Mayor Ed Koch Slogan Analysis

“How am I doing?” the slogan he used to allure residents into his campaign. The efficacy of this slogan was quite impressive because in a sense it gave the citizens the ability to vocalize their concerns of the community that they resided in. Mayor Ed Koch was his name, a stringent vivacious democrat that believed in doing what ever it took to see his vision materialize. In the Film Koch, it summarizes his rise to mayor of New York City and highlights pivotal moments of his career. He is highly viewed, as someone that brought New York, the city that he believed was the epicenter of the world to life again. He held the position as mayor of New York City for three terms and honorably remembered for preventing New York City from near bankruptcy,

his housing policies, and how he fought for gay rights. While in office, though his experienced much love and support, he also experience great deal of hatred because he was believed to be a racist. In this paper I will be addressing the main events presented in the film and providing my assessment of his term. I will also conclude by apply his strategy the city of Detroit and determining whether or not it would be effective.
Ed Koch took the role as mayor of New York City in 1978, which was a time in which the city experienced much hardship. In particular, the city had been facing a great deal of insolvency and high levels of homelessness as well as high crime rates. During the 1978 elections there were many notable candidates running for the position as mayor of New York City, such as Bella Abzug, Percy Sutton, and Mario Cuomo. At the beginning of the campaign’s, to many people, Koch weighing in among all other candidates appeared to be the underdog. However, he turning point of the race that edged Koch ahead of everyone was the event of the blackout that occurred on July 14th of 1977.
The aftermath of the blackout was horrific because there was a dark pervasive wave of store looting that left the city in a decrepit like appearance. As mentioned earlier, Crime was an immense issue at this time, which the store looting only further exacerbated this uncorrected problem. Koch critiqued the current mayor Abraham Beame for his mishandling of this event, stating the National Guards should have been dispatched to provide order to the streets. His attentiveness to the corrective solutions to the blackout further secured his lead position in the polls. His political consultant David Garth advised that he remains silent at this time because his second in the running competitor Mario Cuomo was loosing traction based on his falsified outburst. Koch knew however, that if he was to win mayor of New York City he need to win the side of the black community because he noticed that Cuomo main channel of power came from minority groups. He devised a strategic plan to win over the black community by promising that the Sydenham hospital will not close, which this meant a great deal to the black community.
After winning the election in 1978, the first issue that he had to tackle was the city’s insolvency.

In 1980 the city was in a near brink of bankruptcy. With his stringent character and “we will not give in” ideology he was able to combat the city from entering bankruptcy, but this resolution did not come easily. The process that he supported for stabilizing the city’s budget was to attain loan money from the federal government. The New York City residents however, did not support this tactic, because in his proposal to the federal government he stated that he would jobs and payroll. In addition, the labor force began to participate in strikes to display their outrage to the mayor Koch’s proposal. Impressively with Koch’s ingenuity, he was able to attain a loan of 1.5 millions from the federal

government.
With the city now in a progressive direction with money to use to bring stability, they began to observe ways in which they could cut some of the city’s cost. Along with cutting jobs he also shut down the Sydenham hospital, which was a move that disrupted the black community and caused them to loose trust in him since he promised to leave it open. Carl McCall, a New York State Comptroller, stated that it was a move that made the black community feel betrayed, which that encouraged the argument that mayor Koch was a racist. Koch believed however, that it was a necessary move because it was costing the city a great deal of money to keep it open.
Another issue that was frightening the city of New York was the high rates of homelessness and lack of affordable housing.

In 1986, Koch devised a plan that would cost a total of $5.1 billion to reestablish vacant and abandoned areas. His focus was to build homes for low- income earners. This plan brought about many positive externalities, such as fighting crime and creating employment. Crime was prevented in these areas because they were now places that attention was drawn to and no longer abandoned. This method also helped to create jobs because the construction need to rehabilitate these vacant buildings, in addition, he was able to create over 20 thousand jobs in construction. Through much of his time in office he was questioned on whether or not he was a liberal because of his prior polices, but this move to use government money to restore New York City abandoned communities removed the question on whether or not he was actually

liberal.
In the third and final term for New York City mayor, it presented one that brought about much difficulty and confusion. The confusion came from a scandal that was pinned on him that in short revolved around that idea that he partaken in extortions and briberies. Furthermore, the Aids epidemic broke out and he was highly condemned for, as they believed his insensitivity of the issue. On the other hand, it cannot be forgotten the work that he put forth to bring about equality through gay policies. In these policies that he had passed it states that there can no longer be discrimination for sexual orientation.
Ed Koch’s three terms as mayor is one that appeared to bring much accomplishment to the city of New York. With his “we want give in “ and as Calvin O. Butts III, a pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, stated “opportunities” character, he was able to achieve many task that he brought forth. Cities such as Detroit I believe could learn from how mayor Koch handled the issue of near bankruptcy because he was able to rehabilitate a city that was on the down turn economically.