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Ed Koch on the summer of '77

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer | jsilverman@am-ny.com

August 10, 2007

Edward I. Koch was running for mayor in the summer of 1977, eventually winning on a strong anti-crime platform. He served until 1989.

What is the single biggest change in the city in the past 30 years?
There is now a sense that the lives of your children will be even better than your own. Back then everything was despair. In 1977, a million people left the city out of despair.

It must have been a difficult time to be mayor.

My goal was to bring fiscal stability back to New York. If I had not, the city would have gone into bankruptcy and the city would still be in despair. It would be like Detroit or Newark.

Do you miss anything about the way things used to be?
No. Everything is better in every single way. There are nuts who look back on graffiti fondly. I am not one of those nuts.

Could the city ever get like it was in 1977 again?
Impossible. The law now requires that the budget be balanced. If not the state will take over.

Can young New Yorkers alive today even imagine what the city was like in 1977?
All you have to do is read a dozen books that describe what it was like. It was a scary, scary place.