Riordan shepherded Los Angeles’ rebound from the 1992 riots, expanded its Police Department and masterminded its recovery from the Northridge earthquake.
Richard J. Riordan, the take-charge venture capitalist who as mayor shepherded Los Angeles’ rebound from the 1992 riots, expanded its Police Department and masterminded its recovery from the Northridge earthquake, has died at his Brentwood home.
He promised voters a better business climate, more cops and improvements in basic services when he took office in July 1993. By the time he departed eight years later, forced out by voter-imposed term limits that he himself had advocated, much of his vision for a cleaner, safer, better-functioning city had been realized. Crime was down, the local economy had rebounded, and although the Los Angeles Police Department remained short of his goals, it had grown to a record number of officers.
“When he had to work within city government, he wasn't very effective, but when he could work outside city government, he did very well,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley's School of Law, who spent time with Riordan during the often-strained efforts to fashion a new charter to put before voters.
When Riordan, coaxed by his longtime friend and Democratic operative Bill Wardlaw, entered the crowded, nonpartisan municipal primary as Mayor Tom Bradley was preparing to end his unprecedented 20-year tenure, many saw Riordan as a long shot. He was, after all, a wealthy white Republican in an increasingly poor, minority, Democratic city.
Once elected, he streamlined the city's permitting process, took steps to cut red tape for film and television shoots and convened a committee to overhaul the complicated and, according to many, unfair business tax system. With philanthropist Broad, Riordan also teamed up to spearhead the election of a new board majority for the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1999. The new majority lasted only four years, but that was long enough to bring in a high-profile superintendent — former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer — to improve test scores and jump-start an ambitious school construction program.
Another was council President John Ferraro, who tried, often in vain, to keep peace between the council and a mayor whose style was loose and unpredictable. Riordan challenged office visitors to chess. He sometimes padded about his City Hall suite in socks. He had a self-deprecating sense of humor and a penchant for off-the-cuff remarks. He once greeted hunger strikers while eating a hamburger.
Riordan worked to exhaustion in the ensuing days, cutting red tape and convening officials across local, state and federal governments to coordinate aid, restore services and quickly rebuild the Santa Monica Freeway, sections of which had collapsed. His leadership was widely viewed as pivotal in getting the city back on its feet.
In his first venture with Riordan Freeman & Spogli, he hired Wardlaw to handle the legal work. Thus began a deep friendship that eventually steered Riordan to the mayor's office and briefly faltered when the two backed opposing candidates to succeed Riordan.
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