Ed Koch in the office of his campaign manager, David Garth, in 1977. Credit: The New York Post
New York City mayors have a world stage on which to strut, and they have made legendary use of it. Yet few have matched the bravado, combativeness and egocentricity that Ed Koch brought to the office during his three terms from 1978 to 1989.
Many in the gay community said Koch deliberately ignored the AIDS crises ravaging the city, and New York was particularly hard hit by the epidemic. Koch was also reportedly a closeted gay man, which made the community even more upset that he could ignore the crisis.
As Neil Barsky's Koch recounts, Koch was more than the blunt, funny man New Yorkers either loved or hated. Elected in the 1970s during the city's fiscal crisis, he was a new Democrat for the dawning Reagan era—fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Koch finds the former mayor politically active to the end ( he died in 2013 )—still winning the affection of many New Yorkers while driving others to distraction.
Koch has its national broadcast premiere on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014 at 10 p.m. on PBS's POV ( Point of View ) documentary series. ( Check local listings. ) It will stream on POV's website www.pbs.org/pov/koch from Sept. 23 - Oct. 22, 2014 .
Koch opens with a glittering, nighttime aerial descent over New York and the former mayor recalling how he used to feel flying into town: "This belongs to me. Extraordinary. Thank you, God!" Koch, then 86, is seen campaigning on a street corner in 2010 for an African-American state assembly candidate from Brooklyn. Later the sequence cuts to Koch on a street corner in 1977, campaigning for mayor, happily pronouncing his signature phrase, "How'm I doin'?"
In the late '70s, New York was on the precipice of bankruptcy, dependent on the state and federal governments for its survival. It was also a hotbead of crime and racial strife.
Koch transformed himself from a little-known liberal congressman to a law-and-order candidate who cut deals with key constituencies to defeat the incumbent, Abe Beame, as well as New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo and such Gotham luminaries as Bella Abzug, Herman Badillo and Percy Sutton. Koch's constant companion during the 1977 mayoral campaign was former Miss America Bess Myerson, who helped mute whispers that he was gay.
The film traces the rise in Koch's popularity during three terms in office, but there was always friction. Koch gets credit for restoring New York's fiscal health and securing billions of dollars to improve its housing ( which he claimed helped reduce crime ). He expanded police powers and rallied New Yorkers on the city's bridges during the infamous 1980 transit union strike.
But closing down Harlem's Sydenham Hospital was a decision he later regretted, even as he insisted that previous mayors had wanted to do the same, "but didn't have the guts." Corruption scandals erupted in Koch's third term—Queens Borough President Donald Manes committed suicide rather than go to jail, and stiff sentences were handed out to other powerful politicians by young district attorney Rudy Giuliani—and scuttled Koch's attempt at a fourth term.
Cutting back to the present, we see the 86-year-old Koch glad-handing at campaign stops, schmoozing with political well-wishers and appearing on television and radio. Then, on election night 2010, the man he endorsed, governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, son of his bête noir, Mario Cuomo, snubs him. Koch's spirits brighten at his Gracie Mansion birthday party, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces that the 59th Street Bridge will be renamed in his honor ( a move denounced by Councilman Charles Barron and others in the black community ).
Koch addresses the public's long-time fascination with his personal life. Though he can laugh about rumors of being gay, he steadfastly refuses to clear up the question of his sexuality. "It's none of your f…ing business!" he says with characteristic chutzpah.
Koch had made preparations for his death. In one of the film's most touching moments, he and his former chief of staff Diane Mulcahy Coffey visit his cemetery plot. The bottom of his headstone reads: "He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II." Also on the headstone are Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's last words before he was beheaded by Pakistani terrorists: "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."
Koch died of congestive heart failure at the age of 88 on Feb. 1, 2013 — 11 years to the day after Pearl's murder.
"Making a documentary about Ed Koch was an easy call," says first-time director Neil Barsky. "To this day, I cannot think of a New Yorker as popular or as polarizing. Ed Koch's story is in many ways the story of the city. New York in those days was dangerous, dirty and utterly dysfunctional; it was also magical.
"From World War II and until only recently, it was almost an article of faith that the United States' big northern cities only deteriorated; they could never get better. Somehow, New York City defied that trend, and it did so, I think, because it kept itself open—to immigrants, to business, to artists and poets. In my view, the very imperfect Ed Koch intuitively understood what made New York special, and I believe he is as responsible for the New York City of today as anyone alive."
Koch is a Zeitgeist Films Release.
About Neil Barsky:
Neil Barsky is the chairman and founder of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism enterprise dedicated to covering the U.S. criminal justice system. He began his career as a newspaper reporter, covering real estate and economic development for the New York Daily News and The Wall Street Journal. He subsequently became a Wall Street analyst and hedge fund manager. Barsky is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He sits on the board of trustees of Oberlin College and the board of directors of the writing program Youth Communication and is chair of the Columbia Journalism Review board of overseers.
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and now in its 27th season on PBS, the award-winning POV is the longest-running showcase on American television to feature the work of today's best independent documentary filmmakers. POV has brought more than 365 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide. POV films have won every major film and broadcasting award, including 32 Emmys, 17 George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the Prix Italia. Since 1988, POV has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today's most pressing social issues. Visit www.pbs.org/pov .
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Bertha Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, The Educational Foundation of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
