Edward I. Koch, a Mayor as Brash, Shrewd and Colorful as the City He Led, Dies at 88

Edward I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as New York’s mayor with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of golden dreams, died Friday. He was 88.

Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said he died of congestive heart failure at 2 a.m. at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.

The former mayor had experienced coronary and other medical problems since leaving office in 1989. But he had been in relatively good health despite — or perhaps because of — his whirlwind life as a television judge, radio talk-show host, author, law partner, newspaper columnist, movie reviewer, professor, commercial pitchman and political gadfly.

Ebullient, flitting from broadcast studios to luncheon meetings and speaking engagements, popping up at show openings and news conferences, wherever the microphones were live and the cameras rolling, Mr. Koch, in his life after politics, seemed for all the world like the old campaigner, running flat out.

Only his bouts of illness slowed Mr. Koch, most recently forcing him to miss a screening on Tuesday of “Koch,” a documentary biographical film that opened in New York City on Friday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised him as “an irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion,” calling him “a great mayor, a great man and a great friend.”