8/23/2023 0 Comments One shining moment 2002![]() Known for wanting to approach government through a business lens – Riordan wished to cut through red tape and valued expediency – he’d often repeat the mantra about asking for forgiveness rather than permission in the name of getting things done, those who knew him say.Īs devastating as the earthquake was, it was a leadership triumph for Riordan, in his still nascent mayorship. Little did he know at the time that Los Angeles soon would be confronted with more turmoil, brought by the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that would topple freeways, inflict $49 billion worth of damages to homes and businesses and kill dozens of Angelenos. Related: Ex-LA Mayor Richard Riordan dies provided affable, bipartisan leadership during time of turmoil When Riordan ran to become mayor of Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots, his campaign motto was “Tough enough to turn L.A. “For example, on the earthquake, a natural disaster like that the state Constitution provided that the county would take over control of the emergency. “Another thing I learned through all this is perceived power can be turned into real power. The swift action would define the style of leadership to which he long aspired as a businessman and a leader – an aspiration that attracted voters over his two terms as the city’s top elected official. Riots, to an attempted break up of the city, to charter reform.Īs Riordan told it, and as many remember, it was also a moment of intense urgency to break through the massive red tape between and within agencies at the city and state level. It was a seminal moment in a tenure with many, from the earthquake to dealing with the aftermath of the L.A. Related: In their own words – quotes on former Mayor Richard Riordanīut eventually, after a 80- to 90-mph trip in his car to City Hall, he walked into an Emergency Operations Center downtown dealing with the chaos wrought by the Northridge Earthquake. There he was, amid the the city’s greatest natural disaster to that point, the city’s new mayor, running to his phone (a landline back then), which of course wasn’t working. It was six months after Richard Riordan had become mayor, a leader now shaken out of bed at his westside home in the dark of early morning L.A. ![]() 17, 1994: The ground shook like never before in a populated Los Angeles.
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