Richard Ravitch RIP

Over the weekend I stumbled upon an old 1989 documentary made for the now- defunct WNYC TV about the monumental US Supreme Court decision of that year which eliminated the Board of Estimate and triggered a restructuring of how NYC government is run.

It's called Power! Who Wins, Who Loses and, given its subject matter, is a shockingly entertaining look at how this city was run for nearly a century -- before it had to change.

And seeing this doc coincided with learning that the great Richard Ravitch has died.

Who was he?

He's the man who saved NYC multiple times -- first, in 1975, he was part of the team that prevented the city from going bankrupt; second, in the early 1980s, when he was the head of the MTA and overhauled how that messy public authority was run; and third, in 2009, when he became the Lieutenant Governor and saved the state (and the city's) finances). Ravitch was never elected to anything, but as a lawyers and developer he understand the mechanics of governor better than anyone and 

While politicians, elected officials, may be the ones who make the laws and run things on a day-to-day basis, most of them sadly know little about how the government actually runs, how it works, how it finances itself. When it comes to government, most politicians are amateurs. It's people like Ravitch and Stan Brezenoff who understand this kind of thing deeply, they are the professionals who make it work.

And in a time when expertise is being trashed by the proudly ignorant, people like Ravitch should be appreciated all the more -- and their passing should be deeply mourned. RIP.

NY No Longer has a Lt. Governor

The State Appeals court has ruled Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch as Lieutenant Governor was illegal. So now we don't have a tie-breaker for the State Senate which puts it in danger of more coup hi jinks. Let's hope this doesn't happen again.

That said, I agree with this decision. Lieutenant Governors or Vice-Presidents or whoever is first in-line to take over any elected job needs to be an elected official as well. Either that, or the appointed #2 needs to be confirmed by the legislature. So this was the right move by the court even though I totally sympathize with Governor Paterson's move. Let's wish him luck.

It's Over (For Now)

If we still lived in the days of pimply-faced newsboys with funny caps standing on street corners, holding a stack of papers and waving another one in the air, this is what we'd probably hear tonight:

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Espada returns to Democrats! State Senate deadlock over! Extra! Extra!"

And so it goes.

That of model of selfless public service, Pedro Espada, has returned to the Democratic fold, giving them the party 32 votes. Along with the new LG Richard Ravitch, it looks like the final nail has been wedged into the coffin of this power grab by the Republicans. For the time being (nothing is ever permanent in politics), the New York State Senate can go ahead and be its regular dysfunctional self instead of its irregular dysfunctional self.

Espada actually apologized for putting this state through hell for the last 31 days. Oh, what a gent. I guess he realized that this new arrangement wasn't going to give him any actual power so he made the best possible deal he could to end it. So now the Democratic party once again gets to be home to this criminal opportunist. Aren't they lucky?

The unanswerable question, of course, is are we?

Breaking News!

New York State has a new Lieutenant Governor -- maybe.

Governor Paterson just appointed former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch to fill the empty post.

Normally the job of Lieutenant Governor is a do-nothing position who only casts tie-breaking votes in the State Senate -- but with a deadlocked State Senate, this means the job currently has a great deal of power.

It is not clear if this appointment is constitutionally permissible but it's also not clear if its forbidden. Legal minds differ. The courts will decide. But if it is, our month-long political misery will be over.

Let's hope this succeeds.

The Ravitch Report

The big news around town today is the Ravitch Commission Report. It proposes to save that glistening jewel of public service, the MTA (Richard Ravitch is a former chairman of the MTA FYI). This report has been months in the making and is one of these nonpartisan, apolitical commissions designed specifically to give politicians cover (in this case, our dear Mayor and Governor).

So what's in the report? Pain. Lots of it. It includes new taxes, service cuts, and "automatic adjusted" fare increases. Ouch!

But the proposal causing the biggest hubbub is that all East River bridges will now have tolls on them. This includes the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Queensboro bridges (the Triborough already has tolls on them so nothing will change there). So now, no matter how you go (unless it's by foot), it's going to cost you to travel between almost each borough (although I guess the Staten Island ferry and bridges between Manhattan and the Bronx will still be free).

Obviously people who commute between the outerboroughs and Manhattan by car will loath and despise this change. How could they not? Small businesses located in Brooklyn and Queens that depend on customers in Manhattan will take a brutal hit.

The only positive thing about this proposal (I guess) is that hopefully it will force more people onto public transportation. It's almost a back door congestion pricing tax like Bloomberg wanted.

Doesn't that guy always win in the end?