He was a luminary in a city of luminaries.
The nation’s political elite, along with friends and even sparring partners, remembered Ed Koch fondly yesterday as the city mourned his death.
“You can talk about his policies that changed things, made them better. But the real thing that he did was give us all a belief that New York is New York and no matter how tough it was, we’d get through it,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg recounted one of his strongest memories of Koch — an encounter with a man at a campaign stop in a Jamaica, Queens, subway station.
“I said, ‘Would you like to meet Ed Koch, former mayor?’ The guy said to me ‘no’ and walked off. And Ed said to me, ‘You can’t please all the people all the time,’ ” Bloomberg recalled.
Koch was unfazed by critics.
“I remember campaigning with him once on the West Side . . . They started throwing eggs at him. I was mortified. I thought he’d be mad at me,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney said. “I’m walking back to the car and I’m mortified. He looks at me and says, ‘Carolyn, don’t worry. In my ears, it was all cheers.’ ”
President Obama called Koch a “quintessential New Yorker.”
“In public office and beyond, his energy, force of personality, and commitment to causes ranging from civic issues to the security of the state of Israel always informed and enlivened the public discourse,” Obama said in a statement.
Ex-President Bill Clinton and just resigned Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also praised Koch.
“His personality was enormous, big enough for the city he called home for nearly his entire life,” they said. “Ed stood up for the underprivileged and under-represented in every corner of every borough because he knew that struggle firsthand.”
Koch, who was born in The Bronx and lived in Manhattan, was a fierce advocate for the city.
“He once said, ‘I don’t want to leave Manhattan, even when I’m gone. This is my home.’ Ed Koch will never leave New York City,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn recalled.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani admitted his relationship with Koch got off to a “rocky start,” when, as a US attorney, Giuliani had to grill the mayor as a character witness.
But Koch endorsed Giuliani, a Republican, in 1993. And, as mayor, Giuliani said he copied Koch’s habit of holding daily press briefings.
“He said it’s better to lead from ahead than get dragged from behind,” Giuliani chuckled.
Koch’s admirers included religious leaders.
“It is, perhaps, some measure of the respect that Ed Koch — a proud, Jewish man, as he described himself to me — continued to hold among Catholics that a seat was always held for him at midnight Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” Timothy Cardinal Dolan said.
Koch was in high spirits even on his deathbed.
Recalling a recent visit with him at the hospital, ex-adviser and longtime pal John LoCicero said, “As we were leaving, we said we were going to see your documentary,” referring the new film “Koch.”
“He said, ‘Don’t tell me the plot.’ ”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Fermino and Erik Kriss