In 1983, Mayor Dianne Feinstein overwhelmingly beat a recall initiated by zany gun nuts.
This came at a time when the gun murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were hardly a distant memory. The terrain favored the incumbent, whose campaign wisely made the recall not a valediction on her performance but instead ridiculed the notion of a recall and the fringe recallers.
This was never an option for Supervisor Joel Engardio, whose means of political ascent was participating in recall movements. The recall against him had instantaneous credibility, and was wholly tied to whatever you thought about his stand on closing the Great Highway.
In November, 64 percent of Engardio’s constituents rejected Engardio’s stance on that issue. In tonight’s early returns, 65 percent of Engardio’s constituents rejected Engardio.
That hardly seems coincidental or subtle. Sometimes things really, really aren’t coincidental or subtle.
Mark it zero, Dude: It’s a new political moment in San Francisco. Ask a San Francisco politico when recalls will fade from prominence, and the answer is simple: When someone beats one.
That wasn’t today. If Team Engardio had beaten this one, they’d have been talking about it for the rest of time like Joe Namath is still talking about Super Bowl III.
Instead, a whole new political dynamic opened up today. The modern San Francisco recall movement, a conduit for billionaire dollars to dislodge progressive politicians, has lost one of its own. Unlike other recalls in recent San Francisco history, this one did not enjoy the patronage of billionaire backers.
Quite the opposite: The near majority of the money donated to keep Engardio in office emanated from three wealthy backers. And the recall succeeded — overwhelmingly succeeded — in spite of them.
It turns out you don’t need wealthy benefactors to run a successful (overwhelmingly successful) recall. As such, this weapon has slipped out of the hands of the elites and down to the masses.
This feels a bit like non-Western nations getting The Bomb. It will be interesting to see who gets blown up next.
It could be so many targets. Because, as we’ve written before, the recall of Joel Engardio — especially by overwhelming vote totals — is a shot across the bow of every San Francisco elected official.
No, not every supervisor who votes for Mayor Daniel Lurie’s upzoning plan is going to face a recall. But any supervisor who is perceived as blowing off their constituency is now taking their chances.
And that’s because there are so many people eager to push The Button.
The anger level behind this recall was, at times, difficult to fathom. Even the recall campaign was taken aback by tonight’s margin of victory. San Franciscans have been nurtured in their anger for some time now, to the exclusion of quantifiable facts.
This was a dangerous game for politicians to play — we all know Churchill’s dictum about riding tigers. Or, in the parlance of our times: Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear, well, he eats you.
There was little doubt about who was eaten today. And San Francisco offers a veritable smörgåsbord of potential political meals in the not-too-distant future.
Mayor Daniel Lurie opposed Prop. K last year. He took no position on the recall, doing his best imitation of the Homer retreating into the bushes meme anytime the subject came up. The mayor, incidentally, spent today observing “improved” tennis courts at McLaren Park with Swiss 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer.
When the disastrous results dropped tonight for Engardio, Lurie released the following statement:
As I campaigned for mayor last year, I heard countless west side families say what San Franciscans have been feeling for years: that their government is doing things to them, not with them, and that government is not working to make their lives better.
That’s why my administration has continued to communicate openly and transparently with San Franciscans on a wide range of important issues—from public safety and the behavioral health crisis to affordable housing and public space. This honest dialogue has bred a strong working relationship with the Board of Supervisors and a shared feeling that San Francisco is coming back stronger than ever. We will continue to be in constant communication with our partners in government and across communities as we work to make San Franciscans’ lives better—that means delivering a city that is safe and clean, where small businesses can thrive and the next generation of San Franciscans can afford to raise their children.
As votes are still being counted and the election will be certified in the coming weeks, our team is evaluating next steps for the District Four supervisor seat.
Woah. Looks like Roger Federer isn’t the only one with a wicked backhand.
If you’re looking for big winners tonight, look no further than Engardio’s northern neighbor, District 1 supervisor Connie Chan. She has just been empowered tremendously in her attempt to negotiate amendments to Lurie’s upzoning plan.
She can continue to speak softly. Tonight’s recall just provided the big stick.
It is now incumbent on Lurie to name Engardio’s successor. In their zeal to oust Engardio, District 4 residents may have lost any leverage they had on their supervisor to modify or counter the mayor’s plans.
Who Lurie intends to appoint to fill out Engardio’s term is not known. What’s more relevant is whether the next District 4 supervisor has aspirations to hold the job permanently, or is just a caretaker.
Any D4 supervisor appointed to the job and immediately voting for Lurie’s upzoning plan is essentially self-immolating. But a caretaker could take any number of unpopular votes and then ride off, literally, into the Sunset. Lurie’s decision is forthcoming.
Following tonight’s outcome, Engardio’s backers mentioned the possibility of recall reform. Well, plus ça change: In 2022 Aaron Peskin pushed for recall reform on the same ballot as the recall of DA Chesa Boudin, and it was trounced. Voters don’t like giving up their power, no matter who asks them.
Recalls, it seems, will be something we live with for the foreseeable future. And, politically at least, die with.
Interesting comment about a “caretaker” supe who will vote for Lurie’s upzoning plan and then ride off into the sunset. Unmentioned is how D4 voters opposed to the upzoning will like this, particularly when Lurie runs for reelection.
Prop K passed easily with support from majority of the districts. A major candidate’s political calculation is similarly city-wide, not just based on D4. Lurie is far less vulnerable than Joel in this regard.
Prop K passed with Billionaire dark money, disinformation and lies, and a total undermining attempt of CA CEQA law using a loophole that doesn’t even apply. Dropping the proposition off at the very last minute without public input was the definition of shady dealings, as was trying to scrub his official meetings record with Google Lawyers and others.
Engardio is a liar and his stans can “Stand with Joel” at the unemployment line if they like, but we aren’t done undoing the YIMBY liar’s damage yet. The lawsuits will proceed and the Yuppies will be relegated back to their Bernal enclaves.
Thirty-nine comments on one website’s comment section in 24 hours. God knows how many elsewhere. The grandkids must be regretting teaching you how to use your new smartphone. And your Adderall supplier must be rich.
Having things to say on the topic, as opposed to trolling non-stop in defense of a recalled liar and the most hated tool of Dark PAC Money in the Sunset.
You do you, I’ll do me, thanks simp.
I tend to think Lurie is not going to disregard 70~% of voters in 2 districts entirely, after he sees what happened to the lying goof that tried that. He’ll still push his upzoning but I think he’ll pay a little more attention to the will of the constituency than he would have otherwise. If he doesn’t, if he tries the “caretaker” (misnomer, more like toady) play, he’ll be reminded in a few short years that he only won the office by 33 thousand ranked choice votes.
Pissing off 2+ West Side districts by supporting mindless YIMBY lies and tearing out existing rent-controlled homes to (eventually, years down the line, probably after he’s out of office, maybe if that) put up market rate corporate private-equity controlled condo towers that nobody actually needs or wants… that’s not a recipe for anything, certainly not lower housing prices for anyone. It’s a scam. YIMBY lies never come true. The actual goal is gentrification and increasing the local tax base, that’s it.
it must be exhausting being this angry and fired up online. i hope your family is ok.
If you’re not angry at Engardio, Wiener, and the SF machine you’re not paying attention or you haven’t lived here very long.
70% of 30%. you can math?
Engardio can math? 5x the spending, butt kicked soundly anyhow.
Keep doubling down on stupid if you like!
The Sunset knows how to handle it.
I don’t think that upzoning has the political oomph of the Great Highway. Lurie ran for office promising to build housing. He did not run promising to close the GH and stayed neutral on it during the election.
“any supervisor who is perceived as blowing off their constituency is now taking his or her chances.”
This is good. This is how democracy is supposed to work.
But don’t we already have elections? Engardio was up for reelection in November of 2026, only 11 months from now. These recalls allow for groups with no viable candidate to open the field by eliminating the incumbent.
We “already” have a recall process when people are caught shamelessly lying and doubling down on false truths. Rather than allow the Weinerite liar to continue shady dealings and meeting scrubbing from his official record, the Sunset voted to hold him accountable for lying – and we did.
He’s toast. Don’t lie, and don’t let your kids grow up to be the dishonest lying tools of Billionaires. We’re not done throwing them out of town.
Yeah. I’m so irritated that taxpayer (read: my) money was wasted on this recall. We have elections.
“In their zeal to oust Engardio, District 4 residents may have lost any leverage they had on their supervisor to modify or counter the mayor’s plans.”
D4 never had any leverage with Engardio. Engardio, condescending, ears stuffed with billionaire cash, disregarded his constituents when their views diverged from his own. 11 months ago there was a clear referendum, which he ignored and poo pooed. He could’ve attended community meetings, mea culpa’d, and opposed upzoning until 2027. Lurie will either seed the Sunset with an ally, who’d best be cautious, or place a temp. Does Lurie care more about a BoS seat or an immediate upzone?
d4 residents are going to be so unhappy when lurie appoints someone to rubber stamp his westside upzoning plan.
And that’ll be the end of Lurie.
YIMBY tools are already crying, their standing with Joel did nothing! 😀
We’re coming for the rest of the parasites next.
i hate yimby my angry friend, but the west side is ripe for zoning changes.
Nah, you can move instead. Enjoy Paris!
@jimothy – They’ll take a breather and throw another tantrum.
He’s already begun to walk back the idea of it as a westside upzoning plan though. If you look at the latest maps on SF Planning’s site, they’re now upzoning areas of the Hub around Market/Van Ness and in Western SoMa that were already upzoned, going back on the premise of equity across the city in where housing gets built.
And to think we could have just recalled Ed Lee and London Breed, instead of wasting a decade throwing money at Big Tech and expecting it to save instead of ruin the city.
Cheers to the Westside uprising! This one is dedicated to the opposition activists of Gas House Cove, the Valencia St. bike
lane, and the many, many other battles where city officials try to impose their will over the wishes of the majority of local residents. Kudos to all who demand a say in projects that affect their communities. People Power is still alive in SF.
Wait until people realize that parking meters are coming to Golden Gate Park in order to balance the city budget–, thx to all the Supes (but 1), Lurie, and Phil “I own Golden Gate Park” Ginsburg. Whenever I tell anyone that this was approved recently, they are shocked. Because it was barely publicized.
i mean, those reasons are why we have the sunset dunes park. democracy!
Nope, lies and Billionaire money using false interpretations of CA law.
Wieners are not honest dealers, even a YIMBY tool will find out soon.
You’re never getting rid of the park because it’s overwhelmingly popular and you’re a bunch of racist, classist, reactionary losers.
It is empty much of the time. And a road with tasteless “art” on it is not a park!
Why is it that the right wing always call names?
Wait! What park are we talking about? Anyway, I use to work in that area, and the Great Highway, was used just as a highway, for people from Marin, and the Peninsula to go to work, in S.F or beyond. With the passage of Prop K, they now rush threw neighborhood streets, making it dangerous to cycle, drive or walk, and don’t get me started on parking.
Keep crying, but you, the mindless yuppies playing the victim here are the real losers.
We’ll win in court on the merits. CEQA is not optional just because you declare that with Billionaire PAC money repeatedly, for developer PE benefit.
You can whine here incoherently instead while Democracy happens. That’s your right, election losers.
Have fun!
And an integral Highway is not a park no matter who lies about it.
Plastic crap from local YIMBY tools is not actually art.
Carpetbagging lies from transplant faux-futurists is not environmentalism.
You will learn, someday, as we undo the lies one by one.
For all those using the park as their excuse to ban cars please be honest. There was a perfectly fine bike/walk path and a friggen 2 mile beach on the other side of the highway. If you look to the north you’ll notice GGP. 40,000 acres of open land where cars have been mostly banned. This is an ugly asphalt road with tacky artwork. The goal was always to ban cars. Just own it
Use to teach in that area, and would ride my bike, on the Great Highway, when it was closed, due to sand dunes, which were very frequent. I live near the Mission, but voted- No on prop K, because I knew how the residential streets would be impacted by traffic, if passed, plus who is going to pay for the new park.?
The path is like 6 inches wide. It wouldn’t even have physically fit the number of people who enjoy the park every day now, nor would people want to spend as much time next to a roaring polluted highway.
“But any supervisor who is perceived as blowing off their constituency is now taking his or her chances.”
Paging Mr. Sauter.
I’m not really sure why recalls are surprising. We have ranked choice voting, which means that those who are elected could be elected by very few people who have them on their 1st ballot. A recall is a yes-or-no proposition, meaning anyone who didn’t vote 1st for someone will likely vote to recall them if they don’t like them.
This happened to me w/ Bouding. He was my 3rd ranked choice, but I was tired of him almost immediately.
@Luc – Before RCV we had runoffs, which were people voting for their second choices as well. Just a more efficient way of doing it.
Sir or madam —
You are leaving a plurality if not a majority of the comments on the site.
It’s enough.
Best,
JE
D4 is a special case for supe district recalls as it is compact and has residents with more homogenous interests than the other districts comprised of more, diverse neighborhoods.
YIMBY activists have redefined themselves as Yes In soMeone else’s Back Yard.
I like the park … but I didn’t like the undemocratic way it was pushed onto west side residents. And neither did they. If their recall of a supervisor who deceived them is the wrong side of history, then history needs a reset.
Raise your hand if you think inherited wealth guy and mayor Daniel lurie sincerely gives two hoots about “west side families” gee whiz
You make good points about some of the dynamics, but are fundamentally wrong about recalls. They exist for a good reason – accountability. If you owned a business and hired somebody dishonest or incompetent would you just let them sit around because you were concerned about the dynamics, or would you do something? I would fire them, full stop, if their job performance imperrilled my business. Voters should have the same right – we are employers – and public servants who fail to manage constituent priorities do so at their own peril.
D4 voters have spoken, and the joy extends beyond their borders.
I wouldn’t refer to a “threat” of recalls. Recalls are democracy in action IMO. Prop K passed narrowly, because it’s easy for voters who are not in the Sunset to say “Go ahead, close that road that I don’t need”. Engardio’s constituents retorted with “You are not representing us well”.
It was like 60/40, that is narrow in your world?
And D4 behaves perhaps the weirdest of all the districts.
Not only did they vote in Leland Yee and Ed Jew, but they voted in Joel Engardio and Scott Wiener that ended up screwing them on housing and the Great Highway and Dan Lurie who is going to upzone them.
I am not sure that the rest of the City should take any positive lessons away from D4’s voting history.
Anything that goes against your side is billionaire astroturf blah blah, repeat 100x
I’m sure plenty of pro-recall people here voted for the Che Boudin / school board recalls & for Engardio in 2022. I don’t agree with them on this but I don’t call them dupes.
Campaigns aren’t possible to create out of nothing. Anyone with eyes in 2020-21 and who was actually around downtown knows that things got worse. Anyone with a brain knows that lax crime policies contributed to this.
I can’t speak for him but I doubt Engardio regrets his support of the past recalls either, so I don’t know why this is supposed to be some profound point, any more than saying impeachment can be used both ways.
I didn’t like him, but I generally find recalls to be abused by the losers. Sometimes the recall campaign starts before the guy even takes office nowadays. A big problem with politics now is that people don’t have a chance to do things that may be unpopular. Again, I didn’t happen to like this guy *at all*, but this recall crap needs to be controlled a bit.
NO ONE could possibly be more deserving of being recalled than Engardio the liar. He continues to gaslight and divide even in his acceptance of his constituency REJECTING HIS BS, as if lying to people put you on the “right side of history”? Whitewashing your official meetings as Supervisor IS A CRIME you committed, LIAR JOEL. No, history is on the right side and you are an unemployed liar and sellout whose gentrifying agenda and gaslighting was righteously rejected.
Go try to get a job at London Breed’s PR firm, you disgusting sellout scumbag. No doubt you still draw some water from that murky well of deceit, but no longer will you draw it from taxpayers. GET OUT OF TOWN JOEL YOUR WORD MEANS NOTHING HERE. Take your disgustingly dishonest and shameful supporters with you.
You still will not drive on great highway. Being on the right side of history and being on the side of one vote are completely unrelated. 480 was not rebuilt after earthquake, it improved the city. Same with Central freeway, it’s gone and made a big improvement. Yes the great highway change will be proven right in the future just the same. Your car sucks (yes mine does too) and any motivation not to drive is good for everyone over time. Looking forward to breathing cleaner air in that park. Have fun driving your car on other roads.
You can’t stop us. We’re coming for your crappy plastic art.
(We drove on it last night lol, yuppies have no idea what goes on)
Sure will though, honey! The lawsuit is proceeding and the YIMBY lies that tried to push a CEQA loophole that doesn’t apply will be exposed. It will go back to CA jurisdiction and you can bicycle on the bike path as always. Don’t worry, YIMBY tools aren’t done being thrown out of SF’s west side. We’ll undo the Engardio liar’s damage slowly but deliberately – like the recall.
YIMBY tools lost, we get a representative.
no, you get what lurie wants, upzoning d4. congrats.
sad
“Cleaner air” lol, the cars are going around and polluting MORE.
You bought stupid lies and made them your own. That’s on you.
We’ll undo the lies in court – the ballot already showed you.
YIMBY tools with no concept need to get the hell back to Bernal, they are not welcome to lie about the Sunset District’s reality any longer.
When the Great Highway is reopened it will again be the safest SF thoroughfare as it always has been. “Joel” will just be a bad word, synonymous with lying and taking bribes.
Jesus Christ and I thought I commented on here too much, maybe go look at the ocean or something?
pathetic
“In their zeal to oust Engardio, District 4 residents may have lost any leverage they had on their supervisor to modify or counter the mayor’s plans. ”
Whatever leverage he had, he failed to use effectively or to our benefit, and we did not trust him continuing to lie about it in realtime. Now his record is over – he’s done.
Good riddance to bad liars. Lurie puts his own stake in whoever he picks in the interim, knowing that if he fails to listen to the West Side again, it’s to his peril as well at the next election. We do not forget. We do not brook liars.
Lurie will do whatever he wants to D4 with his supervisor pick, knowing that he could have lost the district’s vote and still would have won as mayor. Outspending your opponents ten to one, in a city where the average voter apparently votes exactly they are instructed to by the largest amount of political advertising they see, seems to be a guaranteed win for now. Until San Franciscans learn how to vote not with the advertising but with their brains.
He only beat Breed by 33,000 votes, so I don’t think the math holds that he can piss off both West Side districts and still come out on top easily. We supported him into office, he saw this recall’s result, and he’ll either act accordingly or go the way of Breed as well.
maybe one day, d4 residents will wake up to the fact that they live in the 2nd most densely populated city in america and if they want to live in the suburbs, there are so many suburban areas outside san francisco.
The whole political spectrum has gone full on Zero Tolerance = Intolerance- for any different thought or opinion.
And if he wants to really make people happy the mayor may not contest the lawsuit that is already scheduled for a hearing on the closure of the Great Highway. That would relive a lot of tension on the west side and give the mayor a chance to prove he can be trusted, since he opposed Prop K when he was running.
Raise your hand if you believe that Malibu Dan Lurie gives two shits about “west side families”
He does now that he sees they understand their power – the vote. Even Lurie knows his victory over Breed was only 33k deep.
Time will tell 🤣
c
Reading all these comment really just makes me sad for the state of the city. I live right next to GH and this has been a huge net benefit to the area. Foot traffic and business are both significantly up with no impact to vehicle traffic. Supe Engardio’s office has also been a model of responsiveness to the community, despite this narrative of him being a “liar” or whatever.
Those sponsoring and cheering for this recall want the Sunset preserved in Amber, which it never will be. Recalls are a waste of time and city funds when we already have elections. I’d be interested to hear what my fellow voters actually want rather than what they don’t, which is all the vision they seem to bringing to the table.
I also live right next to GH, and your propaganda and gaslighting is transparent. Enough with the “amber” broken-record message, it is weak loser vibes when the vote is now done. 2/3 of D4 has spoken clearly, and the votes cost 1/8th per vote when compared with all the developer money that was spent trying to keep a lying weasel in office for his puppetmasters. Joel got his ass kicked, plain and simple, and for good reason – truth matters. As an unemployed example of his self-inflicted political suicidee ne will now have plenty of free time to focus upon the SF Ethics Commission review of those documents that he fraudulently doctored (before blaming an intern – oops). Pathetic and hypocritical that you are sad for the city when you aren’t reading the room, claim to be asking for a clue about what people want when they just told you, and feigning concern for budget issues when a ton of money could have been saved by simply compromising at the outset instead of jamming people with lies and poorly conceived public policy decisions.
Absolutely. I’m an SF resident on the east side and I’ve been regularly visiting the beautiful great highway park and going to local businesses nearby. That space is so beautiful, its a waste to turn that into a highway again. If the westside wants to reject a public park, bring that budget to the east side!
Nicole , I get your point. The road is a nice stretch to ride or stroll – no doubt.
The problem is that it was also a key, vital artery for outer avenue residents to get around. The park was created around their backs. Additionally – Note: the City already had a walking & bike path along the beach. Rec and Park let it fall into disrepair and blight. It’s still languishing out there despite the hoopla over Sunset Dunes (which is just another bike/walking/jogging path). Ocean Beach itself is national parkland and the real star of the show. Put yourself in these shoes and you may understand why most D4 residents are against Prop K and Engardio.
Bingo. In addition to that bike path, our tsunami warning sirens remain offline, the EPA is suing the city over the raw sewage discharge onto our beaches, the plumbing is broken, we have insufficient water pressure for the firefighters, and a bunch of numbnutts spending public money to put up “art” that blocks everybody’s ocean views of the jewel you mentioned. If the folks who have been working so hard to gaslight the public for developer special interests had actually put that “park” effort into Sunset infrastructure then they might have made some progress for everyone with public resources. Just shameful and deceitful, and most of D4 sees it and they have acted. This election wasn’t even close.
Do we really think anyone can be recalled? Fielder could use it (like Ronen before) for caring about her own personal ambitions than those of the Mission residents but we know that will never happen so color me skeptical anyone can.
Obsessed much Jack? 🤭
Only thing I’m tired of is a supervisor worried about Gaza and not what’s happening in her own district, so yes I am.
You don’t see genocide as a problem, noted.
We don’t need more from you.
I live in Noe Valley, but taught in the Sunset district, and parking was always hard especially on Street sweeping days. During my breaks and after school, I would ride my bike on the beach to destress. The Great Highway was closed, at least once a week due to sand dunes, which was fun,because I could ride my bike or walk down the Great Highway. Even though I enjoyed the beach, I voted no on “K”, because, of the impact cars would have on the neighborhood street. A poll showed that most of the people who voted for prop K didnot live in the Sunset or the Richmond districts. Joel Engardio, should have listen to the neighbor voters
Seems to me that each recent SF recall was justified:
A DA who was widely thought of as being pro-criminal
Three SFUSD board members who thought that renaming schools was more important than reopening them
And now a Supervisor who thought that he could ignore the wishes of a majority of his constituents.
I am not seeing a problem here.
This is exactly the case. And no, “billionaire money” was NOT the reason the SFUSD board members were recalled. Parents’ anger was the reason. The process began long before any new wealth money was donated to the cause.
Now instead of driving around honking about their supervisor, the recallers can drive around honking at each other in traffic jams of their own making.
The city for a long, long time has been mostly a car city. We are not New York, or paris, or London.
Parts of the city (mission, south beach, j-town to downtown) one can leave sans cars in some cases.
The park was those voters (funded by people with cars who thought a park was a cool idea) sticking it to the part of the city most dependent on cars,
The trans-park traffic became horrible. Basically only two ways (chain of lakes, 19th to park presidio) across the park, both jammed with cars.
It is in my personal experience objectively mush worse.
Stick it to your own voters, they will vote you out.
Up zoning is badly needed, But given the lack of infrastructure, it ought to mostly be kept east of twin peaks. The exceptions ought to be the Geary corridor, and along the j, k,l,m and T. The plan needs to consider current ownership and uses along with transit access, and go block by block. The further from downtown, the less upzoning.
@Spin – Your history is way off, we were built as a streetcar city and are the second-densest in the U.S. Those people who pine for the good ol’ days (before “The Season of the Witch”) generally refer to a city that had approximately the same population but less than half as many cars.
More recently and relevantly, every measure of public opinion and voter mandate for the last 30 years has supported emphasizing alternatives to cars. We even put the Transit-First Policy into the City Charter (after years of it being toothless) by the required 2-to-1 mandate.
It’s never worked because the political will to install the public transit infrastructure has been absent for 50 years. Had we built to the plans now in the archives this would be a much different city. But it’s not. SFMTA has no funding for the necessary strategic work so instead implements ineffective and infuriating tactical changes to our streets.
Because you allowed it to be wasted on pet projects without discipline nor accountability, see Tumlin.
You got played by the YIMBY tools. They don’t care if it’s bicycles or cybertrucks, it’s $ to them.
yeah but you just voted to give lurie the keys to upzone d4. and reduce public transportation to the district. why? you get how short-sighted that is, right?
This is not a car city. San Francisco is quite dense compared to many cities in this country and used to have way more trams than we do today. (No thanks to car drivers)
The West side deserves more and faster public transit, but the folks living there do not own the waterfront.
Thanks for reporting.
Please remind us why the supervisors only represent their districts and will only talk to lobbyists and only persons in their district ?
This is concerning .
I would hope , since they make decisions and vote on citywide and other districts issues they would represent all .
Current situation doesnt seem fair or right.
This change that happened is wrong .
We switched to district elections because citywide elections tend to be, and were, won by money and centralized political power. With district elections, there’s a good chance your representative lives near you, and understands and shares your concerns. Local reps are affected by the same potholes, the same scarce, slow trains, the same ruptured sewer lines, and the same sparking power transformers as you are. Local reps use the same parks and libraries, swim the same pools, send their kids to the same schools, etc.
The BOS as a whole reflects citywide interests, individual districts have their individual concerns and the Supe is responsible to meet those. That much is pretty basic but it seems to be what you’re having trouble comprehending somehow.
When you’re damaging your local district, as Joel the liar did, deliberately lying to them in the process and taking Billionaire dark money and having secret meetings that you illegally scrub from the record, that’s not the interest of the City either.
“D4 wants a supervisor who will fight to reopen the Great Highway and stop Senator Wiener and the billionaires from turning Ocean Beach into Miami Beach” – Jamie Hughes, a lead recall organizer.
— A vast billionaire-funded conspiracy to turn D4 into Miami Beach.
Jamie, history is going to laugh at this. You lost your damn mind because of a City Park. The City should commission a flamingo sculpture installation for Sunset Dunes Park in honor of you going round the bend.
No, Engardio lost his job because Engardio is a shamless liar, and you’re just acting like his butthurt butler.
Face it, Democracy happened to Joel. The same he came into office calling for.
Suck reality. The Sunset decides he doesn’t represent us – we don’t like LIARS.
Recalls are being abused by the voters in this city. Why can’t we voice our opinions on district supervisors during re-election? This all boils down to the widespread NIMBYism on the west side, forever resistant to change.
Engardio personally worked to recall 4 people. Karma caught him.
Calling recalls “the billionaires’ political weapon” is just lazy thinking. Chesa, the School Board, and Engardio were all deeply unpopular. Billionaires had little to do with it. Getting a recall on the ballot is so easy you don’t need much money to do it. If you want to have an intelligent conversation about raising the bar for recalls and ballot measures, I’m all for it, but framing it as an issue of billionaire boogie men is just stupid, especially when the “big money” was against this latest recall that passed overwhelmingly
$ spent on public influence campaigns does not influence the public? Politicians and pollsters, and the entire advertising industry, beg to differ. I’ll have a Beep’s Burger any day over a Quarter Pounder. Every McDonald’s franchise outsells Beep’s. Taco Bell is not better than El Toreador. Olive Garden is not better than Mozzarella Di Bufala. The chains outspend on public influence campaigns.
Just because a candidate outspends and loses does not mean $ doesn’t influence races. The horse may have been a stinker.
Recalls were part of a raft of Progressive reforms Gov Hiram Johnson passed in 1911 to clean the Augean Stables of a state legislature completely in the pocket of Southern Pacific Railroad, along with initiatives.
“While I do not by any means believe the initiative, the referendum and the recall are the panacea for all our political ills,” Johnson extolled in his 1911 inaugural address, “they do give to the electorate the power of action when desired, and they do place in the hands of the people the means by which they may protect themselves.”
No wonder voters overwhelmingly voted down Peskin’s sleazy attempt to water down accountability.
If the bar were lowered for a recall, then nonprofit funding technicians Jackie Fielder would think twice about siting a substance and psych treatment center adjacent to an elementary school full of at risk youth, once for the nonprofits and twice for the residents who are broadly appalled by such an official act.
The only way to keep elected representatives honest in a corrupt democracy is to have the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads by threads.