What a kick in the KOCH! [103 & 5th]

Well, I finally made it out, all the way up to the tenuous border between the Upper East and Spanish Harlem, a 45 - 60 minute ride from my home in Bushwick to the grand Museum of the City of New York

*Note* which by the way, is a fantastic, fun museum that doesn't get enough patronage do to its inconvenient location. It *almost* moved down to the Boss Tweed courthouse, on Chambers, north of City Hall, but Bloomy squashed that effort. Grrrr.

And what a Museum it is! Focussing on all aspects of city history, there's one exhibit dedicated solely to the history of trade in the city, and how New York became the top port city in the country. Greeting you on your way in is a twelve foot bronze (or some other metal) statue of Robert Fulton. Intense.

The section titled "Perform" (done up to look like an old-fashioned theater house) wonderfully portrays New York's long history of the stage, including pieces on Vaudeville, Burlesque, Minstrel shows and the difference between Broadway, Off, and Off-Off-Broadway (hint. It's got nothing to do with Broadway itself.)

But the real reason i came, was to catch the exhibit all about the mayor who was running things when I was just a wee little infant, and then through my toddler years. Both a jokester, and a man who knew how to get things done. A man who caame to be known as New York City's cheerleader at a time when we needed a morale boost the most. Sure, when a guy's around we like to bash his short-comings, but after history has had time to reflect on a public figure, we can see exactly what impact a handful of policies can really have on a city.

And Mr. "How'm I doin?" took the helm at the city's darkest hour (1977) and presided over the great turnaround that has resulted in the low-crime, booming-arts Metropolis that we see today. You did a fine job, Mr. Mayor.

HPD, (Housing Preservation and Development) was one of Koch's focal points for the city, doing what was necessary to revive old burned out buildings and neighborhoods. In some cases giving them away to those who had the money to renovate them, and could then turn a profit selling/renting them out.

He established the One Percent for Art initiative. One percent of the City's budget towards arts funding. That's a lot of dough, which in turn helped fund nearly 200 projects.

And no, he's not gay. Seriously, don't you think by now some guy would have come out to the press and said "I had sex with Ed Koch, and now I'm putting out an all-tell book on it!"

So here's to a blast of a mayor who really gave his all to help get a city back on it's feet without crawling on his knees to those bastardly feds the way his predicessor Abe Beame did. Loser.

I conclude with my favorite Koch story (told by Koch himself on a documentary I saw) The day after he left office, he went to a Deli to get lunch. Everyone turned and looked at the man they realized was no longer the boss. An old woman with a scowl on her face strutted up to him, looked him right in the eye and belted: "You were a TERRIBLE Mayor!" And realizing he was now free from any and all public service obligations, responded with his gut instinct and replied:

"FUCK YOU!" That's my man.