Remembering Joe Welch

I then read of his passing. Joe —"Giuseppe” as I often called him — and I met when I was involved in San Bruno politics about 15 years ago; we also worked together on gathering signatures to stop redevelopment about 10 years ago. He was a force to be reckoned with — but only outwardly. Inside he was like a gentle giant.

This man owned mostly commercial property in San Bruno and South San Francisco, and was often given a bad rap. I remember when he was running for mayor and there was information going around that the reason San Bruno had such a "bad” downtown was because Joe owned almost the whole downtown and was a slum landlord. I asked Joe if he owned any buildings downtown, and he gave me the address list of about six out of more than 100 buildings. And none of Joes’ were in ill-repair — as a matter of fact, he told me that he did "triple-net leases” with his tenants, which means that they do all repairs or upgrades as they see fit.

I remember one time talking with a downtown merchant when I co-founded the Downtown San Bruno Merchant’s Association. The merchant told me about his financial problems and how his business was going through hard times. I asked him who his landlord was, and he told me it was Joe. He also told me he was a long-term tenant of Joe’s. I suggested he talk to Joe about the rent but he was reticent. He finally acquiesced.

In the meantime, I talked with Joe about the situation. He said that he can’t help the tenant because if he did that to all his tenants he would be unable to pay all his mortgages and property taxes on the buildings. I told him that it was not all his tenants who were asking — it was just this one tenant.

He thoughtfully listened and then agreed to help the man.

When my group was trying to stop redevelopment and possible eminent domain in San Bruno, Joe let us use one of his vacant buildings free of charge — for months. One night, the merchants had a meeting about ideas to prevent the city from using eminent domai, and our mayor at the time came to the meeting. We asked him to leave, as we didn’t want to discuss our "brain-storming” (one person had suggested a legal maneuver) while he was there.

Poor Joe was trying to call the police because the mayor wouldn’t leave and I told him it was to no avail — that would never work! The mayor and I were on good terms, but that night it got a bit dicey.

Joe was generous with feeding the homeless. He gave substantial amounts of money to St. Anthony’s dining hall.

Additionally, each year he donated the candy for San Bruno’s Halloween festival. He treated guests like kings and queens when he gave a party at his house/mansion in San Bruno. He had a caricature artist at the last one I attended. I still have my caricature done at Joe’s. And anyone could tour his world-famous slot-machine museum for free.

I went to his wake Monday and he held a beautiful pair of black rosary beads in his clasped hands. I said my final goodbye and talked with his three sons. One son told me how Joe got started.

When Highway 101 was in its nascent stage, Joe would buy houses in the freeway’s path for $1. He simultaneously would buy lots in San Bruno for $1,000. He got a house-moving company to move the houses to San Bruno, and then fixed up the houses to sell.

Then he got into the building phase of his career by building small apartment buildings on San Bruno’s east side.

Eventually, he went commercial. A sterling example of the American Dream.

When I ran into his son during my morning exercise route and asked him about his dad, his words were "He loved his city.” And did he ever. He could have lived anywhere in the world, but he chose San Bruno.

I will miss Joe but the sadness is assuaged by the fact that he will soon be frolicking in heaven with our friends Lou Papan and Ralph Carrillo.

Barbara LaRaia is a San Bruno resident, a property rights advocate and has written many Guest Perspectives for the Daily Journal over the last 10 years.