If you don’t like the President, it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don’t like the Governor, it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don’t like me, 90 cents.

Koch’s quip plays on New York City’s accessibility and his own high visibility as mayor. By pricing dissent—expensive flights to protest the President in Washington or the Governor in Albany versus a cheap subway ride to City Hall—he frames local democracy as immediate and participatory. The joke also signals his combative, streetwise political persona: he invites criticism, but on his terms, implying he is close enough to be confronted directly. Beneath the humor is a civic point about accountability: municipal leaders are physically and politically nearer to constituents, so public pressure can be applied more readily and frequently.