He also has experience as a successful recording artist and music producer, having worked on award-winning projects with Frances England, Gabriel Riggs and Carlos Villarreal.

He is of German-Jewish descent and his great-great-grandfather, a baker from Frankfort, Kentucky fled Germany in the late 1800s to avoid persecution and mandatory military service.

[5] His maternal grandfather was William Gorman managed an oil business for Palm Springs developer, Ray Ryan.

He attended Ball State University and studied history with a focus on art and architecture while participating in NCAA Division I Cross Country and Track and Field.

[13] After five years of work for the US Coast Guard he attended Berkeley for a PhD in City and Regional Planning, studying under Dr. Robert Cervero, Dr. William Satariano, Dean Sam Davis and Dr. Malo Hutson.

[14] While at Berkeley, Riggs focused on work in walkability and housing that was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle,[15] and the Wall Street Journal.

[16] He also became influenced by Rich Lyons, Dean of the Haas School of Business, on the topics of leadership, behavioral economics and human capital.

[17] He wrote about those in a 2010 article talking about economic development, the information economy and the lack of jobs in his hometown of Louisville, KY.[18] Riggs has worked as professor at numerous academic institutions, a venture partner at the social impact venture capital firm, Just Business[19] and an urban designer / environmental / land use / transportation planner for the UC Berkeley, the international consulting firm Arup, and the US Coast Guard.

[37] He is one of the co-creators of the SFLuv blockchain based community reinvestment platform[38] and has written about how distributed autonomous organizations can be used to finance local infrastructure.

"[56][57] He was among the authors of an open letter supporting economic non-aggression for cities competing to host the Amazon.com second headquarters, along with Richard Florida, Robert Reich, Edward Glaeser, and Jeff Sachs.

"[59] He also has been vocal that while competition for jobs can jumpstart housing and transit projects,[60] "something must be done to mitigate (the urban impacts of unmitigated tech growth).

"[61] Dr. Riggs has been an advocate of reducing auto-dependency with innovative transportation, which he discussed in the 2021 KQED documentary, Moving San Francisco.