Transit org honcho to move on

The Riders Alliance is losing its leader.

John Raskin, who founded the transit advocacy group in 2012, announced his plans to leave the organization Wednesday.

Riders Alliance was formed as a political organizing group with Raskin acting as a one-man band and developed into a full-time staff of 10 working out of a Midtown office with an annual budget of $1.5 million.

Raskin and his cohorts were integral in rallying commuter support for big-ticket transit initiatives like the city’s Fair Fares program, which offers half-priced MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers, and congestion pricing, which was passed by the state Legislature earlier this year.

Under Raskin’s leadership, in 2017, Riders Alliance worked to hold Gov. Cuomo accountable for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the subway fell into a state of emergency — the group aggressively promoted the hashtag #CuomosMTA.

Gov. Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“John has done an extraordinary job of capturing the frustration with the subway crisis and translating it into action,” said Kathy Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “He was really the first out of the gate and the smartest in understanding the opportunity to mobilize riders as a part of a constituent voice rather than hysteria — the rider voice had sort of been a helpless complaint.”

Raskin, 37, has made a career out of local politics and community organizing. He previously served as chief of staff to former state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Bronx) and was an organizer for housing advocates in Hell’s Kitchen.

He said the move to transit advocacy was a natural fit.

“There are 8 million people a day who ride the subway and bus in New York City,” said Raskin. “That should be the most powerful political constituency in the state, but transit riders will not be a political constituency unless they’re organized.”