For all the fabled glamour of its
topless towers and clanking cable cars, San Francisco is a city of
anguished minorities. They range from the black ghetto of Hunters
Point, scarred by riot in 1966, to the hippie enclave of
Haight-Ashbury, from the convoluted alleys of Chinatown to the
psychedelic strip-and-clip joints of North Beach, encompassing en route
labor unions, symphony lovers and Mayor Joseph L.
Alioto, 52, the millionaire son of an immigrant Sicilian fisherman.*
Last week, a scant 2 months after assuming office, Joe Alioto was well
on the way to opening the Golden
Gate for an array of hyperkinetic urban programs.Careful Cajolery. When he ran for the nonpartisan office last fall,
Johnsonian Democrat Alioto—who made his fortune as a lawyer
specializing in antitrust cases—was regarded as the least unqualified
of a lackluster lot of candidates. He won, with a landslide 15,000-vote
margin over the closest of 17 opponents , and San
Franciscans anticipated another administration devoted to parochial
self-puffery. Not so. Alioto has come across like John Lindsay, Western
style. Right off the bat he raised the hopes of the city's minorities.
After his inauguration at the glittering San Francisco Opera House in
January, Alioto scheduled receptions in the predominantly Negro Hunters
Point-Bayview section and the Mission District . Humming operatic airs, sipping Campari
and soda or playing the violin, he wowed the crowds. “The ghetto never
goes to the Opera House,” he said, “so we'll take the inaugural to the
ghetto.”Unemployment was his next concern: Alioto journeyed to Washington and
New York—to squeeze 3,000 new maintenance jobs out of San
Francisco-serving airlines, create job opportunities in the post
office, fire department, trade unions and in the Bay Area Rapid
Transit's 75-mile construction project, which includes a tunnel under
Market Street. Manhattan Banker David Rockefeller bent to Alioto's
urging that a $250 million Embarcadero construction project —known
locally as “Rockefeller Center West”—soon get under way. By careful
cajolery, Alioto persuaded Warner Bros, to build a public swimming pool
in Hunters Point—the ghetto's first —where movies may be filmed and
residents can pick up paychecks as extras. Along the way, he helped
settle an eight-week newspaper strike.Coffers & Hoffers. Oldsters who were leaving the city have been
encouraged to remain by Alioto's concern: last week he proposed
reducing transit fares for San Franciscans over 65 to 50 and, on a
subsequent TV “phone-in,” said he would try to get buses closer to the
curb at pickup. Whether talking of hippies on the Haight or to Department Store Magnate Cyril
Magnin , the balding,
somber-suited mayor is the master of civic ceremony. Last week he
redeemed a painful campaign promise to reduce city property taxes 20%
by proposing a commuter tax—the first on the West Coast* which, if
enacted, will net $14 million a year from San Francisco's 122,000
outside workers. They earn 50% of the city's $3 billion annual payroll,
and heretofore have directly contributed not a penny toward the cost of
city services.
