When one thinks of families that impacted San Francisco’s political and cultural landscape, names like Sutro[1], Spreckels[2] and de Young[3] immediately come to mind. With the arrival of the Alioto family, who have dominated both fishing and politics for generations, the Alioto name was added to the list.
Fisherman’s Wharf, established in late 1800s, was a place where Chinese and Italian immigrants could make a living catching shrimp, oysters, salmon and Dungeness crab. In 1898 Giuseppe and Nunzio Alioto immigrated to San Francisco from Sicily and became fishermen, settling in North Beach[4]. In 1905 their sister Anetta arrived. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[5], Giuseppe Alioto met his future wife when he fled onto Dominica Lazio’s fishing boat to escape the oncoming fire. The boat floated offshore for two days waiting for the fires to subside. Eventually Giuseppe’s siblings Nunzio and Anetta would marry Domica’s siblings Rose and Tom. The families shared a house in North Beach divided into three flats. All three families worked in the fishing industry.
In 1925 Nunzio set up a stall at Fisherman’s Wharf selling provisions to Italian fisherman. In 1932 he financed the building of a structure at Taylor and Jefferson on the Wharf which opened as a fish stand selling shrimp cocktail and steamed clams to the public. When Nunzio died suddenly a year later, his widow Rose and their three children ran the business, installing a kitchen and establishing the restaurant Alioto’s[5A]. In 1938 Rose created her signature dish cioppino (a fish stew). In 1950 she added a second story to the restaurant. She died in 1970, but the restaurant still remains. With Ghiradelli Square[6] and Aquatic Park[7] on one side and Pier 39[8] on the other, Fisherman’s Wharf is now the No. 1 tourist attraction in the City[9].
Fishing businesses tend to be multi-generational. The Lazios were one of those fishing families. In 1941 Anetta and Tom opened the Alioto-Lazio Fish Company[9A], a few doors down from Alioto’s restaurant. Today, their granddaughter runs the family business.
Born in San Francisco on February 12, 1916, Joseph Alioto was the son of Giuseppe. Joseph attended Sacred Heart High School, St Mary’s College and the Catholic University of America in Washington DC where he received a law degree in 1940. He worked for the US Justice Department and the Board of Economic Warfare before returning to San Francisco after World War II. He started his own law practice, specializing in antitrust cases. A brilliant orator, he became a very successful and wealthy attorney whose his clients grew to include Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn.
Joseph served on the Board of Education from 1948-1950. In the 1960s he was chairman of the City’s Redevelopment Agency. In 1968 he was working on Senator J Eugene McAteer’s San Francisco mayoral campaign when McAteer died suddenly playing handball. Alioto took McAteer’s place on the ballot, and won. The first thing he did as mayor was appoint several family members to key positions. During his two terms in office, he championed BART[10] and the TransAmerica Pyramid[11].
In 1969 Alioto planned to challenge Ronald Reagan for the governor’s seat, but Look magazine published a story alleging that Alioto had personal and business ties to Los Angeles Mafia boss Jimmy Eratianno. Alioto sued the magazine for libel and won, but rumors of a Mafia connection would continue to follow Alioto for the remainder of his career.
In 1974, at the height of the Zebra murders[12], Alioto’s wife vanished for 18 days. When she finally reappeared of her own accord she claimed that she had purposely disappeared to punish her husband for neglect. She filed for divorce a year later. Alioto would eventually remarry and have a total of eight children.
In 1975, despite a state law prohibiting public employees from striking, the City’s police and firefighters elected to strike. A court order declared the strike illegal, but only the African-American officers (10% of the combined forces) showed up to work, with 45 officers and three fire trucks responsible for the entire city. Supervisor Dianne Feinstein[13] pleaded with Alioto to have Governor Jerry Brown call in the National Guard, but Alioto refused. On August 20th, a bomb was detonated on Alioto’s front lawn. Alioto asked the Board of Supervisors to concede to the strikers’ demands. The Board unanimously refused. Alioto declared a State of Emergency and, assuming legislative power, granted the strikers their demands. As a result, the Board of Supervisors put several initiatives on the ballot revoking the mayor’s emergency powers, firing police officers and firefighters who strike, and preventing them from taking second jobs. All these initiatives passed by large margins.
After his term as mayor, Alioto went back to private practice. He would make the news again years later when one of his sons (also a lawyer) took Alioto to court over legal fees. Alioto died on January 29, 1998 at the age of 81 of prostate cancer. He is buried at Cypress Lawn in Colma.
Joseph’s daughter Angela would go on to serve 8 years on the Board of Supervisors, two of those as President. One of his granddaughters, Michela Alioto-Pier, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by Mayor Gavin Newsom and elected to the post a year later. While you no longer hear the Alioto name associated with City politics, it is still a prominent name at Fisherman’s Wharf .
[1] Adolph Sutro: story coming March 14th
[2] Alma Spreckels: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3154
[3] Michael De Young: story coming January 16th
[4] North Beach: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5026
[5] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849
[5A] Visit them at https://aliotos.com[6] Ghiradelli Square: story coming February 21st
[7] Aquatic Park: story coming October 6th
[8] Pier 39: story coming October 4th
[9] Visit them at www.fishermanswharf.org
[9A] Visit them at https://crabonline.com[10] Bay Area Rapid Transit: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3533
[11] TransAmerica Pyramid: story coming April 25th
[12] Zebra Murders: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2934
[13] Dianne Feinstein: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4348
