Favors tak­ing Ed off 59th St. Bridge Zo wants to can­cel Koch

By CARL CAMPANILE and JORDAN DONEGAN

“How’m I doing?” Don’t ask! Mayor Mam­dani wants to remove the name of his pre­de­cessor Ed Koch from the 59th Street Bridge — a stance some crit­ics say is a bridge too far.

Hizzo­ner and Coun­cil Speaker Julie Menin were just a few of the politi­cians who told an LGBTQ group they’d be in favor of can­celing Koch from the bridge, also called the Queens­boro Bridge, over his alleged mis­hand­ling of the 1980s AIDS crisis, The Post has learned.

“Yes, I sup­port renam­ing,” Mam­dani said on the cam­paign trail last year on a ques­tion­naire sent by the Jim Owles Lib­eral Demo­cratic Club used in decid­ing whether or not to endorse a can­did­ate.

The City Coun­cil and then­Mayor Michael Bloomberg renamed the bridge in Koch’s honor in 2011, two years before his death at age 88.

Koch, a World War II vet­eran and the second Jew­ish Big Apple mayor, served three terms from 1978 to 1989.

Coun­cil sup­port

Koch — whose catch­phrase was “How’m I doing?” — even filmed a pro­mo­tional video, by stand­ing at the foot of the Queens­boro and say­ing, “Wel­come to my bridge!”

Menin, whose dis­trict includes the bridge, told the Jim Owles Club in her ques­tion­naire that she was in favor of renam­ing the bridge simply “The 59th Street Bridge” but changed her tune when con­tac­ted by The Post on Sunday.

“Speaker Menin does not sup­port efforts to rename the Ed Koch Bridge, and would not sup­port any legis­la­tion to do so. She was approached in 2025 to add her name as a co-spon­sor to such a bill and declined to do so,” a Menin spokes­per­son said.

Six­teen other coun­cil mem­bers sup­por­ted or would strongly con­sider passing legis­la­tion to can­cel the Koch Bridge, a review of can­did­ates on the club’s ques­tion­naires revealed.

City Comp­troller Mark Lev­ine and Pub­lic Advoc­ate Jumaane Wil­li­ams are also on the anti-Koch band­wagon. Wil­li­ams boas­ted he voted against the Koch bridge renam­ing when he served on the City Coun­cil.

Only one coun­cil mem­ber — Vir­ginia Malo­ney — gave a terse “no” to renam­ing the Koch bridge in her ques­tion­naire. The club did not endorse her.

Allen Roskoff, pres­id­ent of the Jim Owles Club, claimed Koch did little while thou­sands of gay New York­ers died of AIDS, includ­ing his part­ner and the club’s name­sake.

Roskoff said oppos­ing the bridge renam­ing is “dis­respect­ful to thou­sands of people who died of AIDS at the hands of Ed Koch.”

“This is insane. It’s nuts. Koch is dead. Leave him alone!” con­sult­ant Hank Sheinkopf said, call­ing the move­ment can­cel cul­ture run amok.

Daniel Ravelo