Alumni Notes: BAD R/E JUJU

There was a cute guy a couple years behind me at Saint Ignatius High School named Sangiacomo, that’s how the name entered my mind.

In years to come I’d see the name more and more, always associated with real estate somehow. I gradually became aware that Angelo Sangiacomo, (prob the dad of the cute kid at school) was a major developer in San Francisco.

I wasn’t aware how vilified he is among political progressives in San Francisco. Angelo Sangiacomo is sometimes called the “father” of SF’s rent control ordinance. Rent control was sparked in significant part, according to activists, by Sangiacomo’s rapacious landlord practices.

He’s also called a slumlord.

The story this morning is about a step forward in the approval process for a major residential redevelopment of a piece of property that currently houses lower income largly Filipino tenants. Sangiacomo is the developer.

There have been nasty battles between the Filipino tenants and the Sangiacomo family. According to Beyond Chron, the Sangiacomo’s turned off the water heater on their Filipino tenants on a Christmas eve.

To close out 2005, the Sangiacomo family -- and I have deduced it was Susan Sangiacomo who actually gave the order this past year -- shut off the hot water on the afternoon of 12/24 and it was not restored until late Monday, 12/27. One of only two repair persons for the large complex stated on Monday afternoon that "the pilot light accidentally blew out on the boiler" on the afternoon of 12/24 when Trinity Management closed the office for the long three-day weekend...

The article complained, Aren’t the Sangiacomo’s supposed to be Catholics?

Of course they are, as featured in the latest edition of Genesis, St Ignatius High School’s alumi fundraising claypaper quarterly, upper right photo.

There he is with two of his SI-student grandkids. The blond babe on the right is SI’s Assistant Principal for Student Affairs. The goofball on the left is a “motivational speaker” whom old man Sangiacomo paid to speak to SI kids.

The title of the speech was NOT: How to Lose Those Last Twenty Pounds.

The Jesuit tradition is to serve the spiritual needs of all people, rich and poor alike. Presumably a Christmas midnight mass could be attended by Sangiacomo and his family, and by poor Filipinos who wish they could have bathed for the occasion.

The actual piece of property mentioned in the Beyond Chron stories has some questionable juju associated with it. It looks pretty good in the photo.

It was originally built by the notorious Del Webb (wikilink).

Del Webb, like so many private entrepeneurs, made his stake off the U.S. government, notably with the construction of a WWII relocation center where 17,000 Japanese Americans were unlawfully detained.

Along the same line he built the prototype retirement community, Sun City, in Arizona. He built the Flamingo for Bugsy Siegel and later owned two Las Vegas casinos himself. Nuff said.

In the go-go 1960s Webb built a motor-hotel, Del Webb’s TownHouse, in the semi-blighted Civic-Center stretch of San Francisco’s Market Street. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off, and after a few years the project became apartments and gradually deteriorated.

Enter Angelo Sangiacomo.

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JUST A TINY FREE PASS

It must have been the St Rose senior prom, late 1965 or early 1966. It’s kind of a blur. There were two SI (Saint Ignatius) guys, me included, and one guy from Riordan. It was a triple date, and the Riordan guy was driving. Of course, all three girls were from St Rose.

St Rose Academy wasn’t the snootiest Catholic girls high school in San Francisco, it was the second snootiest. At least one of the girls was from a family with significant connections in local politics.

I don’t know where we had done our drinking, but we got pulled over on the way to the prom hotel. I was a little too drunk to be nervous, and I managed to keep my mouth shut. It just sort of happened.

As I recall, the officer got our story about who we were and about going to the prom, and that, yeah we’d been drinking and stuff.

Then, after determining that the driver was too drunk to continue, the officer asked if any of the rest of us were ok to drive. One of the girls, who I guess hadn’t drank that much, said she could do it.

The officer looked her over, she slid behind the wheel, and we were off.

Luckily for us, and for the officer, we didn’t get into a crash or run somebody down.

I don’t know if that would be considered special treatment, or not. Being from SI and St Rose definitely didn’t hurt.

Given the sea change in attitudes and info on homosexuality, if I were that age today I probably wouldn’t get involved in such dopey heterosexual activities. I think they have dopey homosexual activities for kids these days.

But I guess it was ok to go out with girls and kiss them and stuff. I mean, it’s not like a sin or anything.

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