Oscar D'Angeloi can be seen in this 2006 photo by Chicago architecture critic Lee Bey. View Full Caption Lee Bey/leebey.com

LITTLE ITALY — Oscar D'Angelo, known to many as the unofficial "Mayor of Little Italy" who worked to preserve the historic neighborhood that the city's Italian immigrants once called home, has died at 84.

Over decades, D'Angelo founded neighborhood organizations, including the University Village Association, and fought against developments, working to make Little Italy safer. He also worked as a lobbyist who could frequently be seen at City Hall.

A hands-on leader, D'Angelo was known to pick up garbage off the street, patrolling Taylor Street with a broom and shovel in hand.

"He was abrasive, but he did a lot for the neighborhood," Ald. Danny Solis (25th) said Monday. "He was all about making the neighborhood better."

Oscar D'Angelo (left), a longtime Little Italy power broker, has died. View Full Caption Facebook/And They Came To Chicago: The Italian American Legacy

Lauded by some, D'Angelo also was criticized for backing former mayor Richard J. Daley’s decision to raze parts of Little Italy to make way for the University of Illinois at Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

He was later a close ally of Richard M. Daley, but the two had a falling out over a controversial O'Hare Airport contract.

In 1988, D'Angelo barred from practicing law after federal investigators found he had arranged more than $10,000 in free rental cars for judges and city officials, the Sun-Times reported.

Little Italy powerbroker

Ald. Solis, whose ward includes part of Little Italy, remembered hearing about the legendary D'Angelo, an Italian gentleman who rubbed elbows with the city's movers and shakers, when he was appointed to the post in 1996.

As a freshman alderman living on the west end of Taylor Street, Solis would soon learn exactly how much influence D'Angelo, who welcomed Daley and Ald. Ed Burke (14th) as dinner guests, had.

In his first year, in office, Solis clashed with D'Angelo on a controversial deal to relocate a homeless shelter in the neighborhood.

"Oscar wanted to move it to the west end of the ward, but I didn't like that idea. And neighbors would say, 'Oscar wants it, and it's going to happen. He's the real alderman of Taylor Street.'"

Solis, also a Daley ally, called the Mayor for some advice.

"I asked him, 'Who is this guy? Keyser Söze?'" Solis said, referencing the feared and revered crime lord from the movie "The Usual Suspects."

"And [Daley] asked, 'Who is the Alderman [there] anyway?'" Solis asked. "And I said, 'I am, Mayor!'" Solis remembered with a chuckle.

Over the next 20 years, Solis and D'Angelo would agree and disagree on neighborhood issues, said Solis. When you disagreed, "you would have to battle him. If you didn't hold your ground, he would bulldoze you."

"He would meet with you, he would make arguments, he would try to entice you with fundraising, he would do whatever it took," said Solis, who called D'Angelo a friend. "But if you stood your ground, he respected you."

Burke said D'Angelo was "a true renaissance man" who had a passion for the neighborhood where he was born and raised. Walking down Taylor Street, D'Angelo knew every person, shop, corner and stoop.

The media came to call him “The Mayor of Little Italy” because he played such an influential role in preserving the iconic neighborhood, Burke said.

"But, beyond all else, he was a dear, charming, stubborn and engaging friend who will be impossible to forget and truly missed," he said.

'Unaplogetic doer'

Armando Chacon, president of the West Central Association, worked on a number of projects with D'Angelo over the years. D'Angelo, a great storyteller, was "an unapologetic doer," who was "misunderstood," Chacon said.

"He may have been controversial but got things done time and time again," the West Loop leader said. "He was also misunderstood but there was no questioning his good intentions and love for the neighborhood."

Ald. Danny Solis (left) with Oscar D'Angelo (right). View Full Caption Ald. Danny Solis' office

John Walsh, president of the University Village Association, has called D'Angelo a friend for 25 years. The "warm, fun" leader could "yell and scream" at you one day "and love you the next day, Walsh said.

"He didn't hold grudges," Walsh said.

D'Angelo had a tremendous impact on the neighborhood, and was good at getting consensus among neighbors — whether it was to remove a strip of chain-link fences along Bishop Street or garnering support for the then-new UIC campus.

"Every good thing that is in our neighborhood is because of him. Every improvement, every street paving, every tree planted," Walsh said.

Chris Provenzano, who worked with D'Angelo as the executive director of the University Village Association for eight years, called D'Angelo a visionary with high standards.

"He was a great person to work with, and an even better person to know personally," Provenzano said.

D'Angelo was interviewed for a film called "And They Came To Chicago: The Italian American Legacy." A small park next to the Congress Parkway was named after him.

In recent years, D'Angelo lived in a building adjacent to Garibaldi Park and he could be seen walking the neighborhood. The building had a large fountain.

A wake is planned on Friday at Our Lady of Pompeii, 1224 W. Lexington St., and a funeral on Saturday.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: