New York City bids farewell to Ed Koch
NEW YORK Ed Koch couldn't have chosen a more appropriate song to herald his final farewell to New York City.
Strains of Frank Sinatra's famed song, "New York, New York," rang throughout a Manhattan synagogue on Monday as the colorful former mayor's coffin was carried past thousands of mourners. The packed crowd broke into a spontaneous standing ovation as the coffin made its way out of the synagogue.
Koch died Friday of congestive heart failure at age 88.
Outside on Fifth Avenue, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and David Dinkins held their hands to their hearts. NYPD helicopters flew overhead and bagpipes wailed on the freezing February afternoon.
Koch was remembered as the quintessential New Yorker during a funeral that frequently elicited laughter, recalling his famous one-liners and amusing antics in the public eye.
"We had such respect for him because of his outsized personality," Bloomberg told the crowd. "Matched by his integrity, his intelligence and his independence."
Koch will be buried at the Trinity Church cemetery in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood.
His tombstone says Koch "fiercely" defended New York City and loved its people and America.
Bloomberg said the man who governed the city during the 1970s and 1980s must be "beaming" from all the attention created by his death.
"No mayor, I think, has ever embodied the spirit of New York City like he did, and I don't think anyone ever will," said Bloomberg. "Tough and loud, brash and irreverent, full of humor and chutzpah, he was our city's quintessential mayor and more than anyone else, Ed knew that New York was more than a place -- it is a state of mind, it is an attitude, an attitude that he displayed to the world every day.
"We had such respect for him because of his outsized personality and that it was matched by his integrity, his intelligence, and his independence."
Bloomberg recalled receiving Koch's endorsement for his first run for the mayor's office in 2001: "I was new to politics, didn't know a thing about it. But I always remembered the advice he gave me. He said, 'Be yourself, say what you believe, and don't worry about what people think.' And God knows, he didn't worry about it. He was as genuine a politician as America has ever seen. He understood that if you take tough stances and give it to the people straight, they will respect you for being honest, even when they don't agree with you. And that scares the hell out of press secretaries and political consultants, but the average citizen in New York really admires it."
Bloomberg noted that the funeral was being held near "a certain East River span" — referring to the 59th Street bridge, which was renamed the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in 2011.
Describing the bridge dedication ceremony, Bloomberg drew laughter from the crowd as he recalled Koch stood there for 20 minutes, yelling: "Welcome to my bridge!"
Former President Bill Clinton, who served as a representative for President Barack Obama at the funeral, said the world was a better place because Koch had "lived and served."
Koch was a friend of both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was helpful during her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate from New York, according to Koch spokesman George Arzt. Koch also backed Hillary Clinton in her presidential run.
Holding up a hefty pile of papers ("This is not my speech!"), Mr. Clinton spoke of the many letters he had received from Koch during his presidency, on issues ranging from gun violence to missile defense to Israel to taxes to scouting.
Mr. Clinton recalled a particularly passionate issue of Koch's: "It was imperative that we give young people who'd gotten in trouble a second chance. That they should be given a chance to serve in Americorps or do something else, and if they got their GED and they stayed off drugs, their records should be sealed and their convictions should be purged so that if ever they were asked again in their life, 'Did they have a criminal conviction?' they could honestly say no. He said, 'You have to give people a second chance.'"
He noted a hilarious letter, after legislation had failed aimed at curbing cigarette use among young people, which enraged Koch: "There has just been a new study saying that it impacts virility. And he said, 'Now, politicians don't like to talk about this, especially among young people. But young people are way more sophisticated than older people, and they get this. It doesn't work to tell people they're going to get cancer or respiratory diseases. Go after the virility argument!'"
Clinton said he was also speaking for his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, "who loved him very much and was grateful for his endorsement in every race."
Noah Thaler, Koch's grand-nephew, praised him as a "doting grandfather" who was devoted to his family. Thayer recalled fond memories of Koch attending elementary school soccer games and getting a manicure with his 11-year-old grand-niece.
"While he knew he was often portrayed as a lonely bachelor, it didn't matter," Thayer said. "He saw in his family only perfection."
Six uniformed officers from the NYPD and the fire department were standing alongside his wooden coffin as part of Koch's honor guard.
The funeral was held at one of the nation's most prominent synagogues, a Reform Jewish congregation on Fifth Avenue. Bloomberg is a member, as are comedian Joan Rivers and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
"I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone," Koch told The Associated Press in 2008 after purchasing a burial plot in Trinity Church Cemetery, at the time the only graveyard in Manhattan that still had space. "This is my home. The thought of having to go to New Jersey was so distressing to me."
"Just think about it: A Polish Jew in an Episcopal graveyard in a largely Dominican neighborhood," said Bloomberg today. "What could be more New York, or even more Ed Koch?"
Koch led his city for 12 years, with a brash, humor-tinged style that came to personify the New York of the 1980s.
The Democratic mayor is credited with helping save New York from its economic crisis in the 1970s and leading it to financial rebirth. But during his three terms as mayor, he also faced racial tensions and corruption among political allies, as well as the AIDS epidemic, homelessness and urban crime.
In his weekly radio address, Bloomberg called Koch "our most tireless, fearless, and guileless civic crusader."
The mayor said his predecessor's "tough, determined leadership and responsible fiscal stewardship ... helped lift the city out of its darkest days and set it on course for an incredible comeback."
He added, "When someone needed a good kick in the rear, he gave it to them."
Koch lost the Democratic nomination for mayor in 1989 to David Dinkins, who succeeded him.
Koch said he was defeated "because of longevity." In his words, "people get tired of you."
But as the votes were coming in, he said he told himself, "I'm free at last."
Also Monday, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney will make a recommendation to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to rename a Manhattan subway station in Koch's honor.
She will propose that the subway station at East 77th Street and Lexington Avenue be called "Mayor Ed Koch subway station." She will also announce renaming the street corner there "Mayor Edward I. Koch."
City officials have introduced legislation to officially rename the station.