Supervisor Myrna Melgar did not hesitate before answering “yes” when asked if she feels this iteration of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is “too deferential to the mayor.”
With a “steep learning curve” on how to legislate and get things done, the board has tended to “go along with the mayor,” sometimes “reflexively,” Melgar said during an onstage interview Wednesday evening with Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi at Manny’s Cafe.
Melgar, who was elected in 2020, is one of the longest-serving members of the legislative body.
Four of the 11 supervisors were elected in 2024, when the moderate Democrats of the city took over the majority of the board. Another two were appointed — by Mayor London Breed (December 2024) and Daniel Lurie (December 2025), respectively.
“When something gets introduced by the mayor’s office,” Melgar said, “a lot of times, folks will be like, ‘Okay, he’s the mayor. Let’s vote on it.’ And it usually ends up being yes.” In comparison, Lurie’s predecessor, London Breed, often faced strong pushback from her board colleagues.
It’s easier and more clean-cut to say a plain yes or no to legislation, Melgar said, but working on amendments and bringing people to an agreement requires more work, such as talking to departments and negotiating with colleagues.
“Folks have not been as willing to do that,” Melgar said, sometimes because they “don’t quite know how to do that yet.”
The deference to the mayor comes partly because the board “trusts” that the mayor is “doing what he needs to do,” Melgar said, but also because of the “myth that the mayor is doing really well.”
“You know, ‘Let’s go, San Francisco,’” Melgar said. “If we are not voting with him, we’re maybe not down with ‘Let’s go, San Francisco.’”
Mayor Lurie, Melgar said, is “nice and kind and generous with his time” in the social-media department and his “enthusiasm for our city.” But she added that “there is this myth that our mayor has turned our city around. And I’m not sure that’s quite what is happening.”
For example, the decrease in crime rates is “part of a national phenomenon” as major cities across the country are all seeing fewer crimes, Melgar said. The comeback of the city’s economy followed the low points during the pandemic. These may not be this mayor’s credit to take, she said.
Melgar, who represents District 7, covering Inner Sunset in the north to Parkmerced in the south, has positioned herself as “an unapologetic progressive urbanist.” Terming out in 2029, Melgar has a list of things to do before leaving office. Top of that list:
- A sustainable, consistent source of funding for affordable housing development — a fund that the city can “predict, bond against and plan against.”
- Legislation to create a program for co-op housing, especially on the Westside, with good schools and public space. “We want to create homeownership opportunities that are accessible to middle-class people, not just the ultra-rich,” she said.
- Universal child care, a promise from the 2018 baby Prop. C. “We are about 40 percent of the way there,” she said. Early this year, Mayor Lurie expanded access to free and subsidized childcare, but there are “structural issues” that require legislation, Melgar said.
In the hour-long conversation, Melgar looked back at her past five years in office and pointed to her long list of achievements on housing and transportation: Breaking ground at the 1,100-unit Balboa Reservoir housing project next to City College of San Francisco, the Stonestown redevelopment plan that will bring 3,500 new residential units to the parking lot next to the buzzing shopping mall, and protected bike lanes on Frida Kahlo Way at City College.
Melgar has managed to appease and get reelected in a district that includes both the progressive neighborhoods like Inner Sunset and Park Merced, and the more conservative areas like Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood.
In the 2024 election, Melgar’s top challenger, Matt Boschetto, ran on a platform that is largely different from hers: Public safety and tough-on-crime policies, rather than density and transit. Boschetto spent some $400,000 to unseat Melgar, but she won with 53 percent of the vote.
Through fights from housing development to bike lanes during her two terms, Melgar said she hopes to pull the district a bit in her direction.
“Little by little, we progress, we evolve in our thinking,” she said. “We see the outcome of the things that we feared, and see, ‘well, it’s not so bad.’”
