On What Makes A New Yorker: Being a New Yorker is just simply a state of mind. Less than half of the population was actually born in New York City. I'm one of the less than half. I was born in the Bronx in 1924. But most New Yorkers were not, and the way I define it is, if you've been here for six months and you walk faster and talk faster and think faster, you're a New Yorker. On Living In Greenwich Village: The Village is a very interesting place and people have different views of what the Village actually is. At one time the Village was, at least the South Village was, the place where our black citizens lived before they went up to Harlem. Harlem in those days, early days, was Jewish! Lots of people have a vision of the Village as very Bohemian and the area in which gays and lesbians in large numbers live, and that's all true. But the largest group living in Greenwich Village are the middle-class people who go to work every day in midtown Manhattan and bring up their children. On What Threatens The City: You don't have to be born here to be a New Yorker, but the people who are elected around the country and who go to Washington, think it's to their advantage to become New York-bashers and to ascribe to New York all of the ills of the world, and it's just not true. Yes we have problems, but we give more to the country, in terms of dollars by way of taxes than we get back in terms of assistance. In fact, Washington has discriminated financially against the City of New York from time immemorial. When I came into office, much of the country in the Midwest and elsewhere was receiving up to 40% of their income from the federal government to make their cities work. In those days, we were getting 20% and it's been reduced to less than 10% currently.		Photo: Konstantin A lawyer, public official, and former Congressman, Koch became Mayor of New York City in 1977. With the support of the municipal labor unions and the creation of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, Koch is credited with avoiding the city's bankruptcy during the financial crisis of the mid-1970s. He was re-elected in 1981 and 1985 but in 1989, he was defeated in the Democratic primary in his bid for an unprecedented fourth term.