ROBERT BRUCE

Hail the saviour of New York

When many years ago I made my first visit to New York it was a scary place. I was a very young journalist and the city was teetering on the brink of financial disaster.

Transport, particularly the Subway, was on the edge of lawlessness and social collapse.

When you arrived at JFK and took the Subway into town you travelled in a sealed carriage with an armed cop at either end. Depending on your viewpoint it was exhilarating, terrifying or a simple sign of the apocalypse to come.

You were warned by journalist friends to never catch anyone’s eye, to huddle with others at the centre of the platforms while waiting for a train and not to worry about the filthy state of the carriages. It was far from being a beacon of civilisation or social coherence.

Interestingly, it took an un-elected and strictly nonpolitician to sort it out. The man who, extraordinarily, played the key role in sorting out the bankruptcy of New York and the rescuing of the Subway has just died. His name was Richard Ravitch. We don’t need to go into the detail of how he achieved his great feats. In fact, we only need to understand one thing. As his obituary in the New York Times put it: “He was uniquely qualified: A rarity among public officials, he was a regular Subway rider.” So he knew the detail and had the experience. A lesson to us all.

Robert Bruce is an award-winning writer on accountancy for The Times