Daily News from New York, New York • 4

i lavitch kin are rnoi wight riclers MTA to study the drop in ridership and how this could be turned around by adding more transit police at the authority's own expense. RAVITCH MADE his stunning remarks at a breakfast meeting of the Association for a Better New York, a business group headed by real estate magnate Lewis Rudin. He then ducked reporters and rushed off to catch a flight to Washington. Ravitch and his wife, Diane, have two sons Joseph, 19, a college sophomore, and Michael, 13, who attends private school in Manhattan the spokesman said. The family lives in a cooperative apartment on E.

85th a short walk from the IRT station at 86th St and Lexington The spokesman said: "In the evening, he or his wife chauffeur his sons, or they go in a group and walk or they use buses." Then, he added: "The biggest reason cited by people when they no longer use the subway system, or ride less, is their fear of crime and personal securityand that is costing us revenue." THE NEW MTA STUDY, according to the spokesman, may prompt the authority to revise the terms of its subway lease with the city. The spokesman said: "While the mayor has been generous with us in terms of increases in transit police, which are proportionally larger in-: creases than city police, the chairman -is looking at the idea of using some of. our own resources to increase the force even more. an investment in more police out our own revenues would, in attract more riders and increase our revenues, as a businessman, I think that would make sense." By RICHARD EDMONDS Transportation Editor Transit boss Richard Ravitch said yesterday that he will not let his teenage sons ride the subway at night and that even he gets "high anxiety" on the trains. Speaking before a group of the city's most powerful businessmen, Ravitch, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, dropped this transit crime bombshell: "There's a high level of anxiety that citizens have, myself included, in going into the subway.

That's the reason I don't let my kids use it at night" The Ravitch family, according to a spokesman, has joined legions of former nighttime riders who have pulled back in fear from the turnstiles. The doliars-and-cents cost of this fear, it was learned, has prompted the William Katt iiG Ikli StPffff 1 JyKfel? UNIOR BLANCO of Bushel I wick Brooklyn, sJ whose apartment sits atop the Montrose Ave. stop of the LL line, was among the first to applaud Richard Ravitch, chairman, of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for making such a truly great-statement yesterday about the subway of which we all know he is in charge because he tells us that every day. TV series: It's ruled ho Man of Steal A Manhattan federal judge ruled -yesterday: that the Ralph Hinckley character in the ABC-TV show "The Greatest American Hero" is not a ripoff of Superman. udge Constance Baker" Motley threw out a suit filed against the network by Warner Brothers distributors of the recent "Superman" movies.

Warner charged that the Hinckley character, who is portrayed by actor William Katt, was an illegal imitation of the Man of Steel. Motley described Superman as a "big-muscled square" arid Hink-ley as "trim, non-macho, hungry looking, concerned with family and the everyday problems of life." She said there are no copyright conflicts, ruling the television series lifted only ideas from, the "Superman" works. JIMMY the other at the Dalton School on the East Side. Ravitch is about to move on to a large house in Pound Ridge. This closeness to the public is why Ravitch is such a truly great public servant.

JUNIOR BLANCO DOES not know what Amherst is, what the Dalton School is, and has never heard of Pound Ridge. He lives with a son, daughter and nephew on the third floor of a frame building on Bushwick Ave. in a section called Williamsburg. Junior believes he is the first man on Bushwick Ave. to have his bedrooom wallpapered, the ceiling included, with aluminum foil in an effort to keep the heat supplied by the kitchen oven, from immediately running out of the house.

Sometimes at night, rats frolicking in Junior's ceiling cause the aluminum foil to fall down and make Junior Blanco think he is being smothered. Junior Blanco yesterday noted the ways in which Ravitch says his family gets about New York at night without using the subway. Sometimes, Ravitch says, his sons walk as part of a group. "My kids can't do that," Junior Blanco said. "Any time more than two Puerto Ricans walk together on the street, the cops call it a gang." All My Children Ravitch also said that sometimes his See BRESLIN Page 34 Ravitch said yesterday, "I don't let my kids use it at night" l- Junior Blanco said, "This shows that he's a loving father.

He loves his kids. He shows me that he loves his kids more than I love mine. I let my 11 year-old take the subway home from his grandmother's the other night I was a bad father. The next time I'll be a good father and I won't let my son ride the subway. I'll make him walk home at night It's only seven stops on the subway." All My Children Ravitch lives on the East Side of.

Manhattan, and has two sons, one at Amherst College and Nab li'I thieves in teach's car By THOMAS RAFTERY i A CM Two boys were long on chutzpah and short on cents yesterday when they allegedly stole a car belonging to their teacher and went for a joyride along the lower East Side and through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The pint-sized pair, aged 9 and 12, were nabbed by Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Officer Anthony Andrews, who noticed them scrounging at the toll plaza in Queens for money to pay the tunnel fare. The boys, who were not identified because of their age, readily admitted stealing the car, Andrews said. "They were both too short to see aver the dashboard," he said. "When I asked how they steered through the tunnel, the little guy driving piped up and said, 'We followed the lights on the One youth reportedly measured 4-feet-8, the other barely 4 feet Andrews said the boys told him they stole the keys to the car from the custodian's office of JHS 56, 220 Henry St Andrews arrested the boys on charges of juvenile delinquency and grand larceny auto.

They were released into the custody of their LENNY KOSTAS DAILY NEWS T3 TO Car thief finds dividend more than he wanted Presumably kidnaped accidentally by a car thief, William Donnelly, 6 months, is back in arms of his mother, Geratdine, in Brookhaven, yesterday. Suffolk County Police Officer Paul Murphy, who guarded the -child after he was found. Joins in the reunion. Mrs. Donnelly left the car with the engine running to run an errand.

When she returned the car was gone. It was later found abandoned nearby with the baby safeVrr iV.