Richard Ravitch, Titan of Public Service and Real Estate, Dead at 89
Called a public sector fixer through six decades of service, Richard Ravitch was a lifelong New Yorker, a former chairman of the MTA and one-time NY Lt. Governor. He joined the family’s HRH Construction Corp. in 1960 and sold it in 1977. He was appointed by LBJ to the US Commission on Urban Problems in 1968 and helped Gov. Hugh Carey bail out the faltering Urban Development Corp. in the 1970s and helped stabilize the MTA in the 1980s as its unpaid chairman. He also filled a vacancy as Lt. Governor, also for no pay, when David Patterson moved up to governor. He also owned apartment complexes on the East and West side including Waterside Plaza, Riverbend and Manhattan Plaza. He attended Lincoln School and Fieldston School, graduated from Columbia University and earned a law degree at Yale University. In his critically acclaimed autobiography “So Much to Do: A Full Life of Business, Politics, and Confronting Fiscal Crises” published in 2014 he argued for fiscal responsibility in government, claiming that “deceptive budgeting and borrowing practices are crippling our states’ ability to do what only they can do—invest in the physical and human infrastructure the country needs to thrive.” He was also a big proponent of hyperlocal media. He died June 25 at age 89.
| 29 Jun 2023 | 01:26
NEW YORK (AP) - Richard Ravitch, a former lieutenant governor and longtime civic leader known for his role in steering New York City through the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and stabilizing its mass transit system in the 1980s, has died. He was 89.
He died Sunday June 25th at a Manhattan hospital and was eulogized at a funeral service at Central Synagogue on June 28, that drew governors Kathy Hochul and Phil Murphy and politicians and power brokers from his years in public service and real estate.
Ravitch, a lifelong New Yorker, was called upon frequently over six decades to untangle some of the region’s knottiest problems, earning a reputation as a public sector fixer who brought colorful language and strong opinions to budget wrangling and deal-making.
While working as a real estate developer for his family’s company, he was first enlisted by Gov. Hugh Carey in 1975 to help rescue New York’s failing Urban Development Corporation, crafting a bailout package that helped the state entity stave off bankruptcy.
Later that year, Ravitch organized a last-minute rescue package with the city teachers’ union that allowed New York City itself to avoid bankruptcy.
In 1979, Carey, a Democrat, appointed Ravitch to lead the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the largest transit system in the country. To rescue the rapidly disintegrating system, he took on debt to fund repairs and threatened fare hikes in order to secure state funding–a move that surprised and angered Carey.
Ravitch worked without a salary, surviving a transit strike while creating the Metro-North Railroad and reimagining the agency’s budgeting process.
“In many ways, he is one of the fathers of the mass transit system that we have today,” Janno Lieber, the head of the MTA, said in a statement on Monday.
Ravitch left the MTA in 1983 after clashing with Gov. Mario Cuomo, but remained an influential figure in New York, leading the city’s Charter Revision Commission, helping to rescue the Bowery Savings Bank and running a failed “outsider” campaign against then-Mayor Ed Koch.
He was hired by Major League Baseball in late 1991 as its chief labor negotiator as owners prepared to push for a salary cap. Players struck in August 1994 and Ravitch was pushed aside by acting commissioner Bud Selig three months into the walkout, then resigned in December.
He returned to politics in 2009 when he was appointed lieutenant governor by Gov. David Paterson, a position he later described, with characteristic honesty, as “the most useless experience of my life.”
Even in his final months, he was a close observer of New York’s fiscal struggles, publishing a series of opinion pieces earlier this year that called on state leaders to address the MTA’s budget shortfalls through new revenue sources.
In a statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul described Ravitch as “a titan of New York’s civic world who left an indelible mark” on the state.
Ravitch is survived by his wife, two children from his first marriage and 13 grandchildren. Two earlier marriages ended in divorce. His first wife, the former Diane Silvers, was U.S. assistant secretary of education from 1991 to 1993.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.