A footnote re Ratner's pursuit of passive income: initially, he aimed to leave real estate

From Capital New York, this morning,

Pacific Park developer Bruce Ratner got into real estate because he wanted to make $120,000 a year in passive income.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out that way,” Ratner said Thursday morning.
He made "more."

From the Real Deal, May 2011:

But in 1982, at 38 years old and with a young family to support, Ratner was making $52,000 and decided he wanted a more secure financial future. He gave himself eight years to earn enough money to produce $125,000 a year in “passive income” (not such a modest goal; in today’s dollars that’s about $500,000), figuring he could then focus on whatever he wanted.

In other words, it wasn't merely that he made more money. It's that Ratner--once a reformer--found his place in the world of New York real estate and political influence.