Bill Clinton to speak at Ed Koch's funeral

Bill Clinton to speak at Ed Koch's funeral

Ed Koch, the legendary three-term mayor of New York City between 1978 and 1989, discusses signature moments from his long political career and city life in an interview recorded in 2012. He died on Friday morning in Manhattan at 88 years old. Photo: AP

I WAS a late arrival to the Ed Koch fan club. I grew up in a liberal, Jewish, Bella Abzug-loving household, and my parents spoke of him with a level of contempt they usually reserved for Republicans. Centrist Democrats are a dime a dozen these days

NEW YORK -- In 1977, New York City was deep into its worst fiscal crisis ever. Riots erupted that summer during a blackout. And a fire in one of the most blighted, bombed-out parts of town that fall led Howard Cosell to

In the late 1970s when Edward I. Koch won his first term as mayor of New York, the city was in shambles, its coffers and confidence sapped by financial crises and a paralyzing blackout. It needed a fighter and found one in Koch, a well-practiced pol