Richard Joseph Riordan was an American businessman, investor, military commander, philanthropist, and politician.
17 Facts About Richard Riordan
2.
Richard Riordan ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 2002 California gubernatorial election, losing the Republican primary.
3.
Richard Riordan was born in Flushing, Queens, to an Irish-American family, the son of Geraldine and William O Richard Riordan.
4.
Richard Riordan began investing in the 1950s with an $80,000 inheritance from his father, which he eventually grew into a multimillion dollar fortune.
5.
When Tom Bradley announced he was retiring as Mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan set his sights on the 1993 election.
6.
Richard Riordan streamlined certain business regulations and established "one-stop" centers around the city for services, like permit applications.
7.
Richard Riordan feuded with police chief Daryl Gates' successor, former Philadelphia police commissioner Willie Williams, but oversaw a general decline in city crime.
8.
Ultimately, Richard Riordan replaced Williams with LAPD veteran Bernard Parks in 1997, the year he was re-elected mayor over California State Senator Tom Hayden.
9.
Richard Riordan's tenure was marked by controversy over the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Red Line subway's construction cost overruns.
10.
Richard Riordan endorsed his adviser and friend, Steve Soboroff, to succeed him.
11.
In early 2003, Richard Riordan circulated a prototype of a locally-focused, sophisticated, and politically-independent weekly newspaper, The Los Angeles Examiner, he hoped to start publishing in June.
12.
Richard Riordan put the project on hold when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who defeated Grey Davis in the October 2003 recall election, appointed him California Secretary of Education.
13.
Richard Riordan served in the position from 2003 until he resigned in 2005.
14.
Richard Riordan ultimately was defeated by then-Council member Eric Garcetti.
15.
Richard Riordan owned the Original Pantry Cafe, which has operated in Los Angeles since 1924, and Gladstones Malibu, which has been open since 1972.
16.
Richard Riordan was married four times and had five children, two of whom predeceased him.
17.
Richard Riordan died at home in Brentwood on April 19,2023, at age 92.