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“TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH L. ALIOTO, FORMER MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E66-E67 on Feb. 3, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH L. ALIOTO, FORMER MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO
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HON. TOM LANTOS
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, February 3, 1998
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me today in paying tribute to Joseph L. Alioto, an outstanding American who served two terms as the mayor of San Francisco from 1968 to 1976 and who left his distinctive stamp on our city. Joe Alioto died last Thursday at his home in San Francisco after a struggle with prostate cancer. Mr. Speaker, Joseph Alioto left an indelible imprint on San Francisco, and he represents the best of this city.
Immigrants have contributed much to the character, the zest and the diversity of San Francisco, and Joe Alioto was a product of that culture. The son of a Sicilian immigrant fish wholesaler, he was born in 1916 in North Beach and grew up in that area. He attended San Francisco schools--Garfield and Salesian Schools and then Sacred Heart High School. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga, and then received a law degree from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
As an attorney, Joe Alioto had a highly successful career, both before and after his two terms as Joe Alioto's mayor. After completing law school in our nation's capitol, he accepted a position in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1945 he returned to San Francisco to establish a highly successful private antitrust legal practice, one of the first such practices in the country. After retiring from politics in 1976 upon the completion of two terms as mayor, Joe Alioto returned to his antitrust practice, which for a time was our nation's largest such law practice. He established a distinguished record as a determined advocate for such clients as Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn and Al Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders football team.
His career in public service began shortly after he returned to San Francisco in 1945, after spending eight years in Washington, D.C. at law school and at the Department of Justice. In 1948 Joseph Alioto was appointed to the San Francisco School Board, and seven years later he became a member of the board of the City's Redevelopment Agency.
The decision to run for mayor of San Francisco was not a part of a calculated or long-term plan. In 1967, Joe Alioto was chairman of the mayoral campaign of Eugene McAteer, who died suddenly from a heart attack just two months before the election. After a few days of reflection, Alioto made the decision to run in McAteer's place. He waged a lightning 55-day campaign and won, overcoming the lead of his opponent in the early polls of 44 to 17.
The two terms that he served as mayor--from 1968 to 1976--were a critical time, and his administration left a positive and a lasting imprint on the City that he loved. He became mayor during a politically unstable period--hippies dominated Haight-Ashbury; demonstrations, some of which turned violent, were taking place against the Vietnam War; and racial tensions reached a fever pitch following a series of street killings known as the Zebra murders.
Mayor Alioto largely succeeded in keeping the city at peace during the turbulent period of domestic protests against the Vietnam War. He fought racial violence and intolerance, telling black militants ``come to me with your problems before you take them to the streets.'' He was a strong advocate of civil rights, and he was also a strong opponent of violence. As our current San Francisco mayor, Willie Brown, said, he was ``a champion of racial diversity long before it was fashionable.''
Mr. Speaker, the tenure of Joseph Alioto as mayor has had a permanent impact upon the physical appearance of San Francisco. He was largely responsible for the building boom that created the downtown city panorama as we now know it, including the TransAmerica Pyramid, the Embarcadero Center, the Golden Gateway, and a number of skyscrapers that still dominate the city's profile. Hunters Point renewal programs began under his leadership, and the city escaped the destructive rioting that convulsed a number of other major American cities at that time. Jerry Carroll and William Carlsen in The San Francisco Chronicle said his legacy as mayor was ``an explosion of downtown growth that changed the city's skyline, helped cement San Francisco as a player on the Pacific Rim and stirred up the neighborhoods in a way that has altered the city's political landscape to this day.''
He seized national attention as San Francisco's mayor. In 1968, just a few months after he was elected mayor, he was considered a leading candidate as runningmate of Democratic presidential candidate, Hubert Humphrey. Though ultimately he was not selected as the vice presidential candidate, he did make the speech nominating Senator Humphrey at the Democratic Convention.
His career suffered from a libelous story about him in Look Magazine in 1969. Although he eventually won a substantial libel judgment against the magazine in the courts, his political career did not recover. He easily won reelection as mayor of San Francisco in 1972, but he lost the Democratic primary for governor of California in 1974. When his second term as mayor was completed in 1976, he returned to his legal practice, which he continued until a few months before his death.
Joseph Alioto was a larger-than-life personality. Ken Garcia in The Chronicle said, ``On so many levels, Joe Alioto was San Francisco--
often vain and parochial but unerringly charming and sophisticated, and always ready for a good fight.'' Carroll and Carlsen, also in The Chronicle, called him ``bold, tireless and articulate, combining a boundless self-confidence with a buoyant charm and erudition that enabled him to dominate any gathering.'' In an editorial paying well deserved tribute to the former mayor, The Chronicle called Alioto ``a man who embodied boundless ambition, high self-regard, operatic conduct, and the city's immigrant character'' and dubbed him ``a San Francisco story, a local boy who made good, charging through life in high style.''
He was larger than life. As The Chronicle observed editorially, ``He gave speeches in Italian. He wrote poetry that he spouted in North Beach coffeehouses.'' Carroll and Carlsen added that, ``in addition to everything else, Alioto was found of quoting Dante and St. Thomas Aquinas to illustrate his points.''
His last press conference as mayor in 1976 gives some of the flavor of the man. He spent more of the time at this final press conference savaging the media; nevertheless, the next day, The Chronicle called him a ``colorful and zestful man, who roared into office literally bursting with energy and imagination'' and further said he was ``one of the most energetic, entertaining and stylish of mayors.''
Mayor Willie Brown observed that ``Joe's two great loves were his family and the city of San Francisco.'' Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in extending condolences to Joseph Alioto's family--his wife Kathleen Sullivan Alioto, and his children Lawrence M., Joseph M., John, Michael, Angela Mia, Thomas, Patrick, and Domenica. He will be missed, Mr. Speaker. He was a great mayor, a dedicated public servant, and a great San Franciscan.
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