Italian heritage heartily mixed with a lifetime of local and national political advocacy has earned Margaret “Midge” Costanza a namesake public piazza in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy.
A 2,000-square-foot Piazza Costanza near the corner of Columbia and West Ash streets (in front of Luma Apartments) will be dedicated on Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
Costanza’s admirers believe the public recognition is well-deserved and a long time in coming for the first woman to hold the title of assistant to the President of the United States.
Officially, her title from 1977-78 under President Jimmy Carter was assistant to the president for public liaison.
The feisty, wisecracking Hillcrest resident died in 2010 from complications arising from cancer. She was 77.
Friend and political ally Laurie Black was in a Scripps Mercy Hospital patient room with Costanza in her final days. Black was chief of staff for San Diego Congresswoman Lynn Schenk in the early 1990s and hired Costanza to work in the office.
“Jimmy Carter called Midge in the hospital before she died,” Black recalls. “She was on a respirator and pretty out of it. But when she heard his voice on the phone we saw her smile and open her eyes. She knew it was him.”
In a solemn coincidence, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter recently passed away, a week before the upcoming local tribute to Costanza’s life and work.
Costanza and President Carter publicly admired each other, but also clashed on policy issues. According to her obituary in The New York Times:
“Ms. Costanza, a petite, energetic woman who once described herself as “a loud-mouthed, pushy little broad,” was outspokenly committed to women’s issues, gay rights and social justice for minority groups. She soon gained a reputation for running a cheerily disorganized operation open to previously excluded groups and for making public comments that rankled President Carter and the top advisers…”
After essentially being demoted and resigning her post at the White House, the native of Rochester, New York (with Sicialian roots), transplanted to California. In Los Angeles, Costanza managed actress Shirley MacLaine’s “Higher Self” seminars.
In 1990 she moved to San Diego and worked on political campaigns for Senator Barbara Boxer and Schenk.
She was a special assistant serving as a liaison to women’s groups for Governor Gray Davis from 2000-03. In 2005, San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis hired her as a public affairs officer.
The Midge Costanza Institute for the Study of Politics and Public Policy was created in 2003. Costanza co-taught classes with professor Doreen Mattingly at San Diego State University on sex, power and politics, and political communication.
At 10 a.m. on November 28, the dedication to Piazza Costanza will kick off with a parade-like entrance by members of the SDSU marching band.
“Midge liked over-the-top stuff like marching bands,” says Marco Li Mandri, president of New City America, which oversees the functionality of the Little Italy Association (as well as the East Village Association and 93 Business Improvement Districts across the country).
Li Mandri befriended Costanza in 1998. He says they spent many hours hanging out discussing politics and random matters of life in front of the former Pete’s Quality Meats on India Street in Little Italy.
“She loved Pete’s Meats because it reminded her of the House of Costanza sausage factory her parents ran back in Rochester,” Li Mandri says.
He notes that adding piazzas is a goal throughout Little Italy to help enhance the vibe of a “small, European enclave.” There will soon be six (with plans for more) and Li Mandri says it was time to name one in honor of a local female who’d spent quality time in the area.
Plans for Piazza Costanza predated COVID, Li Mandri says. Lennar Corporation, which built Luma Apartments, set aside the space. The budget for construction and maintenance of the piazza was $190,000.
Proximal to a Starbucks on the ground floor of Luma, the piazza will include tables and chairs, a bust of Costanza and granite plaques of her hanging out with dignitaries such as Carter, Robert F. Kennedy and Mohammed Ali.
Concrete planters will border the piazza. Etched on the planters are inspirational quotes attributed to Costanza. One of the most poignant: “I will never apologize for allowing people to participate in a government they help select and that belongs to them.” SDSun
