Leadership Quote by Edward Koch

A singsong boast turns civic infrastructure into poetry, flipping the old lament of scarcity into a proud claim of abundance and quality. The wink at Coleridge is obvious: water may be everywhere, even in vast oceans, but it is useless to thirst. New York, by contrast, delivers fresh, drinkable water straight from the tap, and the rhyme insists it is not merely adequate but terrific.

The confidence rests on a real achievement. New York City’s water comes largely from protected watersheds in the Catskill and Delaware regions, traveling by gravity through monumental aqueducts into a web of reservoirs and tunnels. For decades it has been one of the few large American systems able to serve mostly unfiltered surface water because the forests and farms feeding its reservoirs are so carefully managed. The result is famously soft water, low in minerals, prized by bakers and mythologized in the lore of bagels and pizza. It is a triumph of 19th- and 20th-century engineering joined to 20th-century environmental stewardship, a public good quietly sustaining millions every day.

The jaunty tone matches Edward Koch’s persona. As mayor from 1978 to 1989, he blended blunt talk with tireless boosterism, rallying morale as the city clawed back from fiscal crisis and crime. Praising tap water is not just a quirky aside; it is a way of affirming that government can deliver something superb, universally and inexpensively. The line compresses civic pride, technocratic competence, and New York brashness into a catchy couplet.

There is also a democratic note in the brag. Oceans are sublime but indifferent; bottled brands trade on exclusivity; a great city’s tap is shared by all. By crowning municipal water as better than the world’s grandest waters, the quip elevates an everyday public service into a symbol of common wealth and resilience. It invites a toast, not to luxury, but to the pipes, reservoirs, and distant hills that make urban life possible.