Editor:
The flurry of articles defending Supervisor Joel Engardio against the recall effort share a common theme: None of them ask what we can do to help each other. Joel Engardio never asks, “What can I do to help you?” His resistance to the recall petition reflects his broader disregard for the diverse needs of the people he was elected to serve.
Supporters point to his so-called accomplishments – night markets, restoring Algebra to middle school – but these boutique wins serve only a narrow slice of District 4. What benefits everyone? Reliable transportation. And in that crucial area, Engardio has failed us.
His support for Prop. K and the closure of the Upper Great Highway (UGH) reveals his allegiance not to Sunset residents but to a small, vocal clique of anti-car activists. The UGH was never just a road – it was a lifeline. In its absence, we now suffer increased traffic congestion, slower emergency response times, and unsafe conditions for the elderly, disabled, and families.
Traffic has spilled onto residential streets, lengthening commutes and degrading quality of life. Our streets are more dangerous for children and seniors. A stoplight at 41st and Lincoln? A band-aid on a bullet wound. The infrastructure can’t cope. And Engardio offers no real solution.
Instead, he gave us a glorified selfie backdrop. Sunset Dunes – the pop-up park – is mostly empty during the week. No padding under play structures. Questionable safety. Opening day turnout was minuscule compared to the 20,000 commuters who once relied on the UGH. That contrast says it all. This was exclusion disguised as progress.
Engardio’s tone-deaf ads tout garbage can replacements and pothole patches. That’s basic maintenance, not leadership. He says he supports small business, but traffic gridlock and long commutes hurt local shops. Real support means getting people home on time. His allies even brag about bringing taco trucks from LA. That’s not supporting locals, that’s undercutting them.
He claims he’s tough on crime. Yet since the UGH closure, crime has risen. A juvenile was shot on 37th and Santiago. A gang-tagged bus shelter. A teen brawl at Sunset Dunes. This is not safety, it’s denial.
Engardio’s supporters dismiss valid concerns. They tell us we’re overreacting, that we need therapy. That’s not dialogue; it’s gaslighting. And many of his loudest backers don’t even live in D4. They treat the Sunset like a sandbox for urbanist experiments.
Look at his campaign donors. Over $200,000 came from elites in Pacific Heights, Russian Hill and the Marina. His top donor? Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman who has beachfront real estate ambitions. The UGH closure isn’t about parks, it’s about development.
Realtors are noticing: UGH closure has hurt property values. Families want accessibility, not detours and gridlock. Engardio’s policies make our neighborhood less livable. His YIMBY vision isn’t about affordability. It’s about inviting corporate developers to build soulless, profit-driven apartment blocks. That means pushing out local families and erasing the Sunset’s character.
And where is Engardio? He hasn’t held a real town hall since Prop. K passed. I asked the Sunset and no one answered. [Source: https://richmondsunsetnews.com/2025/03/14/letter-to-the-editor-has-engardio-held-any-recent-town-hall-meetings/]
He also claims credit for restoring merit-based admissions at Lowell, but a closer look shows he barely played a role. [Source: https://richmondsunsetnews.com/2025/04/09/letter-to-the-editor-setting-the-record-straight-on-merit-based-admissions-at-lowell/]
Prop. K? Misleading, unethical, and now under legal challenge. The Voice SF exposed its manipulation. [Source: https://thevoicesf.org/great-highway-robbery/]
Engardio’s defenders say this recall is a “waste of time and money.” But what’s truly wasteful is keeping a supervisor who broke promises and steamrolled constituents. Most D4 residents voted against Prop K. Their voices were ignored.
To Engardio’s supporters: You don’t get to tell others how to live. Not everyone can walk or bike. The anti-car crusade ignores the realities of the disabled, the elderly, and working families. That’s not progress—it’s privilege.
Closing UGH didn’t help the environment. It just relocated traffic. Greenwashing doesn’t change the facts. This isn’t equity. It’s dysfunction.
Democracy isn’t wasteful—accountability is priceless. When leaders betray their communities, recall is not only justified—it’s necessary. Maybe—for once—Engardio could ask his critics, “How can I help you?” That’s what real leadership looks like.
Sign the petition. Recall Joel Engardio. Let’s bring back leadership that works for the people—not against them.
Learn more: https://www.recallengardio.com/ Email us at team@recallengardio.com or text 415-349-3503
Wendy Liu
D4 resident for nearly 20 years
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
This letter is an absolute gem and perfectly summarizes the case for the recall. Deep thanks and appreciation to Wendy.
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Wendy, from a 50 year resident of District 1 in the Outer Richmond, thank you very much for your most eloquent analysis of the situation we’re in with the closure of The Great Highway. I am so distressed over it I can’t even put it into words. We are being railroaded by big money out of towner’s who are insidious in their misguided attempt to make even more money by building UP. Outer Richmond residents are affected by this closure even more than the residents of the Sunset District and we can’t even vote Engardio out of office. “Follow the Money” is what I say. Corruption runs deep. Let’s hope the lawsuit against this fiasco succeeds in putting a stop to this land grab. And a big thank you to those who are taking them to court.
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48hills.org/2025/04/supes-approve-public-notice-for-neighborhood-zoning-changes/
“Chan noted that the proposed increases in height and density would impact 13,000 acres, about half of the land in the city excluding parks. When it comes to public notice, she said, “the solution should always be to do more, not less.”
The opposition—from SF Yimby, among others—is based on the idea that residents, property owners, and small businesses who are directly informed that their neighborhoods are about to face dramatic change may organize against it.”
-YIMBYs pushing _against_ notifying residents -so they can’t oppose being sold out!
The Prop K YIMBY gentrification playbook is real : Ignore, gaslight, disinform.
But at least Chan stands up for her district, and what a stark contrast in leadership between the Richmond and Sunset right now!
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“And many of his loudest backers don’t even live in D4.” – THIS is the festering issue;
Dark money SuperPAC BS has all but nullified our district elections in practice.
Residents lost local representation and are silenced, replaced by _PAID_ LIARS!
(-Here’s looking at you Sam Singer, Jen Nossokoff, Lucas Lux, Lian Chang.)
Is it too much to ask for a local representative to hold local interests first, to tell the truth to us? Make your decision and vote accordingly.
Stand up to it here, sign the recall and lets start over with someone who doesn’t LIE as if that were the sole requirement of the job. Send LIARS back to their PR careers.
We don’t need that in the Sunset, we need leadership and honest representation.
Engardio is neither.
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Thank you. Let’s send Joel out the door. He can’t be trusted to represent us honestly. He obviously believes he has the power to do what he wants, not what D4 wants. He must go.
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>Yet since the UGH closure, crime has risen. A juvenile was shot on 37th and Santiago.
Are you really trying to argue that the Great Highway caused an accidental gunshot [source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/st-ignatius-prep-shooting-sf-police-20228362.php%5D 3/4 mile away from the park?
That claim is frankly insulting to the intelligence of your readers.
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Thank you for your comment and for pointing out the error regarding the timeline of the shooting near 37th and Santiago. You are absolutely right—the incident occurred before the official closure of the Upper Great Highway. I appreciate the opportunity to correct that, and I certainly didn’t mean to imply a direct causal link between the two. That was not my intent, and I regret the confusion.
That said, I do still firmly believe that Supervisor Engardio’s record on public safety does not live up to the image he projects. Residents continue to express concerns about rising crime, vandalism, and public disorder—especially in areas like Sunset Dunes—while meaningful action feels absent. We deserve leadership that doesn’t downplay or deflect these issues, but takes them seriously and responds with substance, not spin.
Thanks again for engaging with the piece. I may not get every detail perfect, but I care deeply about this community—and that’s what drives me to speak out.
—Wendy Liu
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speaking of Public Safety, I wrote in this publication a while back about how Joel thinks that there won’t be any problem with homelessness because there isn’t a problem with homelessness in Golden Gate Park and other parks in the city. We all know that that is an absolutely ignorant answer, and as usual, Joel will always say anything that comes to his mind to manipulate people and their thoughts. When the weather warms up as we go into spring and summer, there will be a stampede of homeless people out here living in the dunes, of course, and making walking on the highway unsafe for some people. As I wrote in my earlier letter just in the area around where I live on the lower Great Highway there have been disturbing interactions with homeless people that I and my neighbors have encountered. And that’s a safety issue that Joel promotes as one of his accomplishments. Yet he believes there will be no problem with homeless people because there won’t be any around the Great Highway, oh excuse me the sunset dunes. They will be living in the sunset Dunes and he does not care. We must remove this man from the leadership of our beloved district and get someone who is a true Sunset resident who will put his constituents or her constituents first, not wealthy Tech Bros who are ready to open their checkbooks to Joel as long as he does his quid pro quo with them and the developers who are slobbering to get their hands on our property.
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Your point was initially unclear because of the sequence, but you’ve accepted that feedback and explained your underlying point in the correction – excellent.
Admitting something was unclear, mistaken, etc, all of that is notably beyond the skillset of the D4 supervisor or his paid lackeys. They admit no fault, ever, and there is never any correction to their mistakes. Wendy, you are already demonstrating more accountability publicly than our D4 “leadership” ever has.
Engardio claiming to have focused on the crime rate is just laughably ridiculous.
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if you read the letter, it clearly states that while Joel is taking credit for crime being down in D4, in fact it is up. This is not a single item recall. Stop trying to make it one.
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