Last week, your humble narrator joked with his colleagues that Supervisor Joel Engardio appearing in a forum discussing the Great Highway would go over as well as New York Mayor Eric Adams appearing in a forum to discuss ethics.
And then what happened? Adams, whose corruption case is being dropped by the Department of Justice in what looks to be a clear quid-pro-quo for the New York mayor to allow the feds to begin rousting undocumented immigrants, appeared on the Fox & Friends program alongside Trump border czar Tom Homan. While Adams beamed the sort of grin you’d make if you were forced to eat kitty litter, Homan said — out loud, mind you — “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City and … I’ll be in his office, up his butt and saying ‘where the hell is the agreement we came to?’”
Homan didn’t mention the part where he can push a button and a bomb explodes in Eric Adams’ head. Perhaps that would be too unsubtle.
Which brings us back to Engardio, who is tasked with an arduous march through the sand dunes of the west side to save his political career. Unlike Adams, Engardio hasn’t done anything illegal. Depending on who you ask, he hasn’t even done anything wrong. But he did do something unpopular: Engardio was the driving force behind Proposition K, which closed the Great Highway to cars so a future oceanside park can be created. It passed with 55 percent of the vote. But in Engardio’s own District 4, a near-supermajority opposed the measure. In the three conservative-leaning precincts that pushed him to victory in his 2022 contest against incumbent supervisor Gordon Mar, nearly 77 percent of voters inveighed against Prop. K.
This inspired no small amount of fist-shaking and fulminating. But it did more than that: On Jan. 21, angry district residents submitted the requisite forms and began circulating petitions to recall Joel Engardio. They have until May 22 to acquire 9,911 valid signatures; Engardio, who came to the political fore by backing recalls, is now facing one himself.
Along with fog and sand, signature-gatherers hitting farmers markets and grocery stores and knocking on doors are now a feature of Westside life. Engardio has received some $100,000 from wealthy tech donors, along with smaller donations, and has engaged consultants Maggie Muir and Sam “Master of Disaster” Singer. They are, smartly, attempting to nip this thing in the bud by mounting a campaign against the signature-gathering; to do otherwise would be like a castle’s defenders allowing the invaders to assemble the battering ram and siege towers before opening fire. Pro-Engardio people are at those farmers markets and grocery stores and knocking on doors, too. With an ample war chest, they’re also mailing fliers to voters’ homes.
The goal, Muir says, is to push the message that the recall is wasteful and uncalled-for, and that Engardio is working hard for the district on a multiplicity of issues. “The best defense,” Engardio tells us, “is the work that I do.”
The strategy, adds Singer, “is for Joel Engardio to continue being Joel Engardio.”
But that’s a double-edged sword. Engardio was a former staff writer at SF Weekly — and a very good one. He’s a thinker and a talker and does not have the proclivity to spout banalites that many politicians do. So it was not difficult to find him, in public forums and in his own writings, re-litigating Prop. K.
It is hard to overstate how little upside there is for Engardio to be doing that. There are a number of strategies out there to beat back a recall: Dwelling upon a measure opposed by 64 percent of your constituents, many of whom are responding with great vengeance and furious anger, is not one of them.
Engardio is a smart man. But these are stupid times. They are, however, the stupid times partially of Engardio’s own making.
Precincts that supported Joel Engardio the most strongly opposed Prop. K
Precincts added to
District 4 in 2022
Percentage of District 4 voters who voted
against Prop. K in November 2024.
Percentage of first-choice votes Joel Engardio
received in the 2022 District 4 supervisor race.
Precincts added to
District 4 in 2022
Percentage of first-choice votes Joel Engardio
received in the 2022 District 4 supervisor race.
Percentage of District 4 voters who voted
against Prop. K in November 2024.
Chart by Kelly Waldron. Data from the San Francisco Department of Elections. Basemap from Mapbox.
The strategy being pushed by Muir and Singer, in fact, is to flood the zone with all the other stuff Engardio did and is doing. They can read a poll, and they know that it’s not productive for their client to be pigeonholed as the Great Highway Guy.
So, do you like those vibrant night markets? That’s Joel! Do you like merchants burned by the L-Taraval fixes taking only slightly less time than the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad — yes, this is true — getting a tax break? That’s also Joel. Do you like the attempt to bring back the sensible fashion of men wearing hats out of doors with suits? Yep: Joel.
Engardio is a hard worker. He’s given Muir and Singer plenty of good material to make their case. But here’s the thing: Successful attempts to implode past recall efforts have not played up the bona fides of the targeted politician. In fact, they’ve made a point of avoiding that.
“The instinct of the politician is always to defend their record. But as soon as you’re defending your record, you’re agreeing that the recall has valid premises,” said Clint Reilly, the political consultant turned real estate magnate and newspaper owner. He helmed Mayor Dianne Feinstein’s trouncing of a recall effort in 1983 and California state Sen. David Roberti’s successful rejection of a 1994 recall attempt.
“You never engage with the job performance issues suggested by the recall. You attack the recall’s credibility,” he continues. Successful recall defenses, he says, came about because “voters thought it was an unfair and ridiculous recall.”
So, speaking of ridiculous, the 1983 recall was pushed by the White Panthers, a fringe group enraged at Feinstein’s attempt to ban handguns at a time when the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were a fresh memory. The attempt to recall Roberti was also gun control-related, being initiated by the NRA. As a strategist, Reilly was blessed with extreme, even buffoonish opponents pushing unpopular positions. He took advantage of it: 81 percent of San Franciscans voted against the Feinstein recall, a far higher percentage than voted for her to be mayor.
Gov. Gavin Newsom took a similar approach when his strategists bested a recall in 2021 pushed by hard-right Republicans with the extreme, buffoonish Larry Elder as the face of that movement.
This is not an advantage that Team Engardio presently enjoys. Even if his anti-recall campaign does, at some point, make an issue of the behavior or demeanor of some of the recall supporters, it would, again, be counterproductive to relitigate Prop. K in District 4.
“This recall has instantaneous credibility,” sums up Reilly. “I like Engardio. He’s a good guy, and he’s generally doing a good job. But the recall is going to be about the substantive issue of whether you agree with the stand he took on closing the Great Highway.”
Another disadvantage for Engardio is that what constitutes an “unfair and ridiculous recall” is a malleable concept. In 1983 and 1994, recalls were a bit like pulling the emergency cord on the subway. Now they’re a bit more like pole dancing on the subway.
Especially in the Bay Area, recalls have become commonplace. As an up-or-down referendum on a sitting politician, it’s hard to think of any San Francisco elected official, especially one who attained office via ranked-choice voting, who would reliably survive a recall attempt once one qualified for the ballot.
And this is where the irony comes in, and the schadenfreude. Engardio was a prominent figure in the successful recall campaign of three members of the San Francisco Board of Education. He also supported the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin. His support and normalization of recalls detracts from his ability to run against them as a concept.
Incidentally, Engardio’s constituent Boudin opposes this recall attempt. So does his constituent Gordon Mar. “I don’t support Joel’s recall for the same reasons I opposed the recalls in 2022,” Mar tells us. “I believe recalls should be reserved for cases of misconduct or ethical violations.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie, meanwhile, refused to comment on his position on the proposed recall. There’s a “Casablanca” quote for all occasions, and this one is “I stick out my neck for nobody.” Getting involved in this affair, one way or the other, will result in damage incurred.
The recall campaign, in its Feb. 13 filing, reported raising only $8,960. That’s not so much. But co-organizer Rich Corriea says they’ve had a little boost, and currently have $22,000 from 129 individual donors. He says more than 800 people have registered to be volunteers, and 50 are regular volunteers. The campaign has a goal of collecting 100 signatures a day.
The first signatures are always the easiest, but if it hits that goal, it will turn in 12,000 signatures on May 22. Of note, 13,183 residents voted against Engardio in his 2022 race, and a number of the 13,643 people who voted for him have strong feelings about closing the Great Highway.
It’s going to be a battle at every District 4 farmer’s market, grocery store and doorstep. And, come May 22, we’ll figure out if the city is moving forward with its pettiest recall yet. Until the next one.
Yes. Engardio actually endorsed the toxic and unhinged D4 candidate.
https://www.milkclub.org/louiestatement
Remember too: Engardio remained mum when psycho Garry Tan tweeted death threats against his peers, 7 democratically elected supervisors.
Engardio is the Garry Tan Supervisor, absolutely. Look who backs him in the recall, it’s the EXACT SAME BILLIONAIRE TROLLS as ever. Breed’s brood. The Wiener Play.
Look at him selling out the YIMBY talking point about lowering rents:
48hills.org/2025/02/planners-approve-golf-club-industrial-building-put-conditions-on-engardio-condo-conversions/
He’s giving away rent-control protections for ADU’s, the entire premise of ADU’s being “streamlined” and made more affordable for owners was to make the units affordable housing for renters to ease the housing crisis. That’s why it exists, and he’s taking that program and turning it into a cash cow for developers instead.
He’s a traitor to every constituency eventually; he can’t be trusted by anyone.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/forum/great-highway-closure-sets-dangerous-sf-politics-precedent/article_846d6bfc-eef7-11ef-8a24-6f58683cd2ae.html
HE IS A SHAMELESS LIAR. HIS BACKERS ARE SAME.
I didn’t know about this. Argh!
I would like to understand, as a resident of District 7, how Joel Engardio is a “hard worker”. To make pronouncements like this, without evidence is not good journalism. Night markets? Not hard work – he farmed this out to groups like Sunset Mercantile. Hard work is going out and meeting with ALL your constituents to see what needs are pressing if the GH is closed. It is working AHEAD of time with SFMTA and the Feds (OB is a federal park) to figure out how can we prevent traffic issues for constituents and perhaps increase transit service.
He did none of this. It is clear that many people will make money off the closure of the GH and it ain’t going to be the working class people who make up the majority of the district. Of course, the new tech bros who decided to buy out in the Sunset during the pandemic are behind this effort. “discovered” the Sunset with such a colonial mentality it makes me furious. Some of us have been here for a long time and have scrimped and saved to stay. A lot of these new folks, work from home and get all their necessities delivered because they have that kind of money. Most of us out here do not. We are holding on to a piece of the city we love by our fingernails and this guy is completely out of touch with us. He has to go. Whether it’s a recall or him being voted out (my preference), he’s going to be run out of the Sunset.
It’s ironic to see Supervisor Joel Engardio, who previously championed recall efforts, now facing a recall himself. This situation mirrors Mayor Daniel Lurie’s attempt to remove Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone, suggesting a pattern of political retribution. Engardio’s support for the mayor’s actions against Carter-Oberstone would highlight a double standard, as both officials are being targeted for their policy decisions rather than misconduct.
During a recent KQED radio interview, Lurie was asked about the obscenity of removing Oberstone, a consistent defender of oversight, fairness, justice and transparency. Lurie said he wanted someone who works “collaboratively.” This might not end well.
Clearly Lurie is taking a page out of Breed’s book. If you don’t do what I want you to do then you can’t stay. This was always my worry about Lurie, weak leadership. He’s proving the point.
I believe Engardio does meet the definition of misconduct. It may not be “a crime” to lie brazenly and undermine your district’s interests deliberately, making it less safe in the process against 2/3 of local public sentiment, but yeah, that’s misconduct. Certainly political malpractice at the very least. And if he weren’t such an outspoken supporter of recalls for LESSER offenses, it might not be quite so hypocritical for him to play possum and cry out to Billionaire backers for help vs. his “unfair” constituency finding him unfit to serve them.
Engardio should be recalled. He is supposed to represent his district, and on this issue of great importance to his constituents, he did not.
It makes sense for them to seek a supervisor who will support their interests.
Joel made his bed. He sold out the Sunset for his own interests. He betrayed and lied to us. The trust is gone, we cannot move forward with him. The Sunset deserves someone that serves the best interest of the Sunset. Shame on you Joel.
This article I have a minor problem with, pretending Engardio is the reason we have night markets? He didn’t start that in SF, we can certainly do it with any supervisor in there anytime we want to. He’s riding that like an accomplishment and the author praises Sam Singer for using it, almost. It’s so craven and ridiculous that these are the only things he can point to as “accomplishments” in some of the worst years in SF history – now decrying the recall is “too expensive” after they just planned a $50 million payout for repaving an “art gallery” on what he’s pretending is “park land”? It’s insane, the BS never ends. Facts do not matter to them and you have to doubt that they live in the district statistically speaking, because they don’t. It’s the Bicycle Coalition groupies and other associated “non-profit” downtown hacks. They don’t get a vote, they’ll find out what we decide as a district when we vote the clown out.
This is not a “petty “ recall. I live in the Inner Sunset. Our neighbors continues to block streets, slow streets, create SFMTA street mazes and now the closing of the Upper Great Highway. Our commutes are longer and more crowded and more dangerous than ever. This closing will push traffic into small streets, croweded 19th Ave. and Sunset Blvd., especially during commute times. For this of us who live on the West side it’s a a horrible situation. Engardio did not represent his constituency. He represented the east side of the city. Perhaps they can make him their Supervisor.
He is a very ambitious guy, and I’ve always thought that his goal is to be Mayor. So, through this lens it makes sense that he would appeal to the rest of SF on the GH in order to get his name ‘in lights’ on it. However, he and his advisors seriously underestimated the anger on the Westside as a whole from the JFK closure, which has caused heinous traffic jams to get across to the Westside and across GGP from the Richmond to the Sunset and vice versa. Add in closing the GH, as well as dubious potential SFMTA fixes’, and people here are fired up. He assumed his solid election result would hold on even if the GH vote went pearshaped. He is very, very wrong.
Why is the fact that he won his seat on a single issue (with a gerrymander) omitted. If the Great Highway stupidity wasn’t an issue he wouldn’t have gotten elected in the first place.
Joel has to go. It’s pretty simple, he’s supposed to represent his district, his district opposed this. You are not a king Joel and your cute little park in a terrible inconvenience to your district. The best thing would be to resign today. Bye Joel.
I agree with your point, but what park? There’s no plan or money for a park, just a developer land grab in K
Engardio should be recalled on the basis of his rabid support of recalls. That ugly truth layered on another hideous truth of the Redistricting Task Farce’s gerrymandering D4 to rig Engardio’s win and Gordon Mar’s ouster is equally glaring. People are furious and rightly so. Remember that time when Engardio endorsed the unhinged and toxic candidate who made slurs against ML’s managing editor and lied about her residency in order to run in D4? Many do.
I think Mar and Boudin have the right take on this: if you’re against the banalization of recalls, it doesn’t do any good to have yet another recall. Not even when the target had it coming because he gleefully pushed other recalls before.
It’d be one thing if he was using his office to promote the overuse of recalls. Then there’d at least be an argument that maybe this one more banalized recall would be worth it because it’d stop him from pushing for more. But this isn’t a question that the Board of Supes really has any power over — after all, his past recall work was before he got elected to this job anyway. So if Engardio gets recalled, the only thing that does to recalls is encourage more of them.
” the only thing that does to recalls is encourage more of them.”
I disagree with the premise, but at the same time if supervisors are afraid of losing their jobs by lying to their constituents, that’s not a minus in my ledger. We can afford 2 year elections for liars and the alternative is writing them blank checks for their special interest Billionaire-backed pet projects. Which is cheaper? THE RECALL, BY A LOT.
Doesn’t it depend on why the recalls happen? Mar and Boudin are wimps when it comes to political PR. They’re licking old wounds. I don’t think we have to look to them to decide the future of the Sunset at all. Engardio came in calling for recalls for lesser things than lying, and I’ll be damned if he isn’t the most prolific liar the Sunset has ever seen elected. Trying to take credit for night markets and algebra, bro find a new job already. You didn’t invent that.
the only way Joel is going to save his job is to go full Maga like Eric Adams, our latest national embarrassing turncoat. Joel should have known that the Prop K project, voted by area outsiders who have no plans to ever go there, will never find the funds to be built. Funds should be allocated for more urgent/important projects like saving our schools, our transportation and dealing with our street’s “problems”. Joel should keep doing what he knows well, travelling to Asia to discover night markets to see if we can do the same thing here.(it already exists but Joel is not aware of it. ..)
He didn’t represent his constituents, easy as that.
When was the last time that the appeal “recalls are wasteful, expensive and a project of sore losers” carried the day?
Not to mention look at the cost of the recall, minimal, vs the TENS OF MILLIONS in unfunded liabilities he’s put us on the hook for in the interest of serving his downtown developer masters instead of his constituents! He LOVES spending OUR MONEY on things WE DO NOT WANT, LYING TO OUR FACES ABOUT IT. He’s so done.
It is the lying I cannot stand. Disagree with me and be honest about it. I won’t like it but I will respect one as honorable. But don’t lie to my face and expect to be able to do business. Ronen tried that and I heckled her mercilessly when she tried to rustle up her nonprofit posse to get the contract for DSCS. They failed at that.
I’m with you on the lying and bullsh. I can’t take any more. I can’t look at his face without the absolute epitome of contempt for a lying scumbag and thief. That smirky “did I do that” grin, get it gone with the Breed clan.
Mr. Engardio revealed his true colors: He knowingly and actively betrayed his constituent’s trust and interests to serve his own interests when he actively pushed to shut the Great Highway. What insider knowledge does he have, and what’s in it for him to have done so? If he were a man of honor, he’d resign, but instead he doubles down to justify his actions, to get everyone to “move on”, and to actively resist recall efforts.
Joe, you correctly observe that an up-or-down vote would be a tough thing for a lot of incumbent politicians to win. But I want to push back on the idea that this has anything to do with ranked-choice voting. I think the same thing would be equally true, maybe even more so, if we were using the traditional first-past-the-post system.
The real danger, for an incumbent facing a recall, is having been the first choice for less than half of the voters when they got elected. But if someone “attained office via ranked-choice voting” (and if that means anything more specific than “won a San Francisco local election”), then *nobody* got more than half the first-choice votes in that election — if anybody had, then that person would have won. So any time that ranked-choice vs. first-past-the-post was relevant, electing somebody with a first-round majority wasn’t on the table; it was either the candidate with the largest coalition after the instant runoffs, or the candidate with a plurality of first choices.
And then I don’t think it’s at all clear that the winner in our ranked-choice system is more vulnerable than the hypothetical first-past-the-post winner would have been. The fundamental challenge for either of them is that each voter on the recall can compare them to their own personal ideal candidate, and find them wanting. For the ranked-choice winner, those voters who put them over the top in later rounds can at least be aware that their own first choices were knocked out early, and realize that that means the replacement they get may be someone they like worse than the incumbent — the replacement is more likely to be like the candidate they ranked below the incumbent in the first place, who made it to the final round despite their vote. The ranked-choice winner had (by definition) more of those voters than anyone else did, so may well be better placed to weather a recall than any other candidate would have been.
A cautionary tale……..Joel Engardio: poster boy for how to fail spectacularly at being a district supervisor.
Joel Engardio: pro recall zealot until his betrayed constituents chose to recall him…….then opponent of recalls.
Won’t forget seeing him at the farmers market more than once toting his sign and mobbing with rabid recallers.
And let’s not forget that “farmers market” is just in name to get support and access for its management org’s real agenda a mercantile. Only 25% of it is comprised of actual growers and
the rest of it is vendors and food stands. It’s so blatant, the Sunset Mercantile social media might post a photo of a farmer twice a year as they promote their real moneymakers relentlessly and even praise a coffee vendor as the backbone of the market, not the farmers!!! Various individuals have tried to get a farm market at this same location for 30 years. The neighborhood is prime for a quality farm market. It’s a disgrace.
And everyone realized the same Sunset Merchantile gets $100k grants for the markets. How much do they get for the other events they do for Joel? Let’s not forget all those vendors pay them to be there. Why do they get grant after grant?
Bicycle Coalitions don’t rule the Sunset. Bicycle Coalitions don’t outweigh our voters.
JOEL ENGARDIO is just another cynical empty suit politician up for sale and bought by big money developers. He deserves to be recalled because he betrayed his constituents. Let his recall send a strong message to all the other politicians that the voters will not tolerate this sort of betrayal. Joel sold out his district to attract more big money donors. Joel clearly has his eyes set on the mayors office or state office. The voters of district 4 will have their say and on that day the political ambitions of Joel Engardio will die on the sands of Ocean Beach.
Yessir.
He’s getting recalled. People on the West Side are pissed!
Indulge me, ask yourself a simple question: Why are THEY pushing for him?
WHY do BILLIONAIRES back this lying puppet for a Sunset district supervisor?
Why do Billionaires DO things generally? Is it usually altruism? Public good?
Ask yourself, would “you” screw “your” campaign manager’s wife, and if you “did”,
who would you hire to manage PR related to ALL the unforgivable indiscretions?
When they hire say, Sam Singer, is it because they’re generally straight shooters?
Clean, non-corrupt, ethical fellows recruit Sam Singer much, do you think? Eh?
And after qui bono, WHO PAYS FOR IT? Ah yes, the Billionaires.
Because we all love unaccountable Billionaires and their unforgivable indiscretions. It’s so impossible to keep track, why try? Recalls are hard.
We live in interesting times,
Two former mayors on Recalls:
Mayor Feinstein:
“You could get enough signatures to put an overhead sewer down Market Street on the Ballot.”
Mayor Will Brown:
“When you’re being recalled you’re running against yourself and no one can beat themselves.”
go Niners !!
h.
“I believe recalls should be reserved for cases of misconduct or ethical violations.”
BOTH APPLY HERE, WAKE UP TOOLS OF CORRUPT GOVERNANCE.
Yikes, a lot of angry people. I live in the sunset, I’m happy about prop k. I don’t see much of any reason why the GH needs to exist tbh. I live on a block with 6 houses, 2 are effectively empty, a third is a rental. (all of them have cars parked on them like it’s a used car lot) and it’s a short block and people treat it like a speedway. So I get the people blowing through stop signs sucks…you know who those people are? They look like the hardworking people of the sunset who can’t be bothered.
Look I get it, when your whole identity is owning a car it feels like a horrible inconvenience. It feels completely unjust when your dominant cultural behavior feels like it’s been encroached upon. And for those people that legit used the GH to drive from sloat/42nd to the richmond for work I’m genuinely sorry. I hope traffic improvements can be made (I’m sure they can but will they) to improve your journey. Because yes I also _have_ to drive my car in the city, and I hate it because of how badly things seem to be designed (if they ever were designed). But I also enjoy a walk/bike ride where I see people and their kids and everyone out in community instead of staring at their phones inside their oversized cars/suvs.
“pettiest?” If you lived out here and here the truck and motorcycle traffic at all times of the day, weekends. As you try to turn onto Sunset and watch the wave upon wave of traffic passing through your neighborhood without stopping to patronize any small businesses in the area, that is “petty.” Ask Mr. McGrath, a San Francisco resident, was a passenger in a Honda SUV that collided with an Audi SUV around 7:35 p.m. near the corner of 46th Avenue and Lincoln Street, who was killed Jan. 30, 2022 because the Great Highway was closed from Friday noon to early Monday morning. Could things have been different if the Great Highway was open? Petty.
It’s clear he doesn’t care about the Sunset. He wants to run for Mayor. Prop K support will be a vote getter for him, citywide.
Good for Engardio to stand his ground on the closure of the Great Highway! Even at risk of losing his job. I respect that. This decision makes sense, especially considering the area’s vulnerability to erosion, which makes it impractical to maintain it as a primary road. Residents in the western part of the city seem the most resistant to change, but change is necessary. The area needs to develop more densely, with increased housing and improved public transit options. It’s unfair to the rest of the city’s residents to compromise while those in the west enjoy a suburban-like lifestyle. Ironically, despite being a strong proponent of recalls, Engardio himself is now facing one. I agree that recalls should be reserved for misconduct and ethical violations. A great teaching moment for him though!
Reading these comments makes one sad to live in San Francisco. Joe let the people of the city vote on whether city owned land bordering the ocean better serves the city as a park. The election showed the city agreed with Joe. It was not in San Francisco’s interest to spend millions of dollars a year to maintain the land as road. San Francisco’s residents want it to be a park. People can recall Joe and the land will still become a park. It’s time to move on. The track record for making these changes is quite positive, removing highways in San Francisco has led to a better city. Based on these and many other comments, many on the Westside are not comfortable with living in a democracy where city residents get to decide best use of public space.
His name is Joel Engardio.
More like Lying Garbagio.
I don’t know Joel Engardio from Adam, and I get that we have district supervisor elections and his district voted against prop K. But the mission statement of the BOS is “The Board of Supervisors responds to the needs of the people of the City and County of San Francisco, establishes city policies, and adopts ordinances and resolutions.” The individual supes represent the whole city, not just the district in which they ran for election. That is a good thing. And SF as a whole pretty strongly favored prop K with 55% voting in favor. In my view, a recall of a supervisor should require a city-wide vote (and corresponding signature count). I don’t like the idea of a single district tossing out a supervisor for supporting a measure that the city’s voters also supported. I understand that is not the law governing recalls, but it should be. Joe E is right that this is SF’s “pettiest recall yet.”
What an idiotic endorsement. His district voted 2/3 against it. He lied about it, his process of putting it on the ballot with dark Billionaire money was inherently dishonest chicanery, and he snuck it on at the last minute instead of maintaining the hard-won compromise that existed – and in the process gave carte blanche to develop the beach “for environmentalism” (sic) including pouring concrete where they said they were concerned about Snowy Plover habitat, all while shifting tens of thousands of commuters on any given day into narrow residential streets without visibility or much traffic control. He’s a liar who came in on a political wave of discontentment and recalls, undermined his district’s safety, and is being removed because his district doesn’t trust him. The idea that you’d un-do a district election with a citywide one is moronic, frankly. Liars gotta go, petty half-defenses of dishonest carpetbagging for downtown developer interests don’t apply. Look at who is backing him – dark money Billionaires. Try saving your support for someone who actually deserves it next time.
Calm down. We get it, you’re very very upset. But, maybe get some fresh air. It helps clear one’s thoughts. I understand there is a nice park near the ocean where you can do just that. Enjoy!
It doesn’t sound like you live in the district, either of you.
Why do you think you should get a say about it? Why pretend to moderate our issue in the Sunset that you have nothing to do with?
They admit they don’t live in the district, but want to control our district elections. This is the problem with Bernal busybodies.
It’s all of our city, and just because you live nearby doesn’t mean you get exclusive claim to public property – which we _all_ pay for – no matter loud you may yell. Does D3 get exclusive say on what happens to the Embarcadero? (Remember when we had a citywide ballot measure trying to reduce the height of a building there?) Does D2 alone get to decide what happens to the Palace of Fine Arts? Not how it works. It’s never been how it works, sorry.
@d4 recall – “Yer not from aroun’ here, and we don’t cotton ta strangers in these parts.”
They want to pretend they believe in local democratic rule – until they don’t agree with it because it doesn’t pander to their bicycle fetishism. Then they’re autocrats, flick of the switch, and they demand they get to vote outside of their own district now… because it’s “cool, green” or something.
Tito do you have anything substantive to add, or just more chicanery and trolling from team Engardio @ downtown.biz?
Ocean Beach always was a park. Don’t be obtuse.
nice park with sand dunes covering everything, nice.
Tell us you don’t understand SF district elections without telling us you don’t understand SF district elections.
There is NOTHING PETTY about removing a BRAZEN LIAR.
Who cares what you think. He isn’t your supervisor.
Nobody deserves a recall as much as the Breed-backing Billionaire-dark-money liar who claims to have invented night markets and pretends to have saved the SFUSD from itself. His record is abysmal, he is the worst representative of the Sunset we’ve ever had, and he’s so content with lying to please his downtown masters that he doesn’t realize we his constituents can see him doing it! Kick the liar to the curb! Breed was removed for corrupt incompetence and Engardio is the poster child. He’s only using the office to try to springboard into CA politics, the Wiener model @ the Peter Principle. Save CA from his BS, RECALL THE BASTARD.
And sorry to Bernalites etc, but if you don’t live in the district YOU DON’T DECIDE.
WE do.
Such a smug liar. Shame on you Joel.
Thank you, Joel. Sincerely. Posterity will look back at your efforts to make the upper great highway a park favorably. (As will the majority of San Franciscans!) It is hard to imagine the future grandeur of this expanse of dune park! S.F. will become even more beautiful. Thanks again.
Guns and car lanes. Do anything to change how to access either, and many people seem to see red.
Closing the 2 miles of road south of Lincoln Way will save $1.5 million in investment work and $350-700k annually while additionally covering $2.7 million in costs for sorely needed safety and traffic improvements in the Sunset.
FWIW: I am on the west side, and my drives will be affected; the road should be closed. There are plenty of alternatives. It will be fine. Unfortunately, this knee jerk recall will end up wasting more money and time that should be spent on more important things.
“There are plenty of alternatives.” Another lie from team Engardio @ downtown.biz
Prop K has a line in it that the road must continue to be maintained but will be closed to private vehicular traffic. So there is no savings on road maintenance as it has to be accessible to emergency and maintenance (other city and federal vehicles).
The notion that there will be a savings is fantasy and peddled by Friends of
the Great Highway.
Elena and d4 Recall troll dropping falsehoods left and right.
Specifically?
Let’s go, prove your point, Brandon?
The cost of (unfunded) Prop K development far exceeds your 3 Million, it’s not even close. You really can’t tell the truth any better than Joel can?
I can’t wait to see the novel.
I can’t wait to see him get his first actual job.
The hypocrisy with recalls could very well go both ways. Mar is at least being consistent here, and good for him for that, but lots of SF progs declared in 2022 that recalls were only for cases of legitimate corruption. I’ll be quite surprised if some of them don’t suddenly, magically, find reason to support this one, despite it being over just a disagreement on policy.
Engardio is legitimately corrupt. He lied, he undermined safety in his district. He pretends to this day that closing 1 road is an “environmental” concern. Nothing could be further from the truth, he’ll just bring more accidents and more vehicle exhaust to people’s front doors in the neighborhood. He sold out.
That’s why he’s gone, nobody trusts the liar. The ONLY ONES who are interested in preserving his dishonest supervisorship are the downtown dark money interests he actually serves, not his constituency. Good riddance to carpetbagger rubbish.
Closing on of the safest roads in SF to put 20k cars on to Sunset Blvd, the road the orgs used to call deadly, and other residential streets full of people, families, schools, libraries and other parks.
And no planning or forethought. Just lock a gate, throw a victory party and let the chaos begin.
I don’t enjoy cars doing 50 mph, blowing stop signs on my street that was so sleepy kids played ball on it before.
Honesty, then policy. You keep pretending he’s like other supervisors, he’s not.
Wow, what a terrible article. No quotes at all from recall proponents, no attempt to examine the issue and why so many residents in both District 4 and District 1 are angry with the Great Highway closure, and with Engardio for his betrayal of those who voted for him. On top of that, Mr. Eskanazi throws in a gratuitous comment about ranked choice voting — hey Joe, you might want to take a look at the Dept of Elections website for the D4 race in 2022. There were only two candidates in the race, Engardio and incumbent Gordon Mar. So the RCV tally never came into play, RCV had ZERO impact on this race. See https://www.sfelections.org/results/20221108/data/20221201/d4/d4_detail.pdf
Geez, this is what passes for “snarky journalism” in SF today. For those interested, here is an article that explains what the Great Highway closure issue is about, and why it is a terrible idea — and why Engardio should be recalled. https://48hills.org/2021/09/the-great-highway-shutdown-fiasco/
Closing the Great Highway is what’s best for the whole city. Erosion aside, the Great Highway’s use is being exaggerated by the adjacent community which is largely made up of NIMBYs who are frightened by change.
Wrong, check a map. The part south of Sloat may or may not permanently close, but that doesn’t affect the usefulness of getting from the Richmond to Sloat and then up the 7-8 blocks to Skyline. There’s no “alternative” route that doesn’t clog up with traffic and 20,000-30,000 drivers per day skipping this shortcut through the neighborhoods without even stop signs on every corner is a legit safety concern for residents. You don’t live in the Sunset, do you? Why do you opine? Sunset gets the vote on whether he sold us out or not. And he did, and he lied about it, and he took dark Billionaire money to do it, and deliberately put it on at the last minute. He’s a liar and we can do better.
Don’t forget it threatens our safety. Sunset is already dangerous and traffic will spill on to our residential streets, just like it did before the compromise that arose because $500k couldn’t solve the traffic and safety issues.
I always find the label “NIMBY” from the pro-K people to be amusing. The GH was always enjoyed by everyone – drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians – and drivers have now been pushed off the road by the other two groups. It’s very clear who the real NIMBY’s are.
“Closing the Great Highway is what’s best for the whole city.”
“And I say that living nowhere near it, like all Prop K supporters.”
No irony. No sarcasm. No concept.
The land does not belong to the people in district 4 or district 1. There was an election. The city decided. It’s time to move on.
The city didn’t decide, they voted on a basically fraudulent proposition that was based on deliberately false information and put on the ballot at the extreme last minute deliberately for your “excuse” of fait accompli. It’s going to be struck in the courts, cost more than your google lawyers are willing to donate, and result in accidents and traffic jams in the sunset that will surely shape politics for the next 2-6 years. Face it, Engardio is a liar and you are among his troubador’s troupe of clueless rubes who dance to the music. Move on anytime, but we’re recalling the liar and forcing these carpetbaggers to get real jobs in SF before they sell us to the downtown Billionaires, thanks though.
San Francisco voters decided by a wide margin that turning public land into a park was best for the city. The people that voted for prop K are your neighbors and fellow San Franciscans. Joel did not cause San Francisco’s residents to pass the measure, he voted to allow the issue to be put on the ballot so everyone could decide how best to use the city’s land. The city of San Francisco decided by a wide margin that it was best to use the public land as a park. This was not done last minute, the proposition was well publicized and people understood the issues. Now, the city is going to have an amazing park by the ocean. People will be able to use other roads to get around. It is time to move on. Taking a walk in the park can help.
San Francisco voters, again, voted on a basically fraudulent proposition that was based on deliberately false information and put on the ballot at the extreme last minute deliberately for your “excuse” of fait accompli. It’s going to be struck in the courts, cost more than your google lawyers are willing to donate, and result in accidents and traffic jams in the sunset that will surely shape politics for the next 2-6 years. Face it, Engardio is a liar and you are among his troubador’s troupe of clueless rubes who dance to the music. Move on anytime, but we’re recalling the liar and forcing these carpetbaggers to get real jobs in SF before they sell us to the downtown Billionaires, thanks though Chris from Bernal or wherever that doesn’t get to vote in SUNSET DISTRICT ELECTIONS. Pipe off now 2 wheels.