Los Angeles landmarks, including City Hall, will be lit up in the green, yellow and red colors of the city’s flag Friday night in honor of Riordan. Delivery time.
Mayor Karen Bass announced Thursday that the venture capitalist, who served as mayor from 1993-2001 and who has grappled with the challenges of rebuilding the city after the deadly Rodney King riots and the Northridge earthquake.
In addition to City Hall, the Richard J. Riordan Central Library, the LAX Columns, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the 6th Street Bridge will be lit up in urban color Thursday night, among other things.
Bass’ office said the lighting was intended to “remember Mayor Richard Riordan’s service to the citizens of Los Angeles.”
Riordan, the only Republican to have held the nonpartisan office since 1961, was elected in 1993, succeeding Tom Bradley, who held the office for a record 20 years.
He took office just over a year after the post-sentencing riot against LAPD officers accused of beating a speeding motorist, Rodney King, and then faced another challenge in his first year in office – the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Mayor Riordan’s legacy includes our city’s famous Central Library, which he preserved and rebuilt and which now bears his name
Bass said.
He also made his mark on two other urban establishments: The Original Pantry in Midtown and Malibu’s Gladstones (These are local restaurants – ed.), and they both have it.
Ex-Attorney 1982 with Chris Lewis and ex-USC- (University of Southern California Football Team – Ed.) founded the private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden with its principal, Pat Haden. The trio self-financed the company before turning to institutional investors in the late 1990s, from whom they raised more than $1 billion over the next two decades.
In 2002, Riordan ran for governor, but lost in the primary election to Bill Simon, who himself lost to incumbent Democrat Gray Davis. Soon after, he announced plans to start a weekly tabloid called the Los Angeles Examiner (an homage to the publication that was founded by William Randolph Hearst in 1903 and discontinued in 1989). There was a 52-page demo number, and Riordan reportedly put $5 million of his own money into the project. However, she returned to public office when her boyfriend, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had defeated Davis in the October 2003 election, appointed Riordan as the state’s Secretary of Education. He held this position from 2003 to 2005 until his resignation.
