Richard Ravitch

Richard Ravitch (July 7, 1933 – June 25, 2023) was an American politician and businessman who served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 2009 to 2010.

Ravitch was born July 7, 1933, to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Saul (d. 1952) and Sylvia (née Lerner, d. 1974) Ravitch.

His father was a co-founder of HRH Construction Corporation, which eventually grew to have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The firm began building in Manhattan in the late nineteenth century.

Ravitch was educated at Oberlin College and Columbia University, earning an undergraduate degree in American history with Phi Beta Kappa honors from the latter institution in 1955.

He then received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1958.

He served in the U.S. Army for a short time after his graduation from Yale and 1960 marriage to Diane Silvers.

After completing his education and military service obligation, Ravitch worked for the House Government Operations Committee in Washington, D.C., and the New York State Commission on Governmental Operations for the City of New York.

He joined his family's business, HRH Construction, in 1960.

His focus was low- and middle-income housing projects, and some notable developments he was responsible for were Waterside Plaza, Riverbend, and Manhattan Plaza, all in Manhattan.

Some of the projects he worked on were built under the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program.

He also built the first integrated housing projects in Washington, D.C., with James H. Scheuer.

By 1965, it had constructed more than $1 billion worth of projects, including Columbia University Law School, New York University Hospital and several luxury apartment houses (as exemplified by The San Remo and The Beresford, both on Central Park West).

Ravitch was a member of the third generation of the family to run the company.

President Lyndon Johnson appointed Ravitch to the United States Commission on Urban Problems in 1966, and he was elected president of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC) in 1968.

In 1975 Ravitch was appointed by New York State governor Hugh Carey as chairman of the New York State Urban Development Corporation.

Ravitch was responsible for salvaging the finances of the organization, which Carey had found was nearly insolvent.

After succeeding at the reorganization, Ravitch brought in another president, while retaining the position of unpaid chairman himself.

Ravitch sold HRH Construction, his family's business, in 1977.

Ravitch briefly considered a run for mayor of New York City in 1977 that met with a "lukewarm response"; he later made a serious run for the Democratic nomination in 1989.

He ran as an "outsider" against incumbent mayor Ed Koch, Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins, and city comptroller Harrison J. Goldin.

He was endorsed by one of the city's major newspapers, the Daily News, just before the primary, but placed third in that primary, which Dinkins won.

Ravitch's candidacy was described after the primary as being run in the face of "predictable defeat".

Dinkins went on to win the general election against Rudy Giuliani.

Carey again chose Ravitch for a major appointment in 1979, as head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Carey had expressed the desire to keep the annual salary at $15,000, effectively requiring whoever took the job to be "independently wealthy or have a business that did not require his full attention".

Ravitch was approved for the job, and did not accept a salary for his work.

He was described as throwing himself "into the job unsparingly", recapitalizing the system, building the Metro-North Railroad from other existing lines, and improving labor relations.

He was the chairman of the M.T.A. during the 11-day 1980 New York City transit strike, receiving death threats; in April 1981, a guard was injured in a shooting outside Ravitch's office by an armed intruder.

Ravitch was assigned a bodyguard and he began wearing a bulletproof vest at some public events and security was provided for his family.

He led the M.T.A. until 1983.

After almost a year of effort, Ravitch became chairman of the Bowery Savings Bank of New York in 1985.

The bank had been losing money for several years, and Ravitch formed an investment group that included Laurence Tisch, Lionel Pincus, and Warren Buffett to take over the bank as an alternative to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation liquidating it.

After the bank returned to profitability, it was sold to H. F. Ahmanson & Co. in 1987; the investment group doubled its $100 million purchase price, and Ravitch earned $5 million on the deal.

While chairman of Bowery, Ravitch was named to the board of governors of the American Stock Exchange.

Moving back to private industry, Ravitch was hired in November 1991 by the Major League Baseball owners as head of their Player Relations Committee, the chief labor negotiator for the owners, at an annual salary of $750,000.

Although some critics claimed he was hired as a "union buster" against the Major League Baseball Players Association, he rejected that characterization.

Ed Koch, who had been mayor of New York while Ravitch ran the M.T.A., called that description "foolish" and described Ravitch as a "Renaissance man".

He was appointed to the position in July 2009 by New York Governor David Paterson.

A native of New York City, he graduated from Yale Law School and he worked in his family's real estate development business, a number of government and government-appointed positions, including with the New York State Urban Development Corporation and Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and in private industry, including tenures as chairman of the Bowery Savings Bank and as the chief owner representative in labor negotiations for Major League Baseball.