Brooklyn, your voices — and scissors — have been heard!
Loyal readers picked the late Mayor Ed Koch as the greatest man ever called hizzoner, in our informal clip-n-mail poll.
Koch crushed his opponents with an astounding nine and one-half votes — beating out out Rudy Giuliani’s four, Fiorello La Guardia’s three and a half, and Mike Bloomberg, John Lindsay, and Abe Beame’s one vote each. One voter — apparently unfamiliar with basic electoral procedures — circled both Koch and La Guardia, resulting in a split ballot. Another person picked David Dinkins as a write-in candidate, noting the one-term mayor’s programs for children and young mothers, and speculating as to why the man who replaced Koch was left off the ticket.
“He is too black??” the voter wrote in black marker across the ballot.
On the other side of the digital divide, BrooklynPaper.com readers selected Bloomberg as the finest man to preside over the Big Apple — edging out La Guardia 30 votes to 28. Koch came in the middle of pack with 14, behind Lindsay’s 24 and ahead of Giuliani’s 11 and Beame’s 10. Some commenters expressed puzzlement at Bloomberg’s victory.
“Only an idiot would vote for Bloomberg. He thinks he’s a king — not a mayor,” remarked Nicky B from Bensonhurst, who then proceeded to post the same comment five more times.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.