New York's former lieutenant governor and longtime civic leader Richard Ravitch has died at the age of 89. Ravitch was best known for steering New York through the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and helping to stabilize the MTA in the early 1980s. He remained an influential figure in New York politics after leaving the MTA in 1983, heading the Charter Revision Commissioner and rescuing the Bowery Savings Bank. He was appointed in 2009 to serve as lieutenant governor by David Paterson. Gov. Kathy Hochul described Ravitch as “a titan of New York’s civic world who left an indelible mark” on the state.
