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AN EX-OUTSIDER HOPES TO AID GLENDALE
By Valerie Reitman, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, CA
April 9 2007
A new member of the City Council recalls that his Jewish family was
once ostracized in a town again challenged by ethnic tensions.
Campaigning for a seat on the Glendale City Council over the last
several weeks dredged up bittersweet childhood memories for John
Drayman.
A candidates' debate took him to the Oakmont Country Club, where his
father wasn't allowed to dine as a guest, let alone join.
An invitation to speak at a home in the tony Royal Canyon neighborhood
turned out to be at his mother's dream home - the very one his
parents had tried to buy, only to have the sale mysteriously fall
out of escrow.
The reason: anti-Semitism. The Draymans were Jewish in a city then
overwhelmingly conservative, white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. In
fact, in the 1960s, the American Nazi Party opened its West Coast
headquarters in downtown Glendale.
"My father was a patient, determined man," Drayman said. His father
started the photographic restoration business the younger Drayman now
runs in the Montrose Shopping Park. "He understood the way to cope was
to outlast those people, and he did. He became a parking commissioner,
and he wanted one of his seven children" to run the city.
Drayman, whose 49th birthday is today, will get his chance when he
takes a council seat this month. He garnered the top share of votes -
23% - among eight candidates, running on a populist, anti-incumbent
platform. His aim: to make city government more sensitive to its
citizens' concerns and heal fissures among Glendale's many ethnic
groups.
Incumbent Dave Weaver won the other seat with 18% of the vote. The
best-financed candidate, incumbent Rafi Manoukian, was edged out with
16% of the vote, despite his war chest of $223,000.
Three other Armenian American candidates were running for the council,
possibly diluting the votes of the city's Armenian community. People
of Armenian descent, many from Iran, make up about 40% of Glendale's
population, the largest concentration in the country.
With the loss of one seat, Armenian Americans no longer hold a majority
on the five-member council.
"People forget that there are a lot of factions within the Armenian
American community, just like any other group," said Will Rogers,
who follows Glendale politics closely. "They didn't get behind just
one candidate."
The Armenian community has evolved into a diverse group, with some
in wealthy neighborhoods and poorer immigrants struggling in south
Glendale.
Ethnic tensions have escalated, too. Simmering concerns about a
ban on outdoor commercial grilling have raised hackles of Armenian
restaurant owners, who believe the tastiness of their kebabs has been
a casualty. Other residents get upset when the city's U.S. flags
are lowered to half-staff on Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day,
in recognition of the estimated 1.2 million Armenians killed from
1915 to 1918 by Turks.
And tensions have risen at high schools between Latino and Armenian
students. The race for school board was also tight: Mary Boger won
a seat with 31% of the vote, while Nayiri Nahabedian and Todd Hunt
are still in contention for the other seat, with Nahabedian leading
by 29 votes: 7,575 to Hunt's 7,546. City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian said
2,000 provisional and absentee ballots are being counted to determine
the winner of the second seat.
Drayman is president of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. and campaigned
door to door, avenging his narrow loss - by about 500 votes - in a
council race two years ago.
Drayman said his first-hand experiences with anti-Semitism have made
him that much more sensitive to what newer immigrants and residents
may be feeling. A flood of immigrants to Glendale since the 1970s has
transformed the city into a melting pot; by 2000, more than half of
its 200,000 residents were foreign-born, with large Armenian, Iranian,
Filipino and Arab populations.
"I understand that divide," Drayman said, noting that he had lived
through a similar division in his youth.
By Valerie Reitman, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, CA
April 9 2007
A new member of the City Council recalls that his Jewish family was
once ostracized in a town again challenged by ethnic tensions.
Campaigning for a seat on the Glendale City Council over the last
several weeks dredged up bittersweet childhood memories for John
Drayman.
A candidates' debate took him to the Oakmont Country Club, where his
father wasn't allowed to dine as a guest, let alone join.
An invitation to speak at a home in the tony Royal Canyon neighborhood
turned out to be at his mother's dream home - the very one his
parents had tried to buy, only to have the sale mysteriously fall
out of escrow.
The reason: anti-Semitism. The Draymans were Jewish in a city then
overwhelmingly conservative, white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. In
fact, in the 1960s, the American Nazi Party opened its West Coast
headquarters in downtown Glendale.
"My father was a patient, determined man," Drayman said. His father
started the photographic restoration business the younger Drayman now
runs in the Montrose Shopping Park. "He understood the way to cope was
to outlast those people, and he did. He became a parking commissioner,
and he wanted one of his seven children" to run the city.
Drayman, whose 49th birthday is today, will get his chance when he
takes a council seat this month. He garnered the top share of votes -
23% - among eight candidates, running on a populist, anti-incumbent
platform. His aim: to make city government more sensitive to its
citizens' concerns and heal fissures among Glendale's many ethnic
groups.
Incumbent Dave Weaver won the other seat with 18% of the vote. The
best-financed candidate, incumbent Rafi Manoukian, was edged out with
16% of the vote, despite his war chest of $223,000.
Three other Armenian American candidates were running for the council,
possibly diluting the votes of the city's Armenian community. People
of Armenian descent, many from Iran, make up about 40% of Glendale's
population, the largest concentration in the country.
With the loss of one seat, Armenian Americans no longer hold a majority
on the five-member council.
"People forget that there are a lot of factions within the Armenian
American community, just like any other group," said Will Rogers,
who follows Glendale politics closely. "They didn't get behind just
one candidate."
The Armenian community has evolved into a diverse group, with some
in wealthy neighborhoods and poorer immigrants struggling in south
Glendale.
Ethnic tensions have escalated, too. Simmering concerns about a
ban on outdoor commercial grilling have raised hackles of Armenian
restaurant owners, who believe the tastiness of their kebabs has been
a casualty. Other residents get upset when the city's U.S. flags
are lowered to half-staff on Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day,
in recognition of the estimated 1.2 million Armenians killed from
1915 to 1918 by Turks.
And tensions have risen at high schools between Latino and Armenian
students. The race for school board was also tight: Mary Boger won
a seat with 31% of the vote, while Nayiri Nahabedian and Todd Hunt
are still in contention for the other seat, with Nahabedian leading
by 29 votes: 7,575 to Hunt's 7,546. City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian said
2,000 provisional and absentee ballots are being counted to determine
the winner of the second seat.
Drayman is president of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. and campaigned
door to door, avenging his narrow loss - by about 500 votes - in a
council race two years ago.
Drayman said his first-hand experiences with anti-Semitism have made
him that much more sensitive to what newer immigrants and residents
may be feeling. A flood of immigrants to Glendale since the 1970s has
transformed the city into a melting pot; by 2000, more than half of
its 200,000 residents were foreign-born, with large Armenian, Iranian,
Filipino and Arab populations.
"I understand that divide," Drayman said, noting that he had lived
through a similar division in his youth.