a very good first term and helped pull the city out of its doldrums, and he had a certain sense of the excesses of liberalism,” Cooper Union history professor Fred Siegel said. As time wore on, however, “he had no vision of how to run the city,” Mr. Siegel said.
Koch himself put it differently. “I consider myself to be a liberal with sanity,” he told the New York Sun…
So far, some neighbors and area politicians have had some things to say, and memories to share, about Koch on Twitter:
On behalf of all New Yorkers, I send my condolences to his family and friends — Gov's full stmt on passing of Ed Koch: http://t.co/wwRqwc6Z
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) February 1, 2013
https://twitter.com/JumaaneWilliams/status/297312506895020032
I wanna be remembered as proud Jew who loved the ppl of the city of NY & did his best to make their lives better -Koch http://t.co/DcQrJc0p
— David G. Greenfield (@NYCGreenfield) February 1, 2013
I wrote to Koch when I was 10 asking that he get rid of rats in park. He wrote back promptly promising that he would.
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 1, 2013
Ed Koch was a great character, but I'm still not using his name when I refer to the Queensboro Bridge.
— Jesse Lansner ?? (@Jesselansner) February 1, 2013
Remembering Mayor Ed Koch and his love of the NYC Marathon. New York City and the world will miss him: https://t.co/8Arl6D2w
— RUN FOR YOUR LIFE (@NYCMarathonFred) February 1, 2013
An outsize character, there are obituaries with great anecdotes in plenty of places, so click around to read more.
How will you remember Ed Koch?
Photo of Koch and his boxer named Boxer on Ocean Pkwy via La Guardia and Wagner