Richard Ravitch

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Richard Ravitch (1933 - present) is a business and civic leader from New York City.

[edit] Early life

Richard Ravitch was born in 1933, the son of Saul and Sylvia Ravitch. Saul's parents had fled Tsarist Russia to come to America, and ran a construction business. [1]

Richard Ravitch was educated at Columbia College and Yale University Law School. [2]

He married Diane Ravitch in 1960, and together they raised two children. They divorced in 1986. [3] [4]

[edit] Career

  • From 1960 to 1977 he was the chairperson of the HRH Construction Corporation, which created over 45,000 units of affordable housing in New York City and other urban areas.
  • In 1966 Ravitch was appointed by then United States president Lyndon Johnson as a member of the United States Commission on Urban Problems.
  • In 1975 Ravitch was appointed by then New York state governor Hugh Carey to be the Chairman of New York State Urban Development Corporation, maintaining the solvency of the corporation (which was very much in doubt at the time) and completing the construction of approximately 30,000 units of housing for lown income people.
  • From November 16, 1979 to October 31, 1983 he chaired the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York. He had been a principal owner and the chairman of the Bowery Savings Bank of New York.
  • In 1989, he ran as a Democrat for Mayor of New York City, but lost in the primary to David Dinkins.
  • In late 2000, he was appointed the co-chair of the Millennial Housing Commission, a special commission established by the United States government (public law 10-6-74). [5]
  • In 2003, he (with Susan Molinari, co-chair with him of the Millennial Housing Commission) was awarded with the "Housing Person of the Year" Award by the National Housing Conference. [6]
  • As of 2004, Ravitch is a partner in Ravitch, Rice & Company, and is the chairman of both the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust's Board of Trustees, and the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust's Advisory Board.