Richard Ravitch, Savior of NYC's Transit and Finances, Passes Away at 89.

Richard Ravitch, a civic-minded developer and public citizen who helped rescue New York City from bankruptcy and its decaying subways from fiscal collapse, died at the age of 89. He left an outsize mark on government at every level as one of the backstage wise men recruited to stave off the financial collapse of New York’s Urban Development Corporation in 1975 and, a few months later, of New York City’s own overdrawn municipal accounts. He was also instrumental in rejuvenating the city’s mass transit system in the 1980s as the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.