Richard Rivera, our New Yorker of the Month for August 2009

Ask a New Yorker: What’s your story?

Richard: My name is Richard Rivera. I was born in Manhattan, in Chelsea on 18th Street and 9th Ave. back in 1944. I’m 65 and I’m hoping to retire soon. I hope. Anyway, when I grew up in the Chelsea area in 1944 through 1970, it was a tough area. There were longshoremen and it was a real tough, tough area.

Ask a New Yorker: Did you ever get mugged?

Richard: No. I was in a gang. I was the leader of the gang called the Chessmen.

Ask a New Yorker: So you did lots of community service?

Richard: Yes, sure community service. (Laughs) I was in a gang because you were on the street all the time. There was no such thing as staying in your house. You really lived on the street basically, 24/7 and if you ran with the gang you had protection. There was no air conditioning, no television. Everybody was basically poor and you hung out on the street all the time. It was very communal. The park was our hangout spot, our central meeting place. New York gives you that self confidence, that motivation, to move, to do, to take, to get. If I had grown up anyplace other than New York I don’t think I would have been where I am financially, mentally and with my family. New York gives you something. I’m not a very well educated person, I got a GED from high school, I took a few courses in community college but I have street smarts and I have motivation and that’s what New York taught me.

Ask a New Yorker: What kind of things did you do in the gang? Did you jack cars and steal radios?

Richard: Yea, we jacked cars and stole radios. We had a lot of gang fights in those days with other gangs. The Village was right there, so there were Italian gangs. We went to Charles Evan Hughes High School. There was a gang out of Charles Even Hughes called the Baldies. They were from Harlem. We use to have big time fights with those guys. Molotov cocktails. It was a serious kind of area.

Ask a New Yorker: Madison Square Garden was right up the street. Did you go to the circus as a kid?

Richard: No, we weren’t circus kind of kids. The circus was like, for wimps. We went to basketball and hockey games, the Rangers and Knicks... We went to a lot of Golden Gloves. At one time I wanted to be a boxer. I went to the CYO and took some boxing lessons, then I got into the ring and the guy punched me in the nose and it started to bleed. I got mad. I tackled the guy in the ring and I wanted to kick his ass. That was the last time I fought in a ring.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you like ballet?

Richard: I was introduced to ballet by a girl when I was around 23 years old. Then eventually she didn’t care for the ballet anymore and became an exercise girl at Belmont Race Track and introduced me to horse racing. I used to go to the track a lot and bet. In those days I was freelancing selling “different items”, at that time.

Ask a New Yorker: What do you do for work now?

Richard: I work in the transportation business for a moving company for the last 35 years.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you move anyone of interest, celebrities?

Richard: The moving company that I work for is White Glove Transportation. We do move some celebrities, very high end people. I’m not at liberty to say who they are because it wouldn’t be right for me to give that information out.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you have any pets?

Richard: We have three dogs, a cat and five kids. They’re nice pets. (Laughs) My wife is an assistant animal technician at an animal hospital. When I was a kid we didn’t have pets. We couldn’t afford them. At that time we could hardly feed ourselves. But now we have pets.

Ask a New Yorker: What’s your choice dressing for salad?

Richard: I’m a French dressing kind of guy. I used to be oil and vinegar.

Ask a New Yorker: Have you ever thought what it would be like to be a woman?

Richard: No, I don’t think like that. But if I was a woman I’d probably be the biggest tramp around. I would never work a day in my life. I’d be on easy street. Life is good. I’ve learned a lot. I grew up with a lot of diversified people, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Irish. It was a real mishmash in Chelsea at that time. It was a great place to grow up because you learned how to deal with all types of people and nationalities. You become street smart and eventually those experiences pay off in life as long as you don’t go to jail or get killed first or become a drug addict.

Ask a New Yorker: What do you think of our President?

Richard: I didn’t vote for him. I don’t particularly like his style. I think we are in route to a whole new era, a whole new bad era. Financially I don’t think he has a clue. I think he has some of that Black Panther ethics in him from those days. I just don’t care for his politics. But I’m not into politics. I vote. I voted for a few presidents. My favorite president is Richard Nixon. He was a great president for this country. He just made one mistake. We all make mistakes. He just made a big mistake while he was president. Ronald Reagan another great president.

Ask a New Yorker: How are your barbeque skills?

Richard: I love to barbeque. I like to marinate stuff. I’m a barbeque guy.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you watch any reality TV?

Richard: No, I don’t watch reality shows. I grew up in a reality; I don’t need reality shows to see reality. I saw it firsthand.

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