Iranian Beverly Hills Mayor

An Iranian American is set to become the next Beverly Hills Mayor.

Jimmy Delshad is claiming victory in his city council re-election bid. And as the council's most senior member, he's in line to become mayor when the current one steps down March 20th. Beverly Hills mayors are chosen from within the five-member city council and hold office for one year.

Delshad says being mayor of his hometown is "an honor." He came to Beverly Hills as a teen 48 years ago, long before the city became a hub for exiles of Iran's 1979 revolution.

There is more to the story. From an earlier report:

After marking their votes on bilingual English-Farsi ballots, residents of this tony Los Angeles suburb awaited the final tally in City Council race that highlighted the growing clout of Iranian immigrants here and could lead to the city having its first Iranian mayor.

City council incumbent Jimmy Delshad was one of three candidates of Jewish-Iranian descent running for two open council seats. The top two finishers will get seats on the council, and reelection would give the 66-year-old Delshad the seniority to be named mayor.

I wonder what this means in terms of geopolitics? Beverly hills is a Democrat town.

An Iranian influx into Southern California began after the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, prompting thousands of Iranians - especially Jewish and educated classes - to come to America. Today about 8,000 of Beverly Hill's approximately 35,000 residents are of Iranian descent.

Delshad moved to Beverly Hills 18 years ago after immigrating to America as a teenager. He started a successful computer hardware company, and sold it after being elected president in 1999 of the Sinai Temple, a Conservative Jewish congregation a few blocks west of city limits.

When I was in the Navy one of my best buddies was a resident of Beverly Hills. Phil L. He used to invite me to stay at his house on weekends. Some fun. Very posh digs for a sailor. We had met casually a few years earlier. I was going to the University of Chicago and he was dating a girl from there. So I saw him a few times in the lounge. The next time we met was in the shower at Electronics Technician school on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. We both recognized each other and then sorted out where our paths had crossed. Strange. When I was stationed in Long Beach, weekends at his place were a favorite of mine. His mom took a liking to me.