This research examines political corruption in New York City. The initial discussion in this examination describes the practice of political corruption in New York City, while the second evaluates the practice in the context of value percep tions. The concluding discussion presents findings, and offers recommendations for preventive action.
Political corruption in New York City is a topic of broad scope, because, fairly or unfairly, the city's political environment has been synonymous with corruption since the days of "Boss" Tweed in the mid 1800s (Gustaitis, 1988). Almost a cen tury and a half later, in 1990, a massive political fraud investigation is probing the operation of the federal Depart ment of Housing and Urban Development during the Reagan presi dency (Shenon, 1990). While the contemporary federal probe does not involve New York City directly, much of the suspicious activity involved New York City projects, New York City con tractors, financiers, and promoters, and New York City politi cal figures.
As a means of limiting the scope of this research to man ageable proportions, the examination of corruption in New York
City is limited to that which occurred during the mayoral reign of Ed Koch, who, somewhat ironically, entered office as a reformer (Rose, 1989). This limitation is not intended to indicate that Ed Koch was guilty of corruption, or that corrup tion during his stint as mayor was worse than that in other periods of the city's history. It is, rather, a convenient demarcation of the most recent period of political corruption in New York City.
Queens Borough President Donald Manes was found to be involved in a political bribery operation, which involved, among others Koch appointees Herb Ryan and Stanley Friedman (Newfield, and Barrett, 1989). When a city Department of Investigation (DOI) sting operation uncovered Ryan's involve ment, Koch was informed that further investigation of Ryan might lead d...