Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City by Jonathan Soffer

Author:Jonathan Soffer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/United States/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

1983: MAKEOVER AT CITY HALL

Normally, a year like 1983 is a sleeper for political history, an off-off-election year in New York, with nothing at stake but a few judgeships, gubernatorial races in far-off states, and general boredom. But Koch’s race for governor had delayed and displaced much of the cabinet shuffling that would usually occur after winning a second term. He now began to consider how to give his administration a new direction and focus.

Staff and cabinet-level jobs in an administration are not for the fainthearted. Most require at least some attention around the clock. Staffers generally considered Koch to be a considerate but demanding boss. Koch may have run for governor because he had burned out in the mayor’s job, which is a lot harder than being governor. Governors get blamed directly for very little, but when the snow is not plowed or the garbage picked up, or when people get mugged, they hold the mayor responsible. Deputy Mayor Nat Leventhal, who undoubtedly understood the ways in which the administration had stalled, had been considering leaving office since the gubernatorial primary, though he stayed on for another year and a half, when he resigned to become president of Lincoln Center.40

Some new appointments had long-term effects, such as the appointment of Henry Stern as parks commissioner; he would serve nearly six years under Koch, skip a term under Dinkins, and serve another eight years under Giuliani. Others, like the appointments of a new police commissioner and schools chancellor, were racially charged. Just as Jews had been trying to break through the Irish-dominated system in the 1930s, African Americans now vied for positions as top teachers and administrators. This meant that the leading candidate for schools chancellor of many African American political and education groups was Dr. Thomas Minter, a former high school music teacher who held a Harvard Ph.D. and had served as an assistant secretary of education in the Carter administration, for the position of schools chancellor.

Mayor Koch had other plans. He had little confidence in either the African American groups or the United Federation of Teachers to make decisions outside their own self-interest. He hoped to get more direct control of the school system, which represented a major chunk of his budget over which he had no control, by engineering the appointment by the city’s Board of Education of his key troubleshooter and trusted former deputy mayor, Robert F. Wagner, as chancellor. Koch’s support for Wagner precipitated a “street-fight” for the post as Minter’s supporters accused Koch of racism for rejecting a qualified black candidate in favor of his own pick, a politician without formal credentials in the field. “This issue shows that instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to reach out and repair his relations with minorities, he has taken a position that will do more to damage race relations between the Mayor and the minority community than anything I can imagine,” said state senator Carl McCall.41 Koch vehemently denied the charge, insisting that he opposed

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