Preceded by John V. Lindsay Religion Jewish Party Democratic Party | Name Abraham Beame | |
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Full Name Abraham David Birnbaum Born March 20, 1906London, United Kingdom ( 1906-03-20 ) Died February 10, 2001, New York City, New York, United States Spouse Mary Ingerman (m. 1928–1995) Previous office Mayor of New York City (1974–1977) | ||
Synd 7 11 73 abraham beame votes in the new york mayoral elections
Abraham David "Abe" Beame (March 20, 1906 – February 10, 2001) was the 104th Mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, during which the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
Contents
- Synd 7 11 73 abraham beame votes in the new york mayoral elections
- SYND 8 11 73 NEW YORK MAYOR PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER ELECTION
- Early life
- Career before politics
- Early political career
- As Mayor of New York City
- Personal life
- References
SYND 8-11-73 NEW YORK MAYOR PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER ELECTION
Early life
Beame was born Abraham David Birnbaum in London. His parents were Esther (née Goldfarb) and Philip Birnbaum, Jewish immigrants from Poland who fled Warsaw. Beame and his family left England when he was three months old. He was raised on New York City's Lower East Side.
He was a student at P.S. 160, the High School of Commerce, and City College of New York, where he graduated from its Baruch School with honors in 1928 with a degree in business.
Career before politics
While still a student at City College of New York, he co-founded an accounting firm, Beame & Greidinger. After graduation, he also taught accounting from 1929 to 1946 at Richmond Hill High School in Queens, and eventually accounting and commercial law at Rutgers University during 1944 and 1945.
He was appointed New York City's Director of the Budget, serving from 1952 to 1961.
Early political career
Beame was a "clubhouse" or machine politician, a product of the Brooklyn wing of the regular Democratic organization (that borough's equivalent of Manhattan's Tammany Hall) as opposed to the "reform" Democrats who entered New York City politics in the 1950s. He was a Democrat and was elected to two terms as city comptroller in 1961 and 1969.
In 1965 he was the Democratic nominee for Mayor, but was defeated by the Republican candidate, John V. Lindsay.
As Mayor of New York City
Beame defeated State Senator John Marchi in the 1973 mayoral election, becoming the 104th Mayor of New York City. 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". He served during the 1977 blackout crisis. When he left office in 1977, the city budget had changed from a $1.5 billion deficit to a surplus of $200 million.
After a chaotic four years as mayor, he ran for a second term in 1977, and finished third in the Democratic primary, behind U.S. Representative Ed Koch and New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo. Beame outpolled former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, Congressman Herman Badillo and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton in the 1977 primary. Beame was succeeded by Ed Koch, who won the general mayoral election on November 8, 1977.
Beame was the first mayor of New York City who was a practicing Jew. Fiorello La Guardia, who was mayor from 1934 to 1945, was halachically Jewish because his mother was born Jewish, but raised as an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life. Abe Beame was the mayor when David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, terrorized New York City.
Personal life
Abraham Beame was 5 ft 2 in (160 cm) tall.
He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Mary (née Ingerman), for 67 years. They raised two sons, Edmond and Bernard (Buddy), and resided in Brooklyn: first in Crown Heights and later near Prospect Park.
Beame died on February 10, 2001—just two months after the death of his predecessor, Lindsay—at the age of 94 after open-heart surgery at New York University Medical Center.