Witnesses today watched a man berate two Asian women who volunteered to collect signatures to recall District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio after he tore up their campaign signs.
Around 1 p.m. near 22nd Avenue and Irving Street, at a folding table with “Recall Engardio” literature, a man who appeared to be in his 50s took the sign off, tore it apart, and stepped and spat on it, according to Albert Chow, a recall supporter and president of the neighborhood group People of Parkside Sunset, who spoke to the volunteers after the incident.
The man yelled at Grace and Lisa, the two Asian women in their late 60s and early 70s, saying they shouldn’t be collecting signatures on the street.
Joy, a hairdresser at Salon De Hong Kong across the street, who declined to give a last name, saw the incident through the windows of her business.
“I saw him throwing things on the ground over there,” Joy said in Mandarin. “He paced back and forth past the table a few times. I don’t know what he was upset about.” Joy said she did not see any physical attack and the man walked away afterwards.
It was the first time Joy saw the recall campaign tabling at the corner, but she was not surprised they had chosen to set up shop there. “It was a very popular corner during the elections,” she said.
Richard Corriea, a retired police commander co-leading the Engardio recall, who also spoke with the volunteers around 2:30 p.m., didn’t think much of the incident, saying the volunteers seemed unfazed. The petitions remained untouched.
After the incident, the volunteers picked up the signs and re-taped them to the table. “They were fine and continued to get the signatures,” Corriea said. He offered to stand with them next time they collect, but they declined.
Sam Singer, a consultant for the Stand With Joel campaign, confirmed that the man had nothing to do with the anti-recall campaign.
“It’s a terrible thing when anybody gets attacked,” Singer said. “Nobody should have that happen to them. I’m very upset to hear that. I hope the women are okay.”
The volunteers, who both speak English, described the man as a white male, six-feet tall, said Chow, and recognized him as “a regular in the neighborhood.”
“They were shaken up,” said Chow.
Chow said he is helping the volunteers to file a police report.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Engardio may not have created the atmosphere surrounding the Great Highway issues. Still, he has fanned the flames by taking a position contrary to the vast majority of voters in his district on a divisive issue, putting it out for a citywide vote with minimal discussion in his district, and doing it in a way that limited consideration of other alternatives. It’s a power play funded by his billionaire buddies. SF Politics 101, indeed.
Well said, thanks so much for posting! You are so right, a ‘hard’ stop, no discussion, worse yet, no alternative, i .e.,
weekdays= open to vehicles weekends+holidays=closed for people only.
I/we trusted him to do right by us.
We were tricked. He knew exactly how to get ‘it’ done…open/close; yes/no; submit last minute.
Engardio has already betrayed low-income renters and YIMBY talking points :
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.
Bait and switch. Deliberate. Shameless! He’s no ally to the working class.
Engardio is a traitor to every constituency eventually; he can’t be trusted by anyone. He will say anything for personal political gain and that’s why recalling him and sparing the rest of the state his spinelessness and lack of character is absolutely necessary as he attempts to springboard into higher office in the CA legislature next. Get the liars out while we can!
He actually DID create the atmosphere – by lying on every single part of it, throwing away a compromise and sneaking his Billionaire-backed lies on the ballot at the very last minute without community input from actual impacted locals. He’s scum.
He took a courageous stance knowing the westside obstructionists would resist any changes to their suburban mindset.
If you don’t live in the district you aren’t affected by having 30,000 more vehicles on your street instead of on the wide open and safe highway that everyone uses because it’s useful, and you really shouldn’t get a say in that either. Prop K was served up with a ton of outright lies at the last minute by Billionaire money. People supporting that type of process are the ones with the obstructionist mindset – obstructionists to the facts and to representative government as it was designed.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/forum/great-highway-closure-sets-dangerous-sf-politics-precedent/article_846d6bfc-eef7-11ef-8a24-6f58683cd2ae.html
Engardio and the “non-profit” Billionaire crew lie as often as they breathe.
That’s absolutely ridiculous, and I think you know very well that’s a lie. NONE of the signature gatherers on the Engardio recall campaign are receiving any money whatsoever.
You gotta be desperate when you are buying TV ads for an election that hasn’t happened yet. Where do I sign?
“Sam Singer, a consultant for the Stand With Joel campaign, confirmed that Engardio’s lies have caused his crazy supporters to act crazier than usual.”
No one helped them. That’s much worse than what the man did.
Hiring Sam Singer is a tacit admission of guilt.
My office is in the Sunset, down the street from where this happened.
Joel is doing a great job, probably the best sitting Supervisor. But he poorly misread his electorate when he chose to campaign for the road closure.
On the other hand, it is nice to see a politician with a spine.
Joel is the most corrupt and lying supervisor the Sunset has ever had, even trying to take personal credit as if he invented Lunar New Year and night markets in SF. He’s a joke and he’s circling the drain because nobody believes a word that liar says anymore except people on his payroll, or the corrupt “non-profits” that his Billionaire backers use to funnel money into his corrupt campaigns. He didn’t hire Sam Singer because he was doing a great job, that’s not how it works, nice try rubes.
Typical techbro spiel, ignore the story about Engardio supporters harassing old asian ladies doing their civic duty to fire the liar and try to change the subject instead. Nice try there Sam Singer, real smooth.
And I thought Mar was bad. You take the cake.
I completely support Engardio. He is a very responsive Supervisor and works hard. I also support shutting down the Great Highway. I think it could’ve been left open on weekdays and closed on weekends. And, by the way, I live in the Sunset. The signature gatherers I’ve met for the recall campaign are all paid.
Terry —
The recall campaign reports zero paid signature-gatherers. These are the sorts of things that you put on your financial reports, and it’s not there. Would you care to elucidate?
Yours,
JE
It is not true that all the signature gatherers are paid.
Terry you ever get caught lying like Baldface Joel did? Yeah.
The campaign employs no paid-per-signature gatherers whatsoever at this point in time. It employs two Field Directors to direct a strictly volunteer gathering effort, as disclosures… disclose.