Riordan Conducts Selective L.A. Tour

Former Mayor Richard Riordan led supporters on a booster’s-eye tour of Los Angeles on Monday, slapping hands, scarfing doughnuts and basking in the manufactured glow of his gubernatorial campaign.

From behind the counter of his downtown Pantry restaurant to the palm-fringed courtyard of the new Hollywood & Highland shopping center, Riordan showed off a city on the move--and portrayed himself as the prime mover. As he did, he skirted some of the sites that might present a different impression of his eight years as Los Angeles’ chief executive.

Still, he confessed: Given a choice between serving a third term as mayor or being elected governor, it would be a tossup. “Tough question,” said the term-limited Riordan, as his red, orange and mustard-colored bus rolled north up La Brea Avenue.

But Riordan is running for governor, and the five-hour tour was intended as a motorized highlight reel of his years in City Hall.

As such, the itinerary steered clear of places such as the scandal-stained Rampart police station and the vacant Belmont Learning Complex. Riordan also avoided Los Angeles International Airport, which he once promised to massively expand, only to be out-maneuvered by critics of the idea. Today, the LAX expansion touted by Riordan appears to enjoy little if any political support.

“Leaders sort of never look back, they look ahead,” Riordan said, explaining the omissions. “To constantly go out and try to defend yourself by explaining everything, leaders don’t waste their time.”

That said, Riordan signaled he was prepared to meet his GOP opponents at some point to defend his record. For the first time, he publicly committed to debating Secretary of State Bill Jones and businessman Bill Simon Jr. before the March 5 primary. “I’ll debate Gray Davis if he wants to,” Riordan said of the incumbent Democrat.

On Monday, however, the former mayor toured without carping from his critics. Surrounded by a coach full of elected officials from around the state--all of whom support his candidacy--Riordan presided over a flattering survey of the city and his role in its recovery from riot, recession and natural disaster.

Among the stops were the Magic Johnson Theaters in the Crenshaw area, the PUENTE Learning Center in East Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Freeway at La Cienega Boulevard. All told a part of Riordan’s record as a philanthropist and bureaucracy-bulldozing mayor. Others who played a significant role in those efforts went largely unmentioned.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson and President Bill Clinton, for instance, were also instrumental in the rapid rebuilding of the freeway after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, but their names went unspoken over the rumble of traffic. Clinton also played a key role in underwriting the cost of the police department buildup under Riordan, one of the mayor’s most trumpeted achievements.

What’s more, some of the successes cited by Riordan are shadowed by work he left incomplete.

Across the street from the hugely successful Magic Johnson Theaters, developed after the 1992 riots, lay the struggling Santa Barbara Plaza, a scruffy shopping strip that demonstrated the limited success of Riordan’s redevelopment efforts.

Instead of heading that way, the ex-mayor detoured to a nearby Krispy Kreme, where he dashed behind the counter, donned a baseball cap and posed as waitress Janet Portis fed him a glazed doughnut for the benefit of photographers. He slipped the manager a $20 bill as he grabbed a pumpkin doughnut and coffee and high-fived his way out the door.

From there, Riordan headed to Hollywood, where he arm-wrestled a Superman look-alike along Hollywood Boulevard and waddled for TV cameras alongside a faux Charlie Chaplin outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

Touring the Hollywood & Highland complex, Riordan apportioned some credit to State Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, an old City Council nemesis who represented the area when the project was initiated. “It shows we can work together even if we disagree on some things,” said Riordan, who has sought to present himself as a problem-solver able to transcend political ideology.

Goldberg returned the grudging favor. “He gets a little credit,” she said by telephone. “He certainly was supportive of the work that my office and I did, and when we needed votes on the council he helped get them.

“But he did not get involved in a hands-on way,” Goldberg said. “This was not his initiative. This was not his project.”

Disagreements aside, one thing seemed evident Monday: If Riordan could seek a third term as mayor, he was ready.

Standing outside the Pantry, shaking hands with the breakfast crowd lined up at 9th and Figueroa streets, he turned to no one in particular and said, “This is more fun than being governor.”