The media crowds into Tehrangeles

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, April 8 and you can expect another day of unnervingly nice weather (mid 70s).

In today’s newsletter, we have what may be the most expensive condo in L.A. history and business backing for Mayor Karen Bass. But first, a dispatch from the Iranian diaspora in West L.A.

In the hours between President Trump threatening to eradicate Iran’s “whole civilization” Tuesday morning and agreeing to an 11th-hour temporary ceasefire deal Tuesday evening, national media descended on a few blocks of Westwood Boulevard, as they tend to do in times of international crisis. 

“Anything happens in Iran, the first thing in the morning, I see the line of media outside the door,” said Roozbeh Farahanipour, owner of Westwood’s Delphi Greek restaurant and a prominent activist. That’s because the Los Angeles area is home to the largest concentration of Iranians outside Iran and Westwood — the epicenter of the diaspora — has earned the nickname Tehrangeles.

Farahanipour began his day talking with CNN, followed by ABC and NBC. He said a New York Times photographer was in his restaurant’s dining room. When L.A. Material encountered him, he was dressed in black and speaking to KCBS-LA at the entrance to his Greek restaurant, where the top-selling lunch item is gyros. 

Farahanipour was not a bit annoyed by the press interest. A former journalist, he helped lead the Iranian student uprising of 1999, a mass protest that prompted a violent government crackdown, before seeking political asylum in California. He worried that the media wasn’t getting the whole story. “The only people right now who are talking are the people who are supporting the war,” he said. “I don’t like the war.”

Around Westwood Boulevard and Wilkins Avenue — recognized as Persian Square by the City of L.A. — local and national journalists interviewed business owners and customers. L.A. Material counted five CBS staffers in a two-block area. They were collecting reactions to Trump’s threat Tuesday to hit Iran’s oil export hub. They found worry, anger, sorrow and in some quarters, unqualified support.

“It’s a bluff,” said Mohammad Ghafarian, owner of Shater Abbass Bakery & Market.

Ghafarian, sitting behind the counter of his small grocery store on Westwood Boulevard, said he was against the bombing of Iran from the outset. Many in the neighborhood supported military strikes, but Ghafarian would rather the Trump administration send weapons to the Iranian people to battle their own government.

“If you have nothing in your hand, how could you fight?”

Sam Yebri, a prominent Iranian-American attorney who waged an unsuccessful campaign for an L.A. City Council seat in 2022, said Trump’s words Tuesday morning did not change his endorsement of the military campaign. In his view, the “civilization” Trump threatened to eradicate was the brutal regime, not its people — “since this regime does not represent the beautiful Persian civilization.”

“I am unwavering in my support for liberating 92 million Iranians from theocratic fascism,” Yebri told LA Material via text message.

Over at Attari Sandwich Shop, Reza Taghavi, a retired Iranian-born businessman who came to the U.S. in 1979, has ample reason to despise Iran’s government. The 86-year-old was held for 29 months in a notorious Tehran prison before being freed in 2010 after extensive negotiations. 

But Trump’s ominous threat Tuesday morning to wipe out a “whole civilization” unless the Iranian government reopened the Strait of Hormuz horrified him.

“He’s crazy,” Taghavi said in an interview with L.A. Material as he sat with friends sipping tea and eating cucumber salad and seasoned beef. “If you want to help the Iranian people, why are you trying to destroy the whole country?”

The Wall Street Journal has an exclusive look at a new listing in Sierra Towers — a legendary West Hollywood building popular among celebrities even though it is actually only a singular tower — that would be the most expensive condo sale in Los Angeles history if sold for the asking price of $39.5 million.

The unit, a 7,400-square foot three bedroom, is owned by Dan Fischel and Sylvia Neal, a philanthropist couple based in Chicago. They bought it as a pied-a-terre in 2021 to be closer to their daughter, who was living in Los Angeles at the time. But now their daughter has moved back to Chicago, and the couple “have no other ties to L.A.,” so they’re parting with the property after fully remodeling it — and without ever spending a night there.

A transaction at the list price would just barely clear the $39.2 million record for the biggest condo sale in Los Angeles, set last year by a three-bedroom in the Century building in Century City while fires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena were still burning.

What will the Sierra Towers unit actually sell for? We might not know for a while. One of the most expensive listings in recent L.A. history, a two-story penthouse with a rooftop pool at the Four Seasons Private Residences on 3rd Street near Beverly Hills, was listed at $75 million, but quietly sold last year for just $15 million – almost three years after it hit the market.

WHAT BROKE THE BECKHAMS? Veteran New York Magazine features writer Bridget Read goes deep and very dishy on how Brooklyn Beckham, son of Becks and Posh, chose his billionaire in-laws (his wife is Nicola Peltz, daughter of businessman Nelson Peltz) over his superstar family in a highly publicized feud that became “like the Montagues and the Capulets with yachts.”

L.A.’S (RELATIVELY) NEW ERA OF COMPETITIVE POLITICS: Mayor Karen Bass isn’t the only city incumbent in a real race. All three citywide elected officials — mayor, controller and city attorney — face credible challengers, and at least five council races offer “a degree of uncertainty,” writes Jon Regardie for Golden State Report. It’s a far cry from 2017, when then-Mayor Eric Garcetti was reelected with a whopping 81% of the vote.

BUSINESS ALIGNMENT: The city’s establishment has rallied behind Bass in her reelection bid, including joint endorsements from major business groups announced Tuesday. What’s notable is the coordination across L.A.'s fragmented business community, with several groups joining forces to collectively spend seven figures across several city races. (The goal: counter the influence of L.A.’s powerful labor unions. Which, for the record, are also backing Bass.) 

SONY LAYOFFS: The entertainment company plans to lay off a few hundred employees globally, with cuts affecting its film, TV and corporate divisions, the company said Tuesday. 

NICHE DISCOURSE: Lindy West’s “Adult Braces” — a book title that you’ve either spent weeks following increasingly deranged online controversy about, or never heard of — has sold just over 3,000 copies. Far fewer than one might think, given the discourse. (The very short version: The book is a memoir by a famous millennial feminist writer who was seemingly pushed into polyamory by her husband, before joining a long-term throuple with his girlfriend.) 

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, a spate of quality spotting in #celebritysightings.

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Democracy Poem #1” by June Jordan.

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