MAKE IT ANYWHERE
Newfield, Jack & Barrett, Wayne
Hake It Anywhere CITY FjOR SALE: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York by Jack Newfield & Wayne Barrett Harper & Row. 466 pp. $22.50. Mayor Ed Koch started out as a Greenwich Village true-blue...
...I want to know you will return all my phone calls," Esposito said—his sole condition for supporting Koch...
...Mayor Ed Koch started out as a Greenwich Village true-blue liberal who wanted to reform city government...
...By 1971, however, the political climate was changing, and so was Koch...
...Though not personally on the take, Koch allowed Esposito and the other borough bosses to have full run of the municipal shop, and they engaged in all varieties of chicanery...
...He would ask groups of voters, "How many here are for the death penalty...
...he lashed out at critics, condemned former friends, and shirked responsibility...
...Listen, this is the only way I can get in," he whispered to a fellow liberal politician...
...When he ran again in 1977, he paraded around with former Miss America Bess Myerson to allay perceptions that he was gay, and he played up his support for capital punishment...
...To ensure his election, he cut a deal with Brooklyn boss Meade Esposito...
...By 1986, the thievery became too thick, and the scandal erupted...
...The authors document these schemes and their masterminds with loving detail—perhaps too much detail for non-New Yorkers...
...He ended up proving one of Esposito's favorite maxims: "Today's reformer is tomorrow's hack...
...I get whatever I fuckin' want," Esposito told the authors...
...and would raise his hand first...
...Ever sensitive to public relations, Koch set a condition of his own: Esposito should not go public with his support, but should work the machine for Koch...
...When Koch became mayor, he was beholden to Esposito...
...That was the beginning of the end...
...He has ended up presiding over one of the most corrupt governments in New York City history...
...Elected to the New York city council in 1966 and to Congress in 1968, Koch was liberal when it was advantageous to be liberal...
...Though Koch lost that contest, he learned the art of dem-agoguery...
...Desperately eager to be elected mayor that year, he courted the racist vote by opposing a low-income housing project in Queens...
...The gimmick never failed...
...Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett (who worked together for years at The Village Voice until Newfield recently joined the New York Daily News) unveil a damning portrait of Mayor Koch...
...First Donald Manes, borough president of Queens, committed suicide when his graft came to light, then one city official after another was indicted...
...Through it all, Koch tried to dodge the disgrace that was properly his...
Vol. 53 • March 1989 • No. 3
