Richard J. Riordan, who died this week, liked to fight with journalists, including this one. But he also signaled his respect.
Plenty of Los Angeles mayors have fumed about their coverage in this newspaper. Richard J. Riordan may be the only one who retaliated with a satirical essay aimed at one of his tormentors: me.
I went to cover Riordan as he participated in an alley cleanup in South Los Angeles during his campaign for reelection in 1997. The event reignited a feud between Riordan and Councilwoman Rita Walters, who represented many of the neighborhoods south of the 10 Freeway.. But what sticks with me from that day is how Riordan seemed most animated by the news that I was buying my first home. He began offering advice on how to shop for a mortgage, reeling off a string of figures and loan options.
One exception came during a rough wildfire season, when Riordan credited the Los Angeles City Fire Department with saving many neighborhoods. Boyarsky wrote that the comment showed that Riordan didn’t understand “mutual aid,” as many other fire departments had helped L.A. crews during the crisis. Newton recalled this week that Riordan would routinely thrash him in chess. He remembered the mayor as someone who screamed at him more than perhaps any other official he covered during a long career at The Times.
Riordan’s disdain for the city’s leading news outlet didn’t mean he had no respect for some of its journalists.
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