A Mayor for All Seasons

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him again." It always gets a big laugh. But Koch would not tell the story quite so often if he understood only the old lady.

Finally, cities tend to be sentimental about themselves, as New York's ubiquitous "I Love New York" buttons demonstrate. Koch really does love New York.

For that, many people would forgive him almost anything.

Whatever the exact source of his appeal, Koch, like Ronald Reagan, has managed to persuade the citizens that happy days are here again in the face of a continent of evidence to the contrary.

Part of the upsurge of feeling is due to normal human buoyancy; part to genuine signs of recovery. But most is due to Koch himself, who, no matter how well or poorly the city knows him, knows the city like the back of his hand. One thinks, for example, of his tasteless, dopey, unprincipled decision to throw a parade for the returned U.S. hostages. The callousness of making those people suffer yet another ceremony. The ignorance of not being able to tell when the public had had enough already. The parade was sensational.

— By Roger Rosenblatt.

Reported by Robert Geline/New York