Richard Riordan

Richard Riordan Backs Wendy Greuel As His Third Choice For Mayor Of L.A.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan has had a rough go of it in this year's mayoral campaign. First, he enthusiastically backed Austin Beutner, whose campaign fizzled on the launchpad. Then, he threw his clout behind a former radio talk show host, Kevin James, who lost in the March 5 primary. (In betw ... More >>

Richard Riordan Will Debate Police Union President Over Pension Reform, Spokesman Says

Former mayor Richard Riordan, who is pushing for a sweeping change to the city's pension system, will debate the president of the L.A. Police Protective League, his spokesman said today.Tyler Izen, the league president, challenged Riordan to three debates on Tuesday."Of course we'll debate," said Ri ... More >>

Richard Riordan Pension Reform Plan One Step Closer To L.A. Ballot

See also: *Richard Riordan Pension Reform Surprise. Former Mayor Richard Riordan's effort to reform the city of L.A.'s exploding pension costs is one step closer to making the ballot. The City Clerk's office late yesterday announced that Riordan's proposed initiative has qualified for signature ga ... More >>

Pension Reform? Readers Argue About Richard Riordan's New Plan

Richard Riordan Pension Reform Surprise

He throws a lightning rod into the 2013 Los Angeles mayoral race

Union Fires Back At Riordan Over Pension Proposal, Calls Plan "Mean"

Last night, former Mayor Richard Riordan told the L.A. Weekly that he was about submit papers to start gathering signatures for a charter amendment that would completely overhaul how pensions are doled out to city employees. (The papers will be submitted Monday morning.) The SEIU -- which represen ... More >>

Richard Riordan Starts Signature-Gathering Campaign to Slash L.A. City Employee Pensions, Warning 100 percent of L.A.'s Cash Will Soon Be Consumed By Pensions, Fire and Police

Long sounding the alarm for city employee pension reform, former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan is no longer waiting for the City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to come up with the big fix. On Friday morning, Riordan will file papers with the City Clerk so he can start a signature-gathering cam ... More >>

Richard Riordan Woos Latinos For Republican Party: Will They Join The Juan Percent?

Ex-L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan wants to recruit more Latinos to the Republican party, and he's putting some of his considerable money behind the effort. Smart move: The latest U.S. Census figures suggest that Latinos will be the biggest ethnic group in California, perhaps by the end of 2013. And the ... More >>

Ex-Mayor Richard Riordan Challenged to Breakfast by Surly Union

Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan's support of a California ballot initiative that would prevent unions from contributing directly to political campaigns has put him on the hot plate (or hate plate?) with an L.A. labor group. Yeah, the L.A.-based Teamsters Joint Council 42 wants to "have breakfast" ... More >>

Valley Industry and Commerce Association Endorses Measure L and More Funding for L.A.'s Public Libraries

Ted SoquiRichard J. Riordan Central Library​Another major organization has jumped on the pro-Measure L bandwagon, which seeks to boost the budget of Los Angeles public libraries by giving them a larger percentage of existing monies in the city's general fund. There's no proposed tax increas ... More >>

Former Mayor Riordan to Close Two Pacific Palisades Restaurants

Guzzle & NoshThe Original Pantry Cafe in downtown L.A., which is NOT closing but is owned by former mayor Richard Riordan.​Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will shutter his two Pacific Palisades restaurants, The Oak Room and The Village Pantry, at the end of January. Riordan operates t ... More >>

City of Airheads: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System

Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice

Ron Kaye Kicks Off 'Clean Sweep' Campaign To Run The Bums Out Of City Hall

​By Patrick Coolican As many as 200 people sat in a hot, airless meeting hall in North Holywood Saturday to kick off L.A. Clean Sweep's campaign to, as the name suggests, beat incumbents in next year's City Hall elections. It was a clear demonstration of the anti-establishment anger that can ... More >>

Ex-Mayor Richard Riordan Does Antonio Villaraigosa's Job For Him

Richard Riordan.​While Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has earned a somewhat undeserved reputation as a man bent on reforming the city's powerful unions (which constitute the base of his political power), former Mayor Richard Riordan is actually walking the walk, at least according to the Daily New ... More >>

Is The L.A. City Council In Denial Over Budget Mess?

​We've been snickering about it for quite sometime, but the Los Angeles City Council's feet-dragging distaste for all things budgetary (the city is now looking to pare down a $585 million deficit) seems to be inspiring more-and-more late-night-style quips. The latest (and perhaps greatest) co ... More >>

Who's Right? Villaraigosa and Riordan, By The Numbers

​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Mayor Richard Riordan went to war this week over the city's fiscal future. In the Wall Street Journal, Riordan predicted the city will go bankrupt by 2014, and charged his successor with fecklessness in the face of a crisis.One of Riordan's claims was that ci ... More >>

Mayor vs. Mayor: Villaraigosa Fights Back Against Riordan's Budget Criticism

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.​In a rare battle of top city leaders past and present, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fought back against charges by a predecessor, Richard Riordan, that Los Angeles will go bankrupt by 2014 if deep cuts and structural changes, including concessions from city unions, do ... More >>

Ex L.A. Mayor Riordan Says City Will Go Bankrupt

Former Mayor Richard Riordan.​Happy Cinco de Mayo, L.A! In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece dated May 5, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and co-writer Alexander Rubalcava state that " ... between now and 2014 the city will likely declare bankruptcy." They cite city forecasts that ... More >>

LA People 2009: Mr. Fix-It — Richard Riordan

Chop Shop

Riordan’s Tavern

The $10 Million Intervention

Mayor V’s role in South Central Farm could cost Los Angeles

Hahn Solo

Hahn Solo

Jimmy doesn’t like to be called dull. In fact, he defends his style with, uh, passion

The Sputtering Riordan Machine

Remaking L.A. from the outside in

Schools on Steroids

Some clues about education under Riordan and Schwarzenegger

He’s Back

This time, it’s the Riordan-ator

This Watchdog Can Still Bite

Tokofsky overcomes the attack of the toilets

The Reformers Are Dead, Long Live the Reformers

L.A.’s teachers union upends the Riordan Revolution in midstream

A Million-Dollar Moment

Off camera, an L.A. school-board candidate admits Riordan and Broad chose her

A Hasty Exit

Davis' late advice could have saved the Dick Riordan show

So Long, Mr. Mayor

Welcome, Mr. Long Shot, Bill Simon

Reforming Riordan

High time for change in California

City of Status Quo

Two unreassuring moves by the new Hahn administration

Megabucks Marlene

Canter’s $2.1 million made it most costly school-board seat in America

Hope and Fear

A week in the mayor’s race, with just two more to go

No Experts Please

Mayor Riordan backs interested novices for the school board

Superintendent Dick

It’s the mayor vs. the teachers

No Vacancy

The school district's space crunch is much worse than you know. And no one has a plan that will fix it.

Double-Standard Dick

School reformer Riordan is the mayor of inertia at the LAPD

It’s Riordan Time

Forget Parks. Forget Garcetti. Forget Chaleff. The man in charge of Rampart is the mayor.

After-Math

The new equation of power politics at the school district

Richard Riordan, Pol

How the mayor got his charter and his school board

Capital 1, Labor 1

Riordan and unions win big at the polls

Who Is This Padilla Guy, Anyway?

Fresh face wins powerful friends, influence in Valley district

The Best School Board Money Can Buy

Reform is the reason, but there’s little rhyme to Riordan’s school slate

Out and No Wonder

Why aren’t city managers held to a higher standard?

The Mayor Plays Hardball

Riordan gets his charter, and it’s not pretty

Is It Boris or Is It Memorex?

Riordan’s Funny Bone