Former New York City mayor Ed Koch died on Thursday at age 88 after being readmitted to the hospital for lung issues.
According to the Associated Press, Koch was in the hospital after being treated for water in his lungs. A spokesman confirmed the news of Koch's death early this morning. Koch battled pneumonia in December and was being treated with antibiotics.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who released a statement this morning, said, " He was a great mayor, a great man, and a great friend. In elected office and as a private citizen, he was our most tireless, fearless, and guileless civic crusader. Through his tough, determined leadership and responsible fiscal stewardship, Ed helped lift the city out of its darkest days and set it on course for an incredible comeback. We will miss him dearly."
Koch was one of the most recognizable political figures in the city and was known for his confrontational and colorful comments. When he took office in 1978, New York City was teetering on bankruptcy and the infrastructure of the subways and roads was falling apart
He helped the city recover through budget cuts and helped create a job and enthusiasm for the town that came out of his love for New York City,.
"He went at it with a sense of joy, a sense of combat, a sense that made us all know, 'That's the voice of New York, that's what we are,'" the writer Pete Hamill once said.
Koch was so loyal to New York City, that when the New York Giants took home the Super Bowl in January 1987, the mayor declined to allow a ticker-tape parade for the champs because the Giants had left New York for New Jersey's Meadowlands more than a decade earlier. He never forgot the move and held it against the team (although recent Giants Super Bowls have had parades).
"If they want a parade, let them parade in front of the oil drums in Moonachie," Koch said, referring to a community near the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
The same issue came up in a way in 2012, as New Jersey governor Chris Christie wanted the team to have a parade in New Jersey, since they have been playing there since the 1970s.
"They play in New Jersey," Christie said on the "Today" show at the time, resurrecting a decades-old debate. "They train in New Jersey."
Koch had many controversies during his tenure, but he helped New York City recover and is remembered as one of the gat mayors. He was fiercely loyal to the city and wanted to be buried there, paying $20,000 for a burial plot at Trinity Church Cemetery, at the time the only graveyard in Manhattan that still had space.
"I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone," Koch told The Associated Press. "This is my home. The thought of having to go to New Jersey was so distressing to me."
He inscribed his tombstone with an epitaph featuring last words of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl: "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."
It also includes a Jewish prayer and the epitaph he wrote after his stroke:
"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."
