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Edward Irving Koch (born December 12, 1924) was the Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.

Ed Koch was born in Crotona Park East, in the Bronx. His father was a furrier, and in the Great Depression, with the sale of fur coats down, the family moved to Newark, New Jersey. He attended City College of New York from 1941-1943. He was drafted into the Army where he served with the 104th Infantry Division as a medic, landing in Cherbourg in September 1944. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant in 1946. In that year, he began attending the New York University School of Law. He received his L.L.B. degree in 1948, was admitted to the bar in 1949, and began to practice law.

He was elected Democratic Party district leader of Greenwich Village 1963-1965, was delegate to the State convention in 1964, elected to New York City Council in 1966, was the Democratic-Liberal U.S. Congressman from New York's 17th District from 1969-1973, and U.S. Congressman from New York's 18th District from 1973-1977, a total of nine years as a Congressman.

A lifelong bachelor, his sexuality became an issue in the 1977 mayoral primary when campaigners for Mario Cuomo plastered posters with the slogan "Vote for Cuomo, not the homo" throughout the city. Koch denounced the campaign, later saying "No, I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What's cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don't want to do that." He has generally been less explicit in his denials in later life, and refused comment on his actual sexual experiences , writing "What do I care? I’m 73 years old. I find it fascinating that people are interested in my sex life at age 73. It’s rather complimentary! But as I say in my book, my answer to questions on this subject is simply Fuck off. There have to be some private matters left."

Koch attributes some measure of credit for his victory to Rupert Murdoch's decision to have the New York Post endorse him over Cuomo.

He resigned from Congress on December 31, 1977 to become the 105th Mayor of New York City for three terms from 1978-1989. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New York in 1980. In April of that same year, he successfully broke a strike by the city's subway and bus operators, invoking the state's Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by state or local government employees and imposes fines on any union authorizing such a strike which steadily escalate each day the strike continues. The strikers returned to work after 12 days.

In 1981, City College of New York awarded Mr. Koch a B.A. degree. His catch-phrase as Mayor was "How'm I doing?".

In 1982, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor of New York, losing the Democratic primary to Mario Cuomo.

He was re-elected as Mayor in 1981 and 1985. In 1989, he ran for a fourth term as Mayor but lost the Democratic primary to David Dinkins, who went on to defeat Rudolph Giuliani in the general election.

As Mayor, Ed Koch is credited with restoring fiscal stability to the City of New York, and placing the City on a budget balanced according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). He also established a merit selection system for Criminal and Family Court judges, and established extensive housing programs. He issued an executive order prohibiting all discrimination against homosexuals by City employees, which was eventually struck down by court order in a lawsuit in which John Cardinal O'Connor and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York was a participant.

In 1986, Mayor Koch signed a gay rights ordinance for the city after the City Council finally passed the measure (on March 20), following several failed attempts by that body to approve such legislation. Despite his overall pro-gay-rights stance, he nonetheless backed up the New York City Health Department's decision to shut down the city's gay bathhouses in 1985 in response to concerns over the spread of AIDS. The enactment of the gay-rights measure the following year placed the city in a dilemma, as it apparently meant that the bathhouses would have to be re-opened because many heterosexual "sex clubs" - most notably Plato's Retreat - were in operation in the city at the time, and allowing them to remain open while keeping the bathhouses shuttered would have been a violation of the newly-adopted anti-discrimination law. The Health Department, with Koch's approval, reacted by ordering the heterosexual clubs, including Plato's Retreat, to close as well.

His administration was tarnished when two close associates Donald Manes and Stanley Friedman were found to be corrupt. Shortly afterwards the Mayor suffered a stroke in 1987 while in office, but was able to continue with his duties.

In the years following his mayoralty, Mr. Koch became a partner in the law firm of Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn, and Berman LLP, and became a commentator on politics (but also reviewing movies and restaurants) for newspapers, radio and television, and became an adjunct professor at New York University. He was the judge on a television show, The People's Court for a year.

Koch had a minor heart attack in March 1999.

Koch has always been a registered Democrat, but he ran as both a Democrat and a Republican in the 1981 election for Mayor. He has often deviated from the conventional liberal line, strongly supporting the death penalty and taking a hard line on "quality of life" issues, such as giving police broader powers in dealing with the homeless, and signing legislation banning the playing of radios on subways and buses, these positions prompting harsh criticism of him from the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and many African-American leaders, most notably the Reverend Al Sharpton. He also demonstrated a fierce love for New York City which some critics assert he carried to extremes on occasion: In 1984 he went on record as opposing the creation of a second telephone area code for the city, claiming that this would divide the city's population; and when the National Football League's New York Giants won the Super Bowl in January of 1987, he refused to grant a permit for the team to hold their traditional victory parade in the city, quipping famously, "If they want a parade, let them parade in front of the oil drums in Moonachie" (the latter being a town in New Jersey adjacent to East Rutherford, site of the Meadowlands, where the Giants play their home games). Since leaving office, he has frequently endorsed prominent Republican candidates, including Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg for Mayor, Alfonse D'Amato for U.S. Senator, George Pataki for Governor, and, in 2003, George W. Bush for President (in 1980 he invited Ronald Reagan to Gracie Mansion shortly before that year's Presidential election, in which Reagan easily defeated Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter - a move widely seen as a tacit endorsement of Reagan on behalf of Koch).

Books

Books by Ed Koch

• Mayor - 1984
• Politics - 1985
• His Eminence And Hizzoner - 1989 (co-authored with John Cardinal O'Connor)
• All The Best: Letters from a Feisty Mayor -1990
• Citizen Koch: An Autobiography - 1992
• Ed Koch On Everything: New York's Former Mayor on Movies, Politics, Personalities, Food, and Other Stuff - 1994
• Murder At City Hall - 1995
• Murder On Broadway - 1996
• Murder on 34th Street - 1997
• The Senator Must Die - 1998
• Giuliani: Nasty Man - 1999
• I 'm Not Done Yet: Remaining Relevant - 2000

Books about Ed Koch

City For Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York - Wayne Barrett