Leading With Joy

For Halloween, my staff had the idea to each wear a T-shirt representing the various cartoon character emotions from the classic Pixar movie “Inside Out.” There’s fear, anger, sadness, disgust and, of course, joy.

Yes, it takes all of those emotions to deal with the challenges facing San Francisco. What we feel depends on what we encounter on a given day.

There is a lot to fix in San Francisco and it can feel daunting. But we must recognize the joy in our City. There is plenty of it. Think of every gathering of your friends and family. Or how you feel when you experience the natural beauty, cuisine and culture that defined San Francisco long before “doom loop” became a buzz phrase.

The problems in our City are real. So are the joyful things. We must keep that perspective. That’s why my supervisor newsletter will always feature something joyful and inspiring.

My newsletter is emailed to 25,000 people, and I receive many replies after each edition. Most readers like the stories. But one or two angry readers will object to any positive article. They want my focus to be 100% on our troubles and problems. They demand I only write about the serious issues in our City because it’s frivolous to mention anything else.

I tell them I’m working on problems every day. For example, public safety is my top priority because families need to feel safe if they are going to stay in San Francisco; our City’s future depends on keeping families here. When people complained about my focus on bringing a first-ever night market to the Sunset, I reminded them it is more than a party. The night market actually addressed key issues: an activated street is a safer street and the boost to small businesses helps the local economy recover.

While I spend much of my time working behind the scenes on serious issues like crime and homelessness, an important part of my job is to boost morale and give people hope. The energy it takes to fix things is not sustainable without hope.

I believe we must always lead with joy. My focus is to build solid foundations of public safety, housing, education and the local economy – for the purpose of supporting joyful lives. We can celebrate the joy in San Francisco as we work to create more.

As the city supervisor for the Sunset neighborhoods, I wear the T-shirt with the joy character. I most recently wore it to kick off a bike parade to the ocean.

The eyes of the world were on San Francisco during the APEC Summit, which brought President Joe Biden and many global leaders to our City. I hosted a “Summit to Sunset” to show the international media that we are more joy than a doom loop.

I had planned a bike ride from Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway with a happy hour, live music and a sunset viewing party. We had more than 500 RSVPs for the ride, but a rainstorm got in the way.

As I waited in the rain and wondered if anyone would show up, I was amazed to see nearly 100 people gather for the ride. They wouldn’t let anything dampen their spirit of joy. This is what the world must know about San Francisco. We are resilient, we tackle challenges and we shine.

I had the idea for “summit to sunset” after the overwhelming success of the pilot Sunset Night Market in September. That’s when more than 10,000 people filled Irving Street. They were hungry, both literally and figuratively, for a fun experience with the community. They were 10,000 doom loop antidotes who reclaimed the streets and narrative of our City.

Look for a return of the Sunset Night Market in the spring.

The path to San Francisco’s future seems to run through neighborhoods like the Sunset. The New York Times has mentioned it in several recent articles:

• “The Outer Sunset has flourished while downtown struggles.”

• “Thousands of people packed Irving Street for the inaugural Sunset Night Market, eating Asian delicacies and watching ballerinas dance in the road.”

• The Great Highway was named one of “52 places for a changed world” when used as a park.

I’m glad journalists are starting to notice how great the Sunset is. Residents have known it all along – and we still have lots of untapped potential. This holiday season, we have much to be grateful for. Let’s encourage more joy as we work to create our best San Francisco.

You can sign up for my newsletter at engardio.com/subscribe.

Joel Engardio is the District 4 representative on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He can be reached at engardiostaff@sfgov.org.