Preventing aching backs and most physical woes demands that we stand up every 20 minutes or so and move around. For some, age-related problems and waning strength make that difficult or impossible. Ah, but these aging symptoms need far more general understanding. However, to reduce the sitting time this week, I did a kind of stream-of-consciousness column that didn’t require poring over reference material. It was almost finished when I remembered to get up—again—and when I turned on the news, I learned that former Mayor Ed Koch had departed this life.

So much for the column just written. I worried when last night’s news said our three-term former mayor was on a respirator in New York Presbyterian’s intensive care unit. The reporter also recalled the 88-year-old’s last decade of major illnesses: a stroke, a heart attack and heart and prostate surgeries. That’s a lot, but not uncommon at that age.

Koch was famous for asking “How’m I doin’?” Now I wish that in recent years, he had talked about how he was really doin’ with these critical, often age-related diseases. It would have helped raise awareness and find better ways to prevent and treat them. And above all, it would have given the public at large more understanding and maybe more empathy for what it’s like to be old, even for someone as renowned, active and advantaged as Ed Koch.

We need more old people out there in the public eye. Koch was a regular on an NY1 weekly political panel; he was a player; he went every day to his law office, maybe even by subway or bus. But I doubt that the new documentary Koch says much about his late years.

His late years have been largely ignored in the lengthy obituaries that have appeared, which is something I am really trying to change. Another glaring example of this type of oversight was in the tributes to Pauline “Dear Abby” Phillips, whose last ten years of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease got little more than a mention. Ten years! Who knew? Obits mentioned she’d supported the civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights movements. But has her family worked for more research for the still-underfunded brain-failure cause?

Are they protesting the really offensive Betty White NBC sitcoms depicting elders as dirty old women and dirty old men playing disgusting pranks on young people? Is anyone? In one relatively mild “prank,” two elder women asked young men on the street to settle the argument of who’s the best kisser. The young men quickly backed away and burst out laughing.

Real-life elders often try to help young people, but that’s not something the media ever show. Even the president’s grandmother got little mention at the Inaugural ceremony, although many approving comments were made about the Obamas’ daughters standing next to her. Nothing was said about the need for close grandparents. These are some reasons why I so often write about elder inequities, which some say I do too often. In truth, it is not done often enough.

And so we will miss you, Ed Koch, and we’ll miss seeing an old face on the tube, and hearing an old voice of experience (not that many of us left). And you did love New York, and New York is a better place for it. And we are grateful.

dewingbetter@aol.com

By Angela Barbuti

Ed Koch on the bus with Bess Myerson on the way to his mayoral inauguration, January 1978. Photo courtesy of the Municipal Archives of the City of New York

In a sad twist of fate, former mayor Ed Koch died on the same day that a documentary on his life premieres in theaters. The late mayor will undoubtedly be immortalized though this touching and powerful film. The Twitter page of @KochTheMovie wrote, “It is with great sadness that we announce that Mayor Ed Koch passed away this morning. He will be greatly missed.”

When Neil Barsky filmed Koch, he realized that the former mayor was still quite relevant to New York City life. Ed Koch gave the director carte-blanche access to his life. Cameras followed the Mayor as he made breakfast at his Greenwich Village apartment, celebrated Yom Kippur with his family, and even visited his already-designed tombstone. The film also revisits a passionate young Koch at subway entrances, uttering his famous catchphrase, “How’m I doing?” when the city was not doing so well. The images of New York in the late seventies and early eighties, showing graffiti-ridden subways and a dimly-lit Times Square, bring us back to a time when New York wasn’t the bustling city it is today. We learn that it was Koch who had a major role in the transformation. Most recently, he was recognized for his service by having the Queensboro Bridge named in his honor. One of the last scenes of the film shows Koch riding over the newly-renamed bridge, telling his friend, “I think we need more lights on my bridge.” Barsky, who knows Koch loved being in the public eye, said in reply, “He was obviously kidding…a little.”

We talked to Barsky, just before the Mayor’s death, about the making of Koch the documentary and his time spent with Koch the man.

You were a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley, and a hedge fund manager. You then decided to make your first film. Why did you choose Koch as your first subject?

I was a young reporter in my twenties when he was in office, so I have a very strong memory of what New York was like back then. I feel that he was mayor at a critical period for New York. History is not inevitable; in other words, New York could have turned out very differently. He came at a time when New York was on the ropes. I felt he was a very significant figure in New York history. I wanted to recreate the city in the eighties because it was so different from today. I also felt that he, as a personality, was so interesting.

What surprised you most about him?

He turned out, when we started shooting, to be much more compelling as a contemporary character. I thought originally it was going to be a historical movie. He opened himself up in that respect and that was a pleasant surprise. There are not a lot of public figures who would give the filmmaker carte blanche. He had no restrictions on us. We had no deals. The only thing I agreed to was that we’d show it to him before we locked the film. We showed it to him in July. He asked for no changes. I think he understood that for it to be a good movie, it had to be balanced.

What did you want to convey to viewers about Koch?

We want to just paint an honest portrait. As I said, I want people to understand how the seeds of New York’s revival today were really planted under Koch. I don’t think people totally appreciate that. As for Koch the person, I wanted to show him as three-dimensionally as we could and let the viewer decide. Some people watch it and like him less. Some people watch and like him more.

What is one improvement Koch made that people may forget as they walk around our city?

Well the main thing is the 5 billion dollars spent on rehabilitating the housing stock, and the rebuilding of neighborhoods. The second thing is the cleanup of Times Square, which people think was done under Dinkins and Giuliani- and it was, but it was conceived, litigated, and funded originally under Koch.

In your opinion, what were his biggest contributions?

One is that he restored the morale of the city. I think people who follow his career would acknowledge that. And once he righted the fiscal shift, he turned around and was able to invest 5 billion dollars in housing. I don’t think a lot of people realize that. And that was a massive, successful program.

How did you get all that old footage?

We had people working on the archival. We got clips from ABC, CBS, NBC, Library of Congress, and LaGuardia College. So much of Koch’s administration was filmed. It’s New York. There’s so much media here. If we were doing it about Akron, Ohio, there’d be a lot less. We had two women, Amilca Palmer and Lindsey Megrue, who were in charge of the archival, and they were pretty tireless. There’s a way of doing it. It’s not like we were the first people who ever tried to unearth this stuff. We worked hard and pretty much got everything we wanted.

The Mayor was mad because you didn’t want to show him clips during the filming.

Yes, I didn’t want to show him anything until it was over. We took so long, frankly, that he got impatient and wary of what we were doing. He was upset with me for a while, and then we showed it to him in July of 2012 and he wasn’t upset.

He didn’t want anything changed?

It’s not that he liked everything. There are things there that he doesn’t like. He had said publicly that he thinks our treatment of him and racial issues was too harsh.

All the places that you visited with him were so meaningful. The cemetery scene was crazy, where Koch goes to visit his actual tombstone at Trinity Cemetery.

That is a crazy scene, and that’s a crazy thing that he’s done. I mean, who does that? It’s one of the quirks of Ed Koch. He does things his way, no question.

You were even invited into his apartment.

We wanted to see how a guy who is the ex-Mayor of New York, who was [nearly 88 years old, lived]. And a lot of it is being an older person and seeing the medication on the table, and newspapers on the floor. He [lived] very modestly.

At the end of this film, I wished I could have been Mayor Koch’s friend.

By the end you want to be his friend, because you see him weak and strong. You see all sides of him, the good and the bad.

Koch opens today at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Angelika Film Center

To learn more about the film, visit www.kochthemovie.com

Cool Wheels: Lillian Vernon hands over the keys to Citymeals-on-Wheels' first ever refrigerated truck to Citymeals Executive Director Beth Shapiro on July 11. The new $54,000 truck has been funded by the Lillian Vernon Foundation in commemoration of Vernon's birthday, a Citymeals-on-Wheels board member.

Mayor Koch Endorses Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson is doin’ great after receiving the endorsement of former Mayor Ed Koch in his bid for City Council. Thompson, currently the chair of Community Board 6, will by vying for a seat on the council in the East Side’s 4th District when Council Member Dan Garodnick runs for comptroller, as he is expected to do.

In a letter announcing his support, Koch said that Thompson’s experience will be especially beneficial to a Council and city government with many newbies in 2014. “We need to elect people who understand how the city runs and how to get things done. I know that by electing Mark, we will be putting the city in good hands, no matter what challenges we face,” said Koch. He also noted that Thompson “has worked successfully for new school seats, reclaiming of parkland and many other issues.”

Thompson was happy to receive the support, saying it would make his run for City Council an “incredibly strong race.”

“The mayor is a true New Yorker who knows what it takes to govern successfully. His support will give my campaign the powerful push it needs to get started in these early days of the race,” he said.

Thompson works as a consultant for government relations firm Capalino+Company, where he helps not-for profits, cultural institutions and private companies “navigate through red tape.” He worked in the former mayor’s administration in what was then the Department of General Services.

Parking Garage Accident
Two people were hospitalized Tuesday morning after a car plummeted down the elevator shaft of an Upper East Side parking garage.
A parking attendant at the East 76th Street and 1st Avenue garage reportedly drove the vehicle into the car elevator on the building’s fifth floor, but the elevator was not there, CBS reported. He and the car plunged five stories before hitting the ground.

At around 9:45 a.m., the fire department arrived on the scene at 355 E. 76th St., which houses a Hertz Rent-a-Car location, according to NY1. Firefighters rescued the driver, who was trapped inside the vehicle, as well as an individual who was in the elevator on the ground floor at the time of the accident.

Neighbors reported that there were at least 10 emergency vehicles on the scene, in addition to a helicopter hovering over the building. Fire and police officials closed off the sidewalk to passersby on both sides of the street.

The rescued driver and victim were transported to New York Presbyterian-Cornell Hospital to be treated for what were believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Department of Buildings records show that the garage faced a code violation in May 2009 for noncompliance related to maintaining elevator service equipment. The complaint was later resolved.

Lappin Gets Cash for New RI Library
City Council Member Jessica Lappin announced last Friday that she has secured over $4 million for Roosevelt Island-based projects and organizations in the 2013 fiscal year city budget. Two million dollars are allocated to move the existing Roosevelt Island Library, which has been plagued by book-damaging water leaks, to a new location at 504 Main St. Another $1.85 million is slated to fund the completion of the FDR Four Freedoms Memorial, and $150,000 is for the FDR Hope Memorial.

“Roosevelt Island is going through a spectacular transformation, and I’m proud to support the groups that have been there in the past and will continue to shape the island in the future,” Lappin said. “It’s especially exciting that this funding will help build a new home for the island’s public library.”

Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, praised Lappin, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Borough President Scott Stringer for their support of the new library, which he said will double in size and offer more access to programming, computers, classes and other library services.

Delivery Bike Crackdown
Cyclists flouting the law found themselves the targets of several attacks from the city last week. On Thursday, City & State reported that Upper East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick and Queens Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer called for legislation to double traffic violation fines for those riding electronic-assisted bicycles, which are illegal in the city. Even though the City Council overrode a mayoral veto to ban electronic bikes in 2004, both Garodnick and Van Bramer said at a press conference in Queens that motorists are still dangerously riding electronic bikes on the sidewalk, against traffic and through red lights. Noting that he had seen an electronic-assisted bike just minutes before the press conference, Van Bramer said there was an “epidemic of reckless driving” in his district and across the city. By doubling the fines, Garodnick said the city could step up enforcement.

“Navigating our city streets is dangerous and difficult enough without the reckless actions of many cyclists who are riding illegal electric bikes today,” Garodnick said. “We need to empower our law enforcement officials to help crack down on this illegal activity.”
The legislation, introduced by Garodnick and co-sponsored by Van Bramer and seven other council members in June of last year, is awaiting a hearing by the Council’s transportation committee this fall. In February, Council Member Jessica Lappin introduced a separate bill to double the $500 fine for selling or operating an electronic-assisted bicycle.

The next day, Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan held a press conference to announce the DOT’s new education and enforcement program for delivery cyclists. The commissioner was joined by Council Members Gale Brewer, Lappin, Garodnick and Council Transportation Committee Chairman James Vacca, as well as some restaurant owners, to introduce the efforts and explain the program that will target first the Upper West and then the Upper East Side.

A special six-person unit of the DOT will go door to door to businesses and explain to employers the legal requirements and safety information for their delivery cyclists. After a six-month period, businesses who violate the laws will receive fines ranging from $100 to $300.

The program comes after the Upper East Side community has called repeatedly for holding businesses accountable for delivery cyclists’ reckless behavior.

“New Yorkers believe they have a constitutional right to great food delivered to their door while it’s still hot—and they’re right,” said Garodnick. “That cannot mean that we will compromise the safety of our streets in the process.”

The education portion of the program will give businesses brochures on safety and the law as well as ID cards their cyclists can fill out and keep on them. Employers will be required to provide upper body apparel with the name of their business clearly identified as well as safety equipment like lights, reflective gear and helmets.

“We need to put the brakes on dangerous delivery bicycles,” said Lappin. “Education and enforcement will make us all safer on our streets.”

As Buzzfeed reported, conservative Catholic League president Bill Donohue sent some intense emails recently to Shalom Center Director Rabbi Arthur Waskow, threatening the Rabbi over an article he wrote in the Huffington Post in which he criticized the Vatican and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Donohue backed up his arguments with what he said was an old Koch saying, writing, “Ed Koch, my friend, once said that Jews had better not make enemies of their Catholic friends since they have so few of them. Think about that the next time you feel compelled to attack my religion.”

This appears to be a very loose interpretation of remarks Koch made earlier this year that were reported by the New York Post’s David Seifman.

Speaking to public policy organization Beit Morasha of Jerusalem, Koch reportedly said,

“We’re 13 million Jews in the whole world — less than one-tenth of 1 percent. And we need allies. The best ally we can have is the Catholic Church. Oh, you can go back in history when they were not great allies. But they proved to be. It started with Pope John XXIII and Pope [John] Paul II. We have to reach out to them.”

So these three guys walk into a room. That sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it turns out that this meeting is anything but funny. The first man in the room is Speaker Sheldon Silver of the New York State Assembly. He’s the Empire State’s senior serving politician. He’s a canny, brilliant, politically astute guy who, up to now, has known how to win elections.

He is connected to the New York State power brokers and their lobbyists, like the teachers union, and he doesn’t break the paradigm of power. He isn’t about to change the game plan, even when confronted with the likes of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Koch, one of the great political phonies of all time, has a penchant for grabbing good issues and riding them. This time, it’s reform of the “dysfunctional” Legislature.

When really pressed, Silver gives a little to the forces of reform in the State Capitol. There are a number of ways to do that. One is to make a good bill into a lukewarm bill that will change little or nothing. That’s exactly what he did with the call for ethics reform. Gov. David Paterson correctly vetoed that joke.

Another Silver specialty has been the famous “one house bill” that he knows will never be passed in the other house. This used to be very easy when the other house was controlled by the Republicans. Now the State Senate is controlled by a group of pathetically inept Democrats who can’t get their act together, so the game is a little more difficult.

The Senate Dems’ leader is John Sampson, and he’s the second man in the room. Like his hero, that other Sampson, he has tremendous strength but is likely to be given a haircut by others in his Democratic Senate conference who just can’t seem to master the skill of playing well together. Sampson was chosen by his conference to pick up the pieces after a group un-herdable cats, among them the infamous crew of Hiram Monserrate, Pedro Espada and Malcolm Smith, came very close to committing hari-kari before our very eyes. Sampson has the respect of many internal players, but the public’s initial impression of the Senate’s ineptitude has been so lasting that no matter how much perfume they put on, the stench persists.

Sampson and Silver recently went along with Paterson’s plan to furlough state workers. A federal judge put that plan on hold and now they are hated by the unions and have little to show for their efforts.

Finally, there is Paterson, the third man in the room. He isn’t running for reelection and he knows that the way to political salvation and historical canonization is doing the right thing. His state is broke and he is trying to get civil servants to forgo pay raises. He is hopelessly outclassed by Andrew Cuomo, who is waiting in the wings but who won’t indicate what needs to be done to right the ship of state. So Paterson has put the spotlight on the Legislature and is holding tough, unable to make the other two guys come up with a plan that will allow New York to live within its means. Come January, he will be out of office and he will smell clean. The newspapers tell him that he’s doing right, but castigate him for being inept. He’s a good guy who deserves more support for what he is trying to do.

In the meantime, back in that room, chaos prevails. The reality is that the state is broke. The little boy who cried wolf is about to be eaten by that very same animal and everyone assumes that somehow this will turn out all right. As William Bendix would have said in The Life of Riley, “What a revoltin’ development.”

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.