RPA mourns the passing of Richard Ravitch, former MTA Chairman and New York State Lieutenant Governor, who passed away on June 25th, 2023, at the age of 89.
Many obituaries and columnists have chronicled Dick Ravitch’s extraordinary contributions to New York over the past generation, including his work rescuing New York City from bankruptcy and saving the subway system. Throughout his esteemed career, he was known as a tireless worker and a steward of the City, but few people have been as deeply entwined with Regional Plan Association over our 101-year history as Dick Ravitch. In the late 1960s, he served on the Committee on the Second Regional Plan and later chaired the “Council for the Region Tomorrow,” which led preparation for RPA’s Third Regional Plan in 1996. He was first elected to the RPA Board in 1987 before stepping down in 2009 to assume the role of Lieutenant Governor of New York State position since RPA’s by-laws do not allow full-time public officials to serve on the board. He re-joined the RPA board in 2011 and was elected Director Emeritus in 2020, a position he held until his passing last weekend.
In 2009, in recognition of his lifetime of extraordinary public service, Dick was the first recipient of RPA’s Lifetime Leadership Award, now called the John Zuccotti Award.
As Governor Hochul very eloquently described in her eulogy at his memorial service, Richard Ravitch was never afraid to let people know when he disagreed with them. When Dick was the Chairman of the MTA, he oversaw the renovation of the Hudson Yards, which provided vital servicing for the LIRR. During that time, he had the foresight to have platform footings installed in the yards to prepare them for future redevelopment. Over twenty years later, the Bloomberg Administration proposed a major redevelopment of the yards, including the extension of the #7 subway, preserving and converting the High Line into a public park, and rezoning the area for intense development. But the City’s plans also included a football stadium on the Hudson Yards themselves, which would have been the centerpiece of a bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
In the face of intense pressure – which only seemed to reinforce his convictions – Dick spoke out forcefully against the stadium, arguing that the city would be better served by a mixed-use development and that the MTA needed to receive the full value for the land. As he later told the Village Voice, “The idea of conveying that property at less than market value was not in the interest of the city and the transit agency.” Dick’s advocacy paved the way for the construction of what today is the neighborhood of Hudson Yards – which generated almost $1 billion for the MTA’s capital budget. RPA supported that vision.
Dick led a blue ribbon commission that recommended creating a new funding source, the Payroll Mobility Tax, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support mass transit in 2008. Following that success, Governor Paterson asked Dick to serve as Lieutenant Governor in 2009, and he turned to Dick to help solve the MTA’s chronic budget deficits. Dick also became the point person on finances during the “Great Recession” for the state and led efforts to improve the New York State budget process over his tenure.
Even as an Emeritus Director, Dick played a central role in shaping RPA policy and the organization itself. In early 2022, Dick introduced his friend Ray McGuire to RPA and encouraged Ray to become a supporter of the Association. A year later, Ray was elected RPA’s Chair.
