Ed Koch Dies Former New York City Mayor Dead at 88 - (2/1/13)

	Ed Koch Dies Former New York City Mayor Dead at 88 - (2/1/13) 2/1/13 - Edward I. Koch, the former US congressman and New York mayor whose wisecracks and pugnacity embodied the city he led back from the edge of bankruptcy in the 1970s, died Friday at a hospital in New York. He was 88. Mr. Koch's spokesman, George Arzt, told the Associated Press the former mayor died of congestive heart failure. In recent years, Mr. Koch was shadowed by bouts of ill health, including anemia. He had had a stroke, a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. In three terms as New York's Democratic chief executive from 1978 through 1989, Mr. Koch's touchstone achievement was to help revive a city that had defined urban dysfunction. Yet it was Mr. Koch's quote-machine of a persona -- his unbridled candor and unyielding chutzpah -- that made him a dominant character in a city packed with them. "How'm I doing?" the mayor liked to bellow as he gallivanted up and down city streets, arms raised above his lanky frame, bald pate bobbing. His signature greeting was delivered in a whiny, nasal voice that was as recognizably New York as the screech of an A train. After losing in a mayoral primary in 1973, while serving in Congress, Mr. Koch ran again four years later. He sought the Democratic nomination in a crowded field that included incumbent Abraham Beame, the loquacious congresswoman Bella Abzug and the largely unknown Mario Cuomo, who later served three terms as governor. The race was defined by a murder spree by serial killer known as Son of Sam, and a mid <b>...</b>	From: NewsCatcher29 Views: 0 0 ratings
	Time: 03:48	More in News & Politics