Ford Remembered in N.Y.
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
For New Yorkers who recall the dark old days of the 1970s, President Ford will be remembered best for something he never even said.
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” cried the front page of the New York Daily News on October 30, 1975.
In a city where the tabloid covers scream every day, that one has gone down in history as a measure of New York’s nadir: reeling from fiscal crisis, a blackout, and the Son of Sam killings.
The city’s fortunes have long since recovered, and the current mayor yesterday had nothing but praise for the late president’s leadership.
“I’m told that he never said what the headline said he said, and eventually, we did get the monies,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “I think what people will remember about President Ford is there was a genuineness and an honesty and a desire to pull this country together and take it forward.”
In New York, memories of that “Drop Dead” day are still vivid. “I’ve got a copy of that newspaper in my house, along with the letter from the city Board of Education telling me I was laid off because of the fiscal crisis,” said Douglas Muzzio, then a teacher.
