Daily News from New York, New York • 5

Monday, August 10. 1987 DAILY NEWS 5 if uvu Plans to keep his job for a 'long time5 FRANK LOMBARD! Gracie Mansion after his release from the hospital yesterday. ROBMTIIOSAMIUO DAILY NEWS By PETER MCLAUGHLIN and Daily News Staff Writers Showing no lingering effects from the minor stroke that hospitalized him, Mayor Koch returned yesterday to Gracie Mansion for a few days of rest and recuperation. He Immediately reasserted his intention of keeping his demanding job "for a long time," and he said he planned to return to City Hall on Wednesday. "The monster walks, the monster talks," Koch joked after walking out of the neurological institute of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

Greeted by protesters He was greeted outside the hospital by a small group of noisy demonstrators, who contended that too many homeless people were being housed in their Washington Heights neighborhood. i'l feel at home," Koch remarked of the shouting demonstrators, who said they felt Koch's exit from the hospital was their best chance to get their message known. Doctors said sophisticated tests at the institute determined Koch had suffered a "tiny, trivial stroke." Thoughts arc weighty Mayor Koch yesterday resolved for the umpteenth time to lose some weight. He showed initial good faith yesterday morning by scratching plans for a breakfast of "smuggled'! bagels and lox and sticking to the hospital fare of bran flakes, orange juice and black coffee. The low-salt and low-fat diet won't include chicken soup, the mayor offered, because "chicken soup is faL" Koch, who is 6-feet-l, weighs in at somewhere above 210 pounds.

His doctors yesterday said diplomatically that Koch weighs "in the neighborhood of 200 pounds," and should weigh between 195 and 200 pounds. Marcia Kramer i i in. i i "tyml r- 1 The mayor walked out of the hospital about 11 a.m., dressed casually in a blue shirt and tan slacks. He appeared a little tired and somewhat subdued in his first public appearance since being taken to Lenox Hill Hospital on Thursday. 'A wonderful job' Protesters notwithstanding, Koch said: "I have a wonderful job as mayor.

I intend to keep it for a long time." Koch praised the medical personnel who had cared for him and thanked all his well-wishers. "By the way, I'm doing'this so you'll see that I'm not slurring," Koch said during his 10-minute public appearance. Doctors said that his stroke caused no significant damage, and that the mayor is in otherwise excellent health. They said he has the "brain of a 28-year-old man." Koch noted yesterday: "What you see before you is a 28-year-old brain in a 62-year-old body. My intention (is) to bring that body of 62 years down to the age of the brain" by exercise.

Koch declined to take any questions, saying, "I'll do that tomorrow." He then held his arms up in a thumbs-up campaign gesture and uttered his trademark rhetorical question: "How'm I doin'?" before leaving for Gracie Mansion. He will return to Columbia-Presbyterian on Wednesday morning for another examination with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machine, the same device that established that Koch suffered a minor stroke in a hair-sized artery deep inside brain. He'll take aspirin Koch will take no medication other than a daily tablet of aspirin, which helps reduce blood-clotting risk. Before leaving, Koch bussed the cheeks of Dr. Sa-dek Hilal, one of the developers of the institute's NMR scanner, and his private nurse, Joy Skinner.

HIZZONER resting on porch at SHOWING HIS THANKS, the mMmwrnmuauuMmwuM I A mayor kisses Dr. Sadek Hilal before leaving Columbia-Presbyterian. DAVID HANOSCHUH DAILY NEWS Richard Ravitch, already has indicated it will review the succession procedure in light of Koch's minor stroke. "Thank God, there was never a time when the mayor was disabled," Stein said on WCBS-TVs "Newsmakers" program aired yesterday. Stein is one of a handful of city politicians said to be eying a mayoral bid in 1989.

Susan Milligan City Council President Andrew Stein, who would succeed Mayor Koch in the event of a permanent incapacity, yesterday urged clarification of the City Charter's succession provision, which does not spell out who decides when a mayor is incapacitated. A commission to update and revise the charter, headed by former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman.