How door-knocking is shaping Joel Engardio’s fate

While the Board of Supervisors was in recess and supervisors traveled to Mexico, Italy and elsewhere, Joel Engardio has been in a bare-knuckle fight for his political survival.

This is what he’s up against: In the general election in November, Engardio backed Prop. K to close the Great Highway. It won citywide, but lost heavily in Engardio’s district, and he became the target of a recall. 

That means, in the hope of staving off a Sept. 16 special election for his recall, Engardio is going door-to-door out in the Sunset, literally. This summer, the supervisor canvassed from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. — five hours a day, seven days a week.

“Increased turnout is the way we beat it,” Engardio said to supporters recently.

Some 50,000 voters live in District 4. Last November, over 36,800 voted on Prop. K; of those, 23,480, or 64 percent, voted against it. 

During the signature gathering, more than 10,000 residents signed the petition to recall Engardio. As of Thursday, more than 10,000 ballots, representing 20 percent of all District 4 voters, have been returned.

On Thursday, Engardio’s campaign said that it had identified 7,760 voters who supported the supervisor since June 1, and 4,615 who opposed him.

Otto Pippenger, the recall’s field director, said he was pleasantly surprised by the number. “I thought they would have much more, at least over 10,000.”

On a recent Thursday evening, as he did all summer long, Engardio knocked on doors. On this particular evening, he was near 47th Avenue and Noriega Street in a blue button-down shirt, khaki pants and a baseball cap, the same “uniform” he wore to knock on doors in his victorious 2022 campaign.

It worked then. Would it work again?

It seemed to — that day, at least.

“We are not into recalls,” one resident told Engardio. “They are a waste of time.” 

With limited time to make his case, Engardio skips houses with recall signs, and only tries to either persuade undecided voters or urge allies to actually vote. When met with a friendly face, he reminds them to mail in their ballots and to encourage their neighbors to do the same. 

One resident, speaking to Engardio from his window, said in a stern voice that he is voting yes on the recall. He answered almost all of Engardio’s questions in one-syllable words. 

Over the course of 90 minutes, the other handful of voters Engardio spoke with gave much warmer responses and had other worries. “Speeding on this block,” a resident said after Engardio asked about his worries. “And more police presence, hopefully.”

Another resident, a mother of a 15-year-old, said that after the Great Highway closure her street, 46th Avenue, “has turned into a superhighway.” Still, she said, she is happy with the new park.

Jamay, a six-year Sunset resident, opened her door with her dog, Mr. Brown. She recognized Engardio and guessed why he was there.

“It feels like in this national and city climate,” she told Engardio, “recalls are just such a waste of money and time.” 

She has seen online complaints about Sunset Dunes park, but in real life she has only seen people “connecting out here in new ways, seeing their neighbors and meeting new people.” 

“You can never make everybody happy. This is part of being in community together and being in the city together,” she said.  

That has proven true. Since November, the recall has become one of the most controversial and divisive issues in the Sunset District. “I always laugh when I see one house that says, ‘Recall Engardio,’ and his neighbor’s ‘Stand with Joel,’” one resident said of the divide. “I wonder how they get along.” 

They don’t always. 

On the other side

A few days later, on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, the recall campaign set up a folding table on Vicente Street near a corner of Parkside Square. Some 20 volunteers showed up to canvass by 2 p.m., said Pippenger, the recall’s field director. 

Heather Davies and Damien Rashidi, both volunteers, worked as a pair on the blocks near 27th Avenue and Vicente Street. 

Davies, a recall volunteer since February, knew what she was doing: She memorized the voters’ names before ringing the bell. She spoke out loudly at the doorway before anyone even answered the door, introducing herself and asking if the resident had received a ballot.

She noticed if residents seemed more likely to enter through their front door or garage, to decide where to leave the recall flyer.

In two hours, Davies and Rashidi canvassed 26 houses: Eight voters confirmed they would or already had voted for the recall. For those they didn’t reach, the volunteers called later, or made a note to come back later. 

Those blocks were among the Sunset precincts least supportive of Prop. K — 71 percent of the voters opposed it. The recall volunteers focused on getting the 10,000 people who signed the recall petition to vote.

At some doors, before the recall volunteers said anything, residents were quick to respond. 

“We did it already,” one said. 

“I am voting for the recall,” said another, saying he would return his ballot soon.  

Davies and Rashidi asked supported if they would put up a window sign. If they already had, they stepped up and asked for a donation. 

“Gotta keep our very skilled organizers paid,” Davies told this reporter. Three recall campaign staffers are on the payroll. 

Some residents were vocal about the Great Highway’s closure. 

“Living in the Richmond, we got fucked!” said one, a man who had just moved to the Sunset from the Richmond, as his wife and mother-in-law moved boxes of diapers from the car. 

“We’ve been over there for years, and they’ve systematically cut off roads through Golden Gate Park,” he said. “Especially on festival weekends, you are not getting out of the Richmond.” 

Anti-recall critics say this is “a single issue” or “policy disagreement” that should be put to rest. But on the campaign trail, the pro-recall side is also anxious to tie Engardio to another unpopular issue: Upzoning to increase height and density on the Westside. 

So, along with recall flyers and window signs, Davies prepared a letter opposing the upzoning plan, in both English and Chinese. “Can I give you a little booster pack?” she asked a resident who already voted for the recall, handing her the letter. 

Davies said she wants the recall to be a warning to the city’s elected officials regarding any future change in neighborhoods.

“I want this result to be so strong and have such a margin of victory that the mayor and the Board of Supervisors realize that it’s at their own peril if they ignore our interests,” she said. “All of them.”