05/26/04

LC040526

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

He's the only Persian politician in 90210 and he's breaking down
stereotypes along with ethnic barriers.

Jimmy Delshad>> They were telling me that it's not the time,
you're not ready, the city's not ready, the community is not
ready. Others have done it. What makes you think you can?

Val>> And then, the genius behind some of Los Angeles's
greatest buildings. We look at the work of architect, Paul
Williams.

These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> They've been accused of building gaudy Persian palaces
and locking themselves behind the gates, but could it be that
the growing Iranian community in Beverly Hills is just
misunderstood? Blame it on a culture clash here in the land of
the rich and famous. But now the city's newest councilman has a
plan to bring Beverly Hills together. As Philip Bruce reports,
Jimmy Delshad is blazing a trail as the city's first ever
Iranian office holder.

Philip Bruce>> On the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, his isn't the
most famous face by a long shot, but when Jimmy Delshad goes out
on the town, he gets noticed.

>> "I'm very proud of you. I am so glad to know you."

Philip Bruce>> The waitresses at Nate & Al's Deli say he's the
best thing the city's got going and, judging from all the other
smiling faces here, they're not the only ones. Such is life for
the only Persian politician in 90210. He's living his American
dream.

Jimmy Delshad>> When I started running, nobody took me
seriously. They were telling me that it's not the time, you're
not ready, the city's not ready, the community is not ready.
Others have done it. What makes you think you can? And that
gave me more of a challenge to overcome that. I used to say to
them that I will change that impression. Every time they said
that, I would say I'll change that impression.

Philip Bruce>> His plan worked. Delshad got elected to the
Beverly Hills City Council by beating a much better known
opponent. Now the bigger challenge is bringing this wealthy,
but sometimes divided, city together. For the new councilman,
it starts by persuading his fellow Iranians to leave their gated
homes and get involved.

Jimmy Delshad>> The Iranians feel totally accepted and all
that, but they're just within themselves, get together with
their own families, their own people and they feel very
comfortable doing that, mostly for protecting their culture.

Philip Bruce>> Protecting it from what?

Jimmy Delshad>> Protecting it from what they perceive to be an
outside pressure to take away from their culture. They're very
family oriented. They want their children to grow up with the
value systems that they have which is families, closeness,
education, and they're very much afraid to get their children
involved in something that they see on TV. What they see on TV,
they think that's going on in everybody's family.

Philip Bruce>> The city's famous Rodeo Drive lifestyle isn't
the problem. Delshad says most Iranians love the big cars and
the trendy shops, but they're less receptive to the Southern
California vibe. To many, it seems as foreign now as the day
they moved here. So they're afraid their kids will get sucked
into that whole Beverly Hills 90210 life?

Jimmy Delshad>> Yeah, yeah. It's not just in Beverly Hills.
It's all over like this, even in Los Angeles, Westwood and other
places, that they're afraid to get involved in something that
would be maybe a negative on their children.

Philip Bruce>> And you were telling me that many Iranians have
not typically voted or even registered to vote.

Jimmy Delshad>> That was probably the biggest challenge I had,
which I was not aware of at the time I started.

Philip Bruce>> That's significant, considering that Iranians
comprise about a quarter of Beverly Hills's population and their
numbers are growing. They started moving here in droves after
the Islamic revolution that forced the Shah from power. But
just because Iranians immigrated here didn't mean they had to
join in, especially if it meant putting their names on the
dotted line.

Jimmy Delshad>> When I got somebody, for example, registered to
vote, first they were afraid to register because they said,
well, our name will get on different names. People will call
us. In fact, they were afraid to get called by the IRS. They
were afraid to get called by the INS.

Philip Bruce>> They were afraid of the government?

Jimmy Delshad>> They were afraid of the government. They don't
like their names on anything that the government would come.
That shows you because they were afraid even in Iran to put
their names somewhere because of the government. One, they
didn't trust the government. Second, they didn't want to be
picked up for some other reasons.

Philip Bruce>> Jimmy Delshad understands fear very well. He's
not only Iranian, but Jewish, a combination at odds with today's
realities in Iran, but it wasn't always so.

Jimmy Delshad>> Being a Jew in Iran was comfortable under the
Shah, quite comfortable. He was always encouraging people to
study and go out and do that, so I left the country just to get
a better education and I thought I would go back. After my
graduation and school and all that, I'll go back to Iran and
help Iranians.

Philip Bruce>> The Iran of Delshad's boyhood is history, yet
he's held on to the things that matter most: his family, his
memories and his music.

[Musical Clip]

Philip Bruce>> So how did the councilman learn to trust his new
home, to move beyond the comfort of his traditional Iranian
family? Well, he says it all began with his wife. He credits
her with teaching him how to be an American.

Jimmy Delshad>> My life really changed drastically when I met
my wife. Lonnie Delshad is Israeli-born, but raised in America,
so her family was a great influence on me in learning the
culture of Americans and other cultures and I used that bridge
which I created at home to create at other places.

Philip Bruce>> Then came two children and a successful business
career that gave him the financial freedom to pursue his two
American dreams: serving on the City Council and raising money
for a nonprofit that awards scholarships to needy youngsters.
But other Iranians here haven't been so lucky and, in spite of
the prevailing local stereotype, they're not all rich, a fact
that most non-Persians still don't get.

Jimmy Delshad>> What Iranians perceive is what they look like,
what cars they drive, what dresses they have, what clothes they
have. They have no idea what goes on inside their homes. If
you saw the movie, "House of Sand and Fog", you would see that.
Iranians like to be able to be perceived as well-to-do and
sometimes they are not well-to-do at home.

[Film Clip]

Philip Bruce>> In "House of Sand and Fog", Ben Kingsley plays a
once-powerful Iranian immigrant who works many jobs to project
an image of affluence when, in fact, he's barely getting by.
It's just a movie, but Delshad says it provides a true picture
of an Iranian community that's mostly misunderstood.

Jimmy Delshad>> I need to do an educational thing for the non-
Iranians to show that, even though they dress well and are
necessarily driving big cars and all that, they are not all
well-to-do, so they're here to relearn and do good business and
get ahead.

Philip Bruce>> With his new job at City Hall, the councilman
says he has a platform to get everyone's attention. He's
convinced that all sides can learn to be part of the same
community and leave behind the same old stereotypes.

Jimmy Delshad>> It is happening. It is happening without me
working on it because they see, as a representative or as an
Iranian that's in the open, they see he's a normal man, he's
intellectual, he's just like us. Maybe he's got a little accent
and I never had it when I was in Iran, but I have it here. So
it is changing by itself. When I ran, nobody took me seriously.
They said, oh, sure, you've got money, you've got a business and
all that, but you can't get votes because you haven't been
involved. So I tried changing that by bringing the other third
dimension. In order to get anything done, you need some
political power, so that's what I'm hoping to get across to all
the others, to get involved.

Val>> As we mentioned, some Iranians have been criticized for
building massive homes that don't fit into the rest of the
Beverly Hills architecture. Jimmy Delshad admits there are hurt
feelings on both sides of that issue and confusion over what
each side really wants. He hopes to change that.

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Val>> Southern California's red-hot housing market makes it
difficult for working families to meet a mortgage or even pay
the rent. Well, imagine what it's like to be a retiree on a
fixed income and still having to cover the cost of housing.
There just aren't many good options. But for a lucky few, there
is one great option in Whittier. As Gay Yee reports, it's an
old hotel that is allowing seniors on a budget to get a new
lease on life.

Gay Yee>> Ruby Zobrist did the math and it didn't add up.
She's eighty-five years old and lives on $770 a month. The
trouble is, the average one-bedroom apartment rents for over one
thousand a month. But the lopsided equation worked anyway.
That's because Ruby was lucky enough to find a special place in
Whittier designed for seniors just like her.

Ruby Zobrist>> But I take my walker and go down to the bank and
down to the bakery, down to the 99-Cent Store, and I know some
of the people in the shops around here and they know me when I
come in. I'm just -- I'm happy (laughter).

Gay Yee>> The building where Ruby is living so happily is
called Seasons at the Hoover. It houses a senior community
where a one-bedroom apartment costs just over $400 a month, a
place where seniors like Ruby can live independently and
socialize over a game of bridge or a puzzle, a supportive
environment where they remind people to set their clocks forward
and offer bingo Tuesday nights, all at an affordable price. But
finding a place like this wasn't easy.

Jackie Zobrist>> Not low-income, no. You're on a waiting list
for a year and a half, two years.

Gay Yee>> Downstairs in the lounge, Celia Campos and her
daughter tell a similar story.

Celia Campos>> I thought I'd still have my house. I figured by
this time I'd have a place, right? Age sixty-three. But no, it
doesn't work out that way.

Gay Yee>> In her younger days, Celia was an administrator for
several childcare centers. Then her husband divorced her,
ending a twenty-year marriage. Suddenly, at age sixty-three,
Celia found herself out of a house, out of work and forced to
live on $767 a month in social security.

Frances Guijano>> My mother used to help us financially and, as
we were growing up, she was always there. Now we're having to -
- we're not having to, but of course, with our hearts, you know,
help her with her utilities, her bills. Social security is just
enough for her rent and to put food on her table. It is barely
enough.

Hunter Johnson>> There is an incredible problem. The problem
is essentially a lack of supply.

Gay Yee>> As the saying goes, build it and they will come. But
developer Hunter Johnson has found communities often don't want
low-cost housing even for seniors.

Hunter Johnson>> To do the affordable where there is frequently
this "I don't want it in my backyard", the nimby issue, and we
find nimbyism even for seniors. There's a concern that somehow
we're doing affordable housing for seniors and that they're the
wrong kind of folks that are going to be living there without
realizing that it's most likely going to be, you know, a retired
teacher or it could be your parents.

Gay Yee>> People often describe the situation as Los Angeles
County's housing crisis, but if you talk to seniors struggling
to live on a fixed income, they describe it more as a housing
catastrophe. And as baby boomers grow closer and closer to
retirement, the situation can only get worse. This is just
beginning to dawn on Campos's daughter, Frances. Frances's
husband just got a notice from social security informing how
much he's made over the past twenty-five years.

Frances Guijano>> When it comes down and you look at it in
black and white, by all means in twenty years, there's not going
to be enough.

Gay Yee>> With so many people facing a possible retirement
housing nightmare, some developers are trying to meet the demand
with innovative solutions. In the 1930's, the Hoover Hotel was
an upscale social hub in Whittier, but over the years, it fell
on hard times. It suffered major damage after the Whittier
earthquake and declined into little more than a flophouse. But
through a public and private partnership, developers were able
to turn the landmark into affordable housing for seniors, but it
took a lot of work. Developers struggled for a year and a half
to find the money that eventually had to come from seven
different sources.

Charles Fry>> I think politically in local communities
throughout Southern California, it's difficult for elected
officials to support affordable housing, in some cases, in
neighborhoods where those residents don't understand what the
needs of the community are.

Gay Yee>> A University of California report found that
California seniors who rely solely on their social security
checks often spend more than half of it on rent. Campos wonders
in the future, will her children even have that?

Celia Campos>> I worry about my daughter and my grandchildren.
She has all daughters. If there's not enough for us right now,
what's going to be there for them?

Val>> Women outnumber men at the Whittier Hotel. Most are
widows and they have to be able to live independently without
any assistance. Most retirees just need a decent apartment
that's close to stores and services and they've found it there
at the Whittier Hotel. In fact, the converted hotel is so
successful that it's now a model for other senior housing across
the state.

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Val>> The phrase "Architect to the Stars" conjures up a photo
you might find in Vanity Fair, but it actually refers to an
African-American architect who died in 1980. Paul Williams
designed plenty of homes for Los Angeles's rich and famous, but
as Vicki Curry tells us, he's also the genius behind some of Los
Angeles's best-known landmarks.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> He helped to shape a growing Los Angeles and his
designs defined the Southern California lifestyle. Paul Revere
Williams was one of the foremost architects of the early
twentieth century. He designed more than three thousand
projects over fifty years and, along the way, created the Los
Angeles landscape we know today.

Robert Timme>> You think of some of the buildings that he did
in the 1930's and 1940's and they represented a kind of idea of
Southern California, almost Hollywood, lifestyle. There was an
elegance to his work.

Vicki Curry>> Paul Williams was remarkable not only for what he
did, but for how he did it. He was an African-American in an
era of deep prejudice, yet he managed to cross the color line
and create a substantial career.

Karen Hudson>> People often ask me how he was able to become an
architect so long ago in being black and I often say it was a
God-given talent.

Vicki Curry>> Williams was born in downtown Los Angeles in
1894. He was orphaned by the age of four and raised by a foster
family. Young Paul loved to draw and a local builder suggested
he become an architect.

Karen Hudson>> He was discouraged greatly by his teachers. He
was very clear on the fact that he wanted to be an architect
and, particularly in high school, his counselor said no way.
Why don't you be a lawyer or a doctor? Your people need those
and they'll use you, but your people will never be able to build
their own homes and white people won't hire you for their
architect.

Robert Timme>> It was interesting because Paul Williams did not
go to a segregated school. Paul Williams went to a school that
was predominantly white and Latino, so he never saw himself as a
part of a group which could not succeed. I think that it was
the conviction and his strength and his skill because he
achieved some remarkable things at an early age in terms of
awards and prizes through his design work.

Vicki Curry>> Williams attended several art schools and the
architectural engineering programs at USC. In the first years
of his career, he worked in the offices of prominent local
architects.

Karen Hudson>> From Reginald Johnson, he learned residential
design from an elite architect. From John Austin, he learned
commercial work from someone who did things like The Shrine and
City Hall. He believed that, if he was very good at what he
did, he would be hired by someone.

Vicki Curry>> He quickly developed a reputation for his
residential designs and earned enough commissions to start his
own firm at age twenty-eight.

Robert Timme>> Paul Williams was a very good architect. I
mean, bottom line was that his buildings were well-designed.
There was an extreme sense of care in terms of construction and
detailing of the buildings. As architecture moved into a more
abstract period, the kind of beginnings of modernism, he didn't
lose that sensibility to classicism. It just transformed into
an architecture in which the detail became much smaller, much
more elegant.

Karen Hudson>> He loved curves and, in the 1930's, they were
the grand things that you think of in the heyday of Hollywood.
You know, they translated into the 1940's and into the 1950's
into much more modern things, but it's still that understated
elegance.

Vicki Curry>> Most of his clientele was wealthy and he became
known as the "Architect to the Stars" building homes for
celebrities like Lon Chaney, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz. Paul Williams built hundreds of homes for the rich
and famous and became quite rich and famous himself along the
way, but because of his race, he was never able to live in the
neighborhoods he helped to create.

Karen Hudson>> When he realized that quite possibly his work
would be hampered or he would not get jobs because the white
clientele would not believe that he was able to do this, he
devised a number of things.

Vicki Curry>> He learned to draw upside down knowing many white
clients might be uncomfortable with a black man standing next to
or over them. By developing this trick, Williams could stand
across the table from clients and, before they knew it, his
talent would win them over.

Robert Timme>> People probably grew very close to him, clients,
because, from all accounts, his personality was really
remarkable and his skill is evident, as you can see in any of
his buildings.

Vicki Curry>> Paul Williams paved the way for African-American
architects. He was the first black member of the American
Institute of Architects and the first to be elected as one of
its Fellows. He served on a number of local, state and national
commissions for planning and development, but despite his
success, Williams preferred to stay close to home.

Karen Hudson>> Paul Williams always believed that there were
things to do for his own community and for the community of Los
Angeles in general. He was very much a Los Angeles native, very
much a believer in this city. He certainly was instrumental in
the design of early black businesses in Los Angeles when Central
was a very different place in looking at things like Golden
State, Angelus Funeral Home. By the 1940's, it was the Broadway
Federal Savings. It was important to him to design his own
community and be instrumental in that as well as the larger
communities.

Vicki Curry>> His contributions to Los Angeles include a vast
array of public and commercial projects. Among his buildings,
the County Courthouse and Hall of Administration, the MCA
Building in Beverly Hills, First A.M.E. Church and the Pueblo
del Rio housing project. He also designed renovations on the
Ambassador Hotel, Sachs Fifth Avenue and the Beverly Hills
Hotel. Legend has it that even its distinctive logo is from his
hands.

Karen Hudson>> It was very important to him to make a
commercial space somewhere that made you feel like you were at
home.

Vicki Curry>> As his reputation grew, so did his influence.

Robert Timme>> Mr. Williams associated with a lot of other
architects. In other words, what we would now call him would be
the Executive Architect, the individual who is responsible for
the production drawings and the construction of the projects.
He would associate with design architects who primarily would
set the direction of it. I think this was because there was
such a high respect for his ability to detail, for his ability
even of buildings which were highly abstract and modern to be
able to do the production work. That was the association
clearly between Paul Williams and William Farrera on the Theme
Pavilion at LAX.

Vicki Curry>> The story of Paul Williams parallels the story of
Los Angeles. As he grew into his own, so did one of America's
greatest cities.

Robert Timme>> And I think, during that period of time in the
1930's and 1940's, Paul Williams redefined classicism better
than any architect and I'd have to say not just in Southern
California, but in America. So we look at those wonderful homes
that he did, those porches, and we see that sense of classicism,
but we see the reality of the aesthetic of the time.

Val>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at
Life and Times, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next
time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.