In a rapidly changing political and social landscape, it was clear Richard Riordan was handed a heavy task when he took office as mayor of Los Angeles in the summer of 1993: Lead a path forward for a giant city wrought with high tensions between local communities of color, local police and governments.
From residents to civic leaders, people were divided, still trying to make sense of what just happened. The year before, four White L.A. police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, a Black man stopped on a Lakeview Terrace street, the gaze of George Holliday’s video camera capturing it all on a recording that would go “viral.”
The riots following the acquittal would expose the fractured L.A. that Riordan stepped into.
Riordan died at his Brentwood home on Wednesday, April 19, at 92 years old, his family shared. But his legacy quickly has been set in ink in the immediate aftermath of his passing, as L.A. reflects on seminal events in the 1990s that he led the city through.
His response to the L.A. Riots illustrates that leadership, showing a leader whose attempt to listen belies the often polarized politics of now.
Riordan, a conservative businessman, served two terms as L.A. mayor from 1993 until 2001, succeeding Tom Bradley — who held the post for 20 years before term limits took hold.
Much has been said about his zeal for wanting to cut through red tape – a trait that served him well as he navigated the city through recovering from the Northridge earthquake. But his brand of politics and personality also made him a force in L.A.’s post-riot recovery.
“He was an active transitional mayor. From the Bradley years, the riot-torn city was growing more diverse, and more liberal,” said Jamie Regalado, an emeritus professor of political science at Cal State Los Angeles. “You have to give him credit. If the city didn’t heal, at least it calmed. And he was one of the people who helped it calm for those 8 years.”
In effect, Riordan, L.A.’s first Republican mayor in decades, and the first after Bradley’s liberal coalition defined public policy for years, came at the right time, “with a great message about healing the city,” Regalado added.
Underpinning Riordan’s leadership in the post-riot years was his blend of old-school Republicanism — that is, conservatism on fiscal matters — but his liberalism on social issues.
He was described as pro-choice, pro-immigration, anti-discrimination, and pro-LGBT rights, supporting same-sex marriage years before it was fashionable, and doing it as a conservative voice.
“In many ways, he was a kind of non-ideological maverick, who was guided by fairness,” said Patrick Range McDonald, the journalist who ghostwrote Riordan’s 2014 memoir, “The Mayor: How I Turned Around Los Angeles After Riots, an Earthquake and the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial,” describing his late friend in an obituary published Thursday.
The effort to heal L.A. leaned on that sense of fairness, observers said.
On one hand, yes, he was a hawk on public safety, but not at the expense of absorbing the needs of marginalized communities that had been impacted for so many years by L.A. law enforcement.
To be sure, Riordan’s track record of supporting police didn’t initially go well with residents, especially those living in South Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.
But he started to listen.
South L.A. resident Bobbie Jean Anderson served for seven years on the L.A. Police Permit Review Commission, which was initially created as a liaison between community members, public officials and law enforcement in the aftermath of the 1992 King riots.
Anderson, the only woman on the commission for a time, remembers working closely with Riordan during the earlier years of his tenure, helping him understand the community’s concerns — and doubts about his leadership.
“We thought he was a typical, very rich Republican; he was viewed that way by a lot of people in the South L.A. community,” Anderson said. “We thought he didn’t believe in discrimination… he was stubborn and initially didn’t want to accept that there are some bad cops.”
“Then he got more involved in what his police department was doing, started listening to people, meeting with family members, and it made all the difference. That man had probably never seen racism for himself… but the more we talked and he listened, it’s clear he understood and came to terms with it. He had a willingness to learn, and we developed a good relationship.”
Over the years, Anderson helped Riordan connect closely with community members, including ex-gang members in South LA, and then-newly elected Rep. Maxine Waters, who oversaw the district. With these personal relationships, she said, Riordan’s view of the community changed, and she observed more things getting done.
“Sometimes he would ask, point blank, ‘What do you see that I’m neglecting? How does the community feel about me?’ And we would walk the streets of South Central — me, Mayor Riordan and Congressman Waters — and slowly he became more comfortable in the community.
“It wasn’t a quick fix, but because he kept at it, kept surrounding himself with people who had his best interests, he became more accepted and embraced our community as a whole.”
He was still outspoken on supporting the police, but it was in the context of a broader public safety message, Regalado said.
“He didn’t necessarily unite diverse communities, but he was trying to create a safe world for the city as a whole,” he said. “His message was one of calm, one of peace, and largely through doubling down on crime and backing the police force… so for the most part, people felt safer.”
In a 2015 discussion at The Brookings Institution, Riordan said of those early years as mayor, “I was the first Republican to be elected in about 50 years… I came in with the motto, ‘tough enough to turn L.A. around.’ And I was telling my handlers, I don’t think I feel that way, you know, but it worked.”
Historians note that he was far from perfect, but he was a “natural healer” and “caretaker” going into communities in need, trying to win their support with his “safe neighborhoods” messaging, and investing in jobs in Black and brown communities, Regalado said.
It helped in the ongoing effort to bring the divided city back together.
Those walks through South L.A. were a start. And over time, they began making a difference.
“It was a big change, and people’s perceptions changed about him,” Anderson said.
Source: Orange County Register
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