Abraham Beame | |
|---|---|
 Beame in 1974 | |
| 104thMayor of New York City[1] | |
| In office January 1, 1974 – December 31, 1977 | |
| Preceded by | John Lindsay |
| Succeeded by | Ed Koch |
| 36th and 38thNew York City Comptroller | |
| In office January 1, 1970 – December 31, 1973 | |
| Mayor | John Lindsay |
| Preceded by | Mario Procaccino |
| Succeeded by | Harrison J. Goldin |
| In office January 1, 1962 – December 31, 1965 | |
| Mayor | Robert F. Wagner, Jr. |
| Preceded by | Lawrence E. Gerosa |
| Succeeded by | Mario Procaccino |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Abraham David Birnbaum (1906-03-20)March 20, 1906 London, England |
| Died | February 10, 2001(2001-02-10) (aged 94) New York City, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Marty Ingels (nephew) |
| Alma mater | Baruch College (degree originally conferred by theCity College of New York) |
| Profession | Accountant |
Abraham David Beame (néBirnbaum; March 20, 1906 – February 10, 2001)[2] was an American accountant, investor, andDemocratic Party politician who served from 1974 to 1977 as the 104thmayor of New York City.[3] Beame presided over the city during the1975 New York City fiscal crisis, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
Beame was born Abraham David Birnbaum inLondon.[4] His parents were Esther (née Goldfarb) and Philip Birnbaum, Jewish immigrants from Poland who fledWarsaw.[5][6] Beame and his family left England when he was three months old.[5] He was raised on New York City'sLower East Side.
Beame graduated from P.S. 160 and the High School of Commerce before enrolling at theCity College of New York's School of Business and Civic Administration (spun off asBaruch College in 1968), where he received his undergraduate degree in business with honors in 1928.[4][5][6]
While in college, Beame co-founded an accounting firm, Beame & Greidinger.[5] He was an accounting teacher atRichmond Hill High School inQueens from 1929 to 1946[6] and also taught accounting and commercial law atRutgers University from 1944 to 1945.
From 1952 to 1961, Beame served as New York City's director of the budget, having also served as assistant director from 1946 to 1952.[5] In this capacity, he "negotiated all city labor contracts without a strike and kept books on city spending and borrowing; he also set up management programs that saved the city $40 million."[2]
Beame was a "clubhouse" ormachine politician, a product of theBrooklyn wing of the patronage-oriented "regular"Democratic organization, the borough's equivalent of Manhattan'sTammany Hall and the locus of New York patronage politics following the ascent ofMeade Esposito, as opposed to the policy-oriented "reform" Democrats who entered New York City politics, most effectively in Manhattan and the Bronx in the 1950s.[7]
Before being elected to two nonconsecutive terms as city comptroller in 1961 and 1969, he was a longstanding member ofCrown Heights's influential Madison Democratic Club and served aspolitical bossIrwin Steingut's personal accountant. Members of the Madison Club, including attorney/fundraiser Abraham "Bunny" Lindenbaum and Steingut's son,Stanley, frequently liaised with real estate developerFred Trump. The club also played a decisive role in the political ascent ofPark Slope–based attorneyHugh Carey, whose tenure asgovernor of New York coincided with Beame's administration, though Carey eventually broke with the organization by endorsingMario Cuomo's 1977 primary bid to unseat Beame.[7][8]
In 1965, Beame was the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City.Edward N. Costikyan was his campaign manager andJames Farley his campaign chair.[9] Despite having SenatorRobert F. Kennedy's strong support,[9] Beame lost to the Republican nominee,John Lindsay.[10]
Beame won the1973 Democratic mayoral primary with 34% of the vote, ahead ofHerman Badillo (29%),Mario Biaggi (24%), andAlbert H. Blumenthal (16%).[11] He defeated State SenatorJohn J. Marchi, Blumenthal, and Biaggi in the1973 mayoral election, becoming the 104th mayor of New York City.[4][12] Some consider Beame the city's first Jewish mayor.[13][a]
Beame entered office facing theworst fiscal crisis in the city's history and spent most of his term attempting to ward off bankruptcy. Soon after being sworn in as mayor, Beame slashed the city workforce, froze salaries, and reconfigured the budget, which proved unsatisfactory until reinforced by actions from newly created state-sponsored entities and the granting of federal funds.
In October 1975, the city of New York was in debt of $453 million. Beame made a statement on October 17 that the city had insufficient cash on hand to meet its debt obligations for that day. He added that New York City citizens needed to take immediate steps to protect the city's essential life support systems and to preserve their well-being. PresidentGerald Ford at first turned down New York's request for a loan, inspiring the legendaryDaily News headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead", but Ford later approved federal support for New York.[16]
On the evening of July 13, 1977, amassive power failure hit the city. With temperatures in the mid-nineties Fahrenheit and the humidity high, New Yorkers sweltered. By the time power was restored at 10:39 p.m. the next night, the city had been without power for 25 hours. Beame set up a Blackout Action Center at the New York City Police Department headquarters. The blackout resulted in raw sewage washing up on beaches and spoiled food in hundreds or thousands of restaurants around the city.[17]
After a chaotic four years as mayor, Beame ran for a second term in 1977, and finished third in the Democraticprimary, behind RepresentativeEd Koch andNew York Secretary of StateMario Cuomo, and ahead of former RepresentativeBella Abzug, RepresentativeHerman Badillo and Manhattan Borough PresidentPercy Sutton. He was succeeded by Koch, who won thegeneral election on November 8, 1977.[5]
When Beame left office on January 1, 1978, the city budget had a surplus of $200 million.[4] There was a $1.5 billion deficit when Beame took office.[5]
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts by Melvin G. Holli of theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago ranked Beame as the 14th-worst American big-city mayor to serve between 1820 and 1993.[18]
Beame worked in investment advising after leaving office.[2]
Beame was married to his childhood sweetheart, Mary (née Ingerman),[5] for 67 years. They met when Beame was 15, playing checkers at theUniversity Settlement Society of New York.[4] They raised two sons, Edmond and Bernard (Buddy),[2][5] and lived in Brooklyn, first in Crown Heights and later in a "modest" apartment on Plaza Street West in Park Slope.[4][19] Throughout his life, Beame summered in theRockaway neighborhood ofBelle Harbor.[4]
Beame received the Townsend Harris medal in 1957, and awards from numerous charitable, religious and civic organizations.[20]
Beame experienced heart problems in his later years. He had heart attacks in 1991 and 2000. After the second, he was admitted toNew York University Medical Center, where he remained for the last months of his life. He underwent open-heart surgery in August and December 2000, and died from surgical complications on February 10, 2001, at the age of 94.[2]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | New York City Comptroller 1962–1965 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | New York City Comptroller 1970–1973 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Mayor of New York City 1974–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City 1965 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City 1973 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| People | |
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