1. Needle exchanges

The medical world first recognized the AIDS epidemic in 1981, and New York City was its de facto capital. At the time, public health and LGBT advocates roundly criticized Mayor Koch’s response as too little too late. By 1989, 25,255 people had died due to the virus in the city.

But Koch made an important breakthrough in his third term: In November 1988 He reluctantly approved a pilot study for what would become one of the most effective measures to stem the transmission of HIV and other communicable diseases among drug abusers.

Koch’s move gave New York City the first government-funded needle exchange pilot program in the country. Despite furious opposition by many minority politicians who felt the program unfairly targeted their communities, needle exchanges received funding through the rest of Koch’s time in City Hall.

Despite early signs of success, incoming Mayor David Dinkins, who defeated Koch in 1989, almost immediately ended the program largely on ideological grounds. Koch said that he would have continued the effort.

Mayor Edward I. Koch in 1984. AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine

“It’s a controversial program,” said Koch when asked about Dinkins’ decision. “I still think that I was right. Listen, he won. I would have done exactly the opposite thing, but he won.”

Today, more than 200 needle-exchange programs operate, primarily in urban areas, around the country. New York City operates its own program and in a recent year, it took in 1.5 million syringes and gave out almost 2 million.

– Curtis Skinner

2. Some of the nation’s toughest campaign finance rules

Mayor Ed Koch tamed the wild West. At least that’s what it seemed like when he pushed for an overhaul of the city’s campaign finance system in the late 1980’s.

Today, New York City is lauded by good-government groups as having some of the nation’s most progressive campaign finance rules, which include low contribution limits and a system of public financing that allows candidates to receive public matching funds by agreeing to low spending limits.

But this was not always the case. In the 1980’s the city’s contribution limits were sky high, allowing donors to give tens of thousands of dollars to a single mayoral candidate. At the same time, New York City was rocked by a series of political scandals, involving borough presidents – back then, members of the powerful Board of Estimate — as well as city officials.

“There was a sort of feeling that the campaign finance [rules] in the city contributed to the wild wild West atmosphere,” said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney at New York Public Interest Research Group.

Russianoff points out that Koch took up the issue of campaign finance reform, even though he was benefitting under the previous system; in 1985 Koch won election by drastically outspending his opponent. “He could have easily have promoted fake ideas,” said Russianoff. “But he supported genuine reform, the real article, and it in my opinion made a huge difference in city politics in the last few years.”

Spurred by Koch, the City Council passed landmark campaign finance legislation in 1988, creating the city’s system of public financing and the Campaign Finance Board. According to the board, when the bill was signed, the mayor called it “the most fundamental reform of the political process ever enacted by the city.”

Koch continued to be a supporter of campaign finance reform after he left public office. Last month, he coauthored a Daily News editorial calling on Albany to pass campaign finance reforms similar to those in New York City. The piece pointed out at that the state’s system, with its high contribution limits, “is broken in a way that is undermining the democratic process.”

For the last two years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to bring campaign finance reform to Albany, including system of public matching funds. However, Dean Skelos, Republican co-leader of the Senate, continues to oppose publically financed campaigns.

So why was New York City able to pass campaign finance reforms 25 years ago, when the state is still battling over the issue? “I think the big part of the answer was Koch and how much power a mayor can bring to bear on an issue,” said Russianoff. “In the city, the mayor is like the Sun King.”

— Beth Morrissey

3. An almost-sterling credit rating

Ed Koch could be a polarizing mayor. But few people would complain about the city’s healthy credit rating today — one of his most important legacies.

When Koch was elected in 1977, the city was emerging from an excruciating fiscal crisis that had driven New York nearly to bankruptcy. Because of the city’s poor financial track record, its credit rating had dropped to below investment grade — meaning that if New York wanted to borrow money for its long-term projects, it would have to pay investors a premium.

By 1981, three years into Koch’s term, that rating had been restored, “ahead of schedule” and because of “the focus and force” that the mayor brought towards fixing woefully disorganized city finances, according to Stephen Weinstein, a former executive with the Municipal Assistance Corporation charged with straightening out New York City’s accounts.

“There were no honest and available financial records when the crisis hit,” Weinstein said. “People would pull little slips of paper out of their pockets with little numbers on them. You couldn’t tell if they were fact or fiction, but you could tell that the city was approximately $5 billion in the hole.”

Koch recognized the problem, Weinstein said, and proceeded to bring in new staff and systems to put reforms into place.

Koch doesn’t get full credit for bringing New York back to normal. The previous mayor, Abraham Beame, had had to make some of the toughest cuts, and the city’s budgets at the time were overseen by a state financial control board. (Koch once called the city the control board’s “indentured servant.”)

But the whole process, Weinstein said, would have been far more difficult in Koch’s absence.

“Ed Koch was the right man, at the right place, at the right time,” Weinstein said. “If he hadn’t been there, it would have been a much harder and much longer job.”

—  Nathaniel Herz

4. A water and sewer utility

One way Mayor Koch helped turn around New York City’s finances was by enlisting a corporation to carry out some of the city’s business. In 1984, at the urging of the Koch administration, the state legislature created a Municipal Water Finance Authority, which acts like a utility company and to this day charges New York residents and businesses for their water and sewer use.

It was part of an effort that allows the city to issue bonds and borrow money to pay for capital improvements to its water and sewer infrastructure The legislation also formed a seven-member Water Board to set water and sewer rates for New York City residents. Money from those collections is used to cover the cost of running the city’s systems, as well as cover debt service on the bonds.

Water and sewer rates have increased fourfold in the years since the authority’s creation, adjusted for inflation.

The actual maintenance and operation of the city’s water and sewer infrastructure remains under the control of the city Department of Environmental Protection, an effort to keep those assets safe in the event of bankruptcy. It is a somewhat complicated system — three entities that are theoretically separate, but nevertheless all under the control of the mayor.

Regardless, Charles Brecher, consulting research director for the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission, deems it a good move overall, as it opened up a new world of financing options and continues to raise money. It also prompted the use of water meters, which can contribute to efficiency because it gives people much more awareness about their water use.

“It was a change for the better,” he said.

– Allison Maier

5. City Hall fix-ups for affordable housing

The year Mayor Koch took office, 1977, was the year the Bronx was burning — when sportscaster Howard Cosell informed Yankee fans that apartments not far from the stadium were ablaze even as the team played ball. Among the buildings being abandoned by landlords — some for insurance payoffs, some because they could no longer pay the bills — were some 100,000 “in rem” apartments owned by the city itself. In the Bronx, in upper Manhattan, in Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side, tenants had to figure out how to keep the heat on and their buildings standing up, even if their landlords were no longer around to do it.

Some formed local organizations and used federal job-training dollars to pay the staff, and the Koch administration came to rely on them as stewards of the properties. In many cases, tenants took over and ran their own co-ops. But the cost to the city of maintaining all this real estate mounted, and community advocates kept up the pressure for funds and support.

As he sought a third term in 1985, Mayor Koch pushed the project of rebuilding neighborhoods to an unprecedented scale, pledging to make a $4.5 billion, 10-year commitment to rebuild dilapidated buildings and turn them over to responsible management. Many of the nonprofit organizations that carried out the Koch program continue to thrive today, as does the Koch-driven premise that City Hall can combine public and private dollars to fix up safe and affordable housing on a massive scale.

Koch’s successors haven’t always followed through on his promises. In 1989, his last year in office, he pledged to devote proceeds from Battery Park City to a special affordable housing trust fund. More than two decades later, that money is only now beginning to flow.

—  Alyssa Katz