Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan died at his Brentwood home Wednesday night. He was 92 years old. Riordan served as mayor of LA from 1993 to 2001. During his time in office, Riordan helped the city rebound from the 1992 riots, expanded the police department and led the recovery from the Northridge quake. LA Times columnist Patt Morrison was a close friend of Riordan’s and joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to talk about his legacy.

Riordan was a successful businessman and didn’t run for office until he was 62 years old. He was a moderate, pro-choice Republican, a type of candidate Morrison said is “rare” nowadays. 

“He was one of those, I think of as noblesse oblige Republicans. Somebody who thinks, ‘I did very well for myself and now I have some need to help my community.’ And that was really what he thought of himself as mayor. A lot of people disagreed with a lot of his policies because he had this kind of business sensibility that he brought to getting things done. And it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It didn’t work on some occasions when it came to government and how government works, but he always had the best interests of Los Angeles at heart,” Morrison recalled.

Morrison acknowledged the complicated relationship Riordan had with LA’s minority communities.

“There was a lot of friction there because there was suspicion at the outset that he was bringing business tactics to what needed to be a community relations thing because democracy isn’t hierarchical like a corporation. Democracy is flattened out. And there were a lot of concerns that he was rubbing people the wrong way, that he was overlooking or brushing aside in his impatience to get things done,” Morrison said.

Riordan was instrumental in bringing the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the nearby buildings to life. Morrison pondered his legacy.

“The fact that he did give the city a sense that it can get big things done would be a legacy that he would be proud of. His family, of course, he loved. His dogs were there with him when he died, his rescue dogs. All these things mattered to him. He was a man of faith. And so I think that he wanted the best for everybody. The details, of course, were always how you make something like that happen. But he wanted the best for everybody, wanted the best for Los Angeles,” she said.

Watch the full interview above.

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