Richard J. Riordan, who served two terms as mayor of Los Angeles, died on Wednesday at his Brentwood home. He was 92.
The legacy he leaves behind includes advocacy for city term limits, which would later end his own tenure, and his work to streamline and reduce taxes for local business owners. The last Republican mayor of what is now a firmly liberal city, Riordan also served a brief tenure as the secretary of education under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Mayor Richard Riordan loved Los Angeles and devoted so much of himself to bettering our city,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “Though born in New York, Mayor Riordan will be remembered as an L.A. original.”
Riordan came into office self-made from a career as a businessman and investor, with a reported net worth of about $70 million around the time that he was elected. He made investments in companies including Pasadena based-Tetra Technologies Inc. and El Segundo-based Mattel Inc. In 1995, he co-founded the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission.
“We would not exist were it not for his vision to harness the power of sport and entertainment for good,” the LASEC said in a statement. “We are proud to be one of his many living legacies for Los Angeles.”
Serving in office from 1993 to 2001, Riordan was known for having stepped in at a time when the residents of L.A. were suffering a crisis of confidence. Riordan became mayor shortly after the 1992 riots during a time of rising unemployment and crime rates. He was lauded by many for how quickly he responded to the devastation and destruction caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which left 57 people dead and billions of dollars in damages.
Riordan helped pass a charter reform package in 1999 that gave his office more power over commissions and contracting, and advocated the reduction of the city’s business taxes and simplification of certain tax code systems for companies.
Riordan garnered criticism at times while in office, notably for his alleged slow response to the Rampart police corruption scandal in the late 1990s and for the budget of the L.A. Metro’s Red Line subway construction. Money was reallocated away from bus funding, which resulted in the city being sued by the Bus Riders Union and a subsequent settlement that gutted Metro funding for subway construction projects for a time.
Riordan founded the Riordan Foundation in 1987 to fund and support childhood literacy programs.
The Los Angeles Business Journal inducted Riordan into its Hall of Fame in 2006. The same year, while no longer in office, he worked with then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a panel to help the city prepare its response for events such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
Riordan, who was born on May 1, 1930, grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Gregory, a sister, Mary Elizabeth Riordan Hearty, three children and three grandchildren.
