Abraham Beame

Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906 – February 10, 2001)[2] was the 104th Mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977.[3] As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.

Abraham Beame
104th Mayor of New York City[1]
In office January 1, 1974 – December 31, 1977
Preceded by	John V. Lindsay
Succeeded by	Ed Koch
36th and 38th New York City Comptroller
In office January 1, 1970 – December 31, 1973
Mayor	John V. 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, UK
Died	February 10, 2001(2001-02-10) (aged 94) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Ingerman ​ ( m. 1928; died 1995)
Alma mater	Baruch College (degree originally conferred by the City College of New York)
Profession	Accountant

Early life

Beame was born Abraham David Birnbaum in London.[4] His parents were Esther (née Goldfarb) and Philip Birnbaum, Jewish immigrants from Poland who fled Warsaw.[5][6] Beame and his family left England when he was three months old.[5] He was raised on New York City's Lower East Side.

He graduated from P.S. 160 and the High School of Commerce before enrolling at the City College of New York's School of Business and Civic Administration (later spun off as Baruch College), where he received his undergraduate degree in business with honors in 1928.[4][5][6]

Career

Career before politics

While in college, he co-founded an accounting firm, Beame & Greidinger.[5] He was an accounting teacher at Richmond Hill High School in Queens from 1929 to 1946[6] and also taught accounting and commercial law at Rutgers University from 1944 to 1945.

From 1952 to 1961, he 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 "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]

Early political career

Beame was a "clubhouse" or machine politician, a product of the Brooklyn wing of the patronage-oriented "regular" Democratic organization (the borough's equivalent of Manhattan's Tammany Hall and the locus of New York patronage politics following the ascent of Meade 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.

Prior to being elected to two nonconsecutive terms as city comptroller in 1961 and 1969, he was a longstanding member of Crown Heights' influential Madison Democratic Club and retained as the personal accountant of political boss Irwin Steingut. Members of the Madison Club (including attorney/fundraiser Abraham "Bunny" Lindenbaum and Steingut's son, Stanley) frequently liaised with developer Fred Trump. The organization also played a decisive role in the political ascent of Park Slope-based attorney Hugh Carey, who served as Governor of New York during Beame's administration, although Carey would eventually break with the organization by endorsing Mario Cuomo's 1977 primary bid to unseat Beame.[7][8]

In 1965, he was the Democratic nominee for Mayor but was defeated by then-Republican John V. Lindsay.[9]

Mayor of New York City

Beame tours the South Bronx with President Jimmy Carter and H.U.D. Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris in 1977

Beame defeated State Senator John Marchi in the 1973 mayoral election, becoming the 104th Mayor of New York City.[4] He faced the worst fiscal crisis in the city's history and spent the bulk of his term attempting to ward off bankruptcy.

He 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. However, "he was credited with distributing the City's dwindling resources equitably".[3] When he left office on New Year's Day 1978, the city budget had changed from a $1.5 billion deficit[5] to a surplus of $200 million.[4]

After a chaotic four years as mayor, Beame ran for a second term in 1977, and finished third in the Democratic primary, behind Representative Ed Koch and New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo, and ahead of former Representative Bella Abzug, Representative Herman Badillo and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. He was succeeded by Koch, who won the general election on November 8, 1977.[5]

Beame was the first mayor of New York City who was a practicing Jew.[6] (Fiorello La Guardia, who was mayor from 1934 to 1945, was halachically Jewish because his mother was born Jewish, but was raised as an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life.)

Personal life

Beame was 5 ft 2 (157 cm) tall.[10]

He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Mary (née Ingerman),[5] for 67 years.[4] They raised two sons, Edmond and Bernard (Buddy),[2][5] and resided in Brooklyn, first in Crown Heights and later in a "modest apartment" on Plaza Street West in Park Slope.[4][11] Throughout his life, he summered in the Rockaway neighborhood of Belle Harbor.[4]

Death

Beame died at the age of 94 on February 10, 2001—just two months after the death of his predecessor, Lindsay—after open-heart surgery at New York University Medical Center.[2]

See also

• La Guardia and Wagner Archives
• Timeline of New York City#1950s–1970s

References

1. "The Green Book: Mayors of the City of New York". NYC.gov. May 14, 2012. Archived from the original on May 14, 2012. on the official NYC website
2. McFadden, Robert D. (February 11, 2001). "Abraham Beame Is Dead at 94; Mayor During 70's Fiscal Crisis". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved March 18, 2010. Abraham D. Beame, an accountant and clubhouse Democrat who climbed the gray ranks of municipal bookkeeping and confounded oddsmakers to become mayor of New York in the mid-1970s, only to spend his term struggling with the worst fiscal calamity in the city's history, died yesterday at New York University Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 94.
3. "Parks Remembers Mayor Beame". Daily Plant. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. XVI (3304). February 16, 2001. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
4. Giuliani, Rudolph W. "Remarks at the Funeral Service for Mayor Abraham Beame". nyc.gov.
5. Marks, Jason. "12 Who Made It Big: Abraham D. Beame '28". History of Baruch College. Baruch College, City University of New York. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
6. "New York City's first Jewish mayor". Richmond Hill Historical Society. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
7. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/08/archives/madison-democratic-club-brings-influence-to-brooklyn.html
8. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/nyregion/hugh-carey-who-led-fiscal-rescue-of-new-york-city-dead-at-92.html
9. Witkin, RIchard (November 3, 1965). "Lindsay Beats Beame In A Close Race; O'Connor and Procaccino Both Win; State Senate Is G.O.P.; Hughes Victor - Seesaw Contest - Vote Is Tightest Here in Quarter Century - 13% for Buckley". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
10. Sewell, Chan (December 4, 2006). "The Mayor's Tall Tales". The New York Times.
11. https://issuu.com/proteusgowanus/docs/2006_carroll_gardens_historical_notes_robert_furma

External links

• "Abraham D. Beame Collection". La Guardia and Wagner Archives.
• "Oral history Guides: Abraham D. Beame". Columbia University.
• Abraham Beame at Find a Grave

Political offices
Preceded by Lawrence E. Gerosa	New York City Comptroller 1962–1965	Succeeded by Mario Procaccino
Preceded by Mario Procaccino	New York City Comptroller 1970–1973	Succeeded by Harrison J. Goldin
Preceded by John V. Lindsay	Mayor of New York City 1974–1977	Succeeded by Edward I. Koch
Party political offices
Preceded by Robert F. Wagner, Jr.	Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City 1965	Succeeded by Mario Procaccino
Preceded by Mario Procaccino	Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City 1973	Succeeded by Edward I. Koch