Editor:
When Prop. K came to our ballots, I did not vote for it. Like many, I had reservations about how closing the Upper Great Highway permanently would impact our neighborhoods and I felt that the compromise in place – being open on weekdays and closed on weekends – worked well for everyone. I feel similarly today and understand people’s frustrations.
However, Supervisor Engardio’s position on the Great Highway closure does NOT justify a recall. While I disagreed with him on Prop. K, I also know him to be honest, hard-working and dedicated to the needs of our district as well as our City. He shows up, does the work, and takes responsibility for tough decisions our City is facing, especially in light of how national politics will impact us. Importantly, I’ve seen him respectfully and thoughtfully consider everyone’s opinions, regardless of whether they agree with him.
Although it may get lost in the shouting matches and vitriol online, the truth is that Joel has done a lot of good for our community. He has consistently shown up for our kids, our seniors and our small businesses. As a mom and entrepreneur, that’s meaningful to me. He regularly makes himself available for town halls or one-on-one meetings with hundreds of residents each year, not to make speeches, but to listen. That kind of accessibility and leadership matter.
The people pushing this recall don’t want dialogue – they want revenge. They didn’t get their way on Prop. K, so now they want to burn the whole thing down in the same way people raged against the Embarcadero project and a car-free JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. But recalls have always been reserved for egregious or unethical behavior, misconduct or corruption, not because we disagree with someone’s support of a citywide vote.
I understand people’s anger about the situation. I sometimes feel it myself. But I would rather use my energy pushing for accountability on a larger scale and trying to work together to make our district and our City viable for families and people who weren’t lucky enough to buy a home 30 years ago. I want leaders who are in that fight for regular people for the long haul.
Even if you do not agree with Joel on every issue all the time, there’s no arguing that he is pragmatic, effective and grounded with all of us in mind, even those who disagree with him. With some people running for office to “be” something, we need more people like Joel running to “do” something.
If you were against Prop. K, I’m with you. And I hope you’ll join me in refusing to sign the petition for the wasteful and short-sighted recall.
Dr. Amy Bacharach is a District 4 resident, a mom to two public school children, a public servant and an entrepreneur.
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Your letter defending Joel Engardio reads like it was written from a cozy bubble, far removed from the daily struggles of real working-class Sunset families. Let me break it to you gently: just because you’re a “doctor” and an “entrepreneur” doesn’t mean you speak for the rest of us. Titles don’t equal credibility when you’re parroting talking points with zero receipts.
You say Joel is “accessible.” Really? Show me the receipts. Because the rest of us haven’t seen him hold a real public town hall in nearly a year. His so-called “office hours” are random, poorly promoted, and often filtered. According to: https://richmondsunsetnews.com/2025/03/14/letter-to-the-editor-has-engardio-held-any-recent-town-hall-meetings/, the public is still waiting for him to show up in any meaningful way. That’s not accessibility. That’s avoidance.
You claim Joel listens. To who? Because it sure as hell isn’t the thousands of D4 residents who opposed Prop K. Instead, he pandered to a small, loud clique of anti-car crusaders and turned his back on his own campaign promise to keep the UGH compromise. That’s not “pragmatism.” That’s political betrayal.
You say he’s respectful and thoughtful. Again based on what? His online behavior? Where he blocks critics, deletes comments, and refuses to engage with anyone who doesn’t toe his line? That’s not leadership—it’s censorship. And it’s cowardly.
You call this recall “revenge.” No this is accountability. This is what happens when you lie to your voters, flip-flop on key issues, and use your office to appease lobbyists and Twitter activists instead of the actual families you’re supposed to serve.
Let’s also talk about tone. You paint recall supporters as “shouting,” “vitriolic,” and unwilling to dialogue. How convenient. Maybe we’re just tired of being steamrolled. Maybe we’re tired of the condescending moral superiority from people like you—people who don’t deal with the consequences of road closures, longer commutes, missed medical appointments, or lost wages. You’re not the one doing three errands before school drop-off and rushing across the city to get to work. But people like me are.
You write as if you’re standing up for families. But what you’re really doing is defending your own comfort while dismissing those of us living the fallout. You can afford to be patient and optimistic. The rest of us can’t afford another year of Joel Engardio.
So no, you don’t speak for the Sunset. You speak for the people who are insulated from Joel’s failures. The rest of us? We want a supervisor who shows up, listens, and tells the truth not one who hides behind fluff pieces from his loyal fans.
Sincerely,
A working-class Sunset mom
(With no title, no PR team, and no time for BS)
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This reads like an Onion article. “Affordable housing should not come at the cost of her ocean view.” And “I don’t think we have a housing supply issue, we have an affordability issue.” Um, what exactly do you think creates that affordability issue? #NIMBY at its finest. #YIMBY– Amy Bacharach Twitter on 1-14-2025 on housing in Great Highway
I voted for Prop K as a resident of the Sunset. But the way Engardio went about this was deceitful and disgraceful. It was never about a park and the money he’s receiving outside the district speaks volumes. You want to debate the need for housing and state mandate fine but you don’t sell out your residents, constituency, and community in the process.
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Yes—thank you. You nailed it. Engardio’s supporters love to pretend this is about some idyllic “park” and that anyone upset must be anti-environment or anti-family. Meanwhile, the rest of us living in the real Sunset know exactly what this is: a sellout.
You brought up Amy Bacharach’s tweets, and it’s wild how selective her memory is. She literally dismissed the housing supply issue while complaining about her ocean view—and now she’s trying to lecture us on affordability and leadership? Please.
Also, let’s be real about what these YIMBY policies actually produce. Look at The Westerly at 2800 Sloat. It’s a monument to everything wrong with Engardio’s “vision”: 56 units priced between $1.18 and $1.56 million, ZERO garages, and EMPTY retail on the ground floor that’s never been occupied since the place opened. Only a handful of units are even lived in. This is what passes for “housing progress”?
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I suggest you re-read my tweets. I have never dismissed the housing supply issue. Quite the opposite, in fact. And I don’t have an ocean view. You may be thinking of a response I made to someone who WAS saying these things. You’re also conflating issues.
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I find her entire op-ed here just more of the same bold gaslighting from fraud supporters, sorry, Engardio supporters. “You can’t argue that …” Seriously?
Yes, WE CAN, and we’ve got the receipts that your “article” frankly lacks, Amy.
The cost of the recall is sub 1% of the discretionary spending Engardio has frankly wasted on his career-ending debacle that endangers Sunset residents, compounding already increasing traffic issues, and his penchant for giving developers literally whatever they want while throwing the working class and mid/low incomes under the bus certainly has a true cost thus far incalculable.
Meanwhile, Amy might work on her TONE before she submits another op-ed praising a proven liar who did basically nothing good for us, and who continues to lie and gaslight in lieu of actually innovating or improving our district in a tangible way. No, night markets weren’t his idea, no, Algebra wasn’t his idea, no, Lowell’s admissions standards weren’t his idea, it’s all a farce in a chain of lies that he repeatedly claims are his accomplishments. It’s a joke, and even if you took them at face value, it’s NOT A LOT to have “accomplished” at all.
I don’t believe she’s thought through her opposition to the recall whatsoever. Replacing Engardio is an imperative improvement, and the cost is frankly negligible by comparison to his graft and waste thus far. Her entire spiel about “costly” etc, it’s nonsense entirely. What’s COSTLY is when your Supervisor is in the pocket of BILLIONAIRES and ruins the quality of life for generations of families using PR firms paid but to lie to our faces.
WHAT EXACTLY is the ISSUE with the Sunset voting out a LIAR and in place voting in a representative who tells the truth, stands for their interests and stands UP to downtown developer interests that don’t give a damn about us? How can anyone pay so little actual attention to detail and yet somehow expect us all to read their puff PR piece uncritically? It’s 100% opine and zero substance of record.
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Unthinking YIMBYism is actually much more destructive to long-term rent-controlled tenants of SF than what they decry as “NIMBYism” – by literal definition.
Engardio’s push to remove rent-control protections from ADU’s and strip office-conversion residences from low-income housing requirements SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.
These are not people who care about low-income families, seniors, working class.
These are mindless transplant yuppies who have a 2-dimensional understanding of SF.
Thank you for locating another mindless quote from this author to put her “arguments” in perspective, that’s entirely predictable and telling at once.
In 10-20 years, ask them if their rents are any lower – if they’re still around, unlikely.
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While I strongly support the author’s vote against Prop K, I disagree that, “The people pushing this recall don’t want dialog – they want revenge.” Supervisor Engardio has been consistently against meaningful dialog. His secret writing and filing of Prop K ensured that any possible conversations with him before it was finalized were not heard. It was only AFTER Prop K passed – which thanks to him removed all requirements from the City to provide data collection about traffic and environmental studies, and removed the City’s requirement to continue to engage with the impacted community about it – that Joel finally invited his constituents to participate in discussions about something their opinions could no longer influence. Town Halls? When did he hold one? His appearances as a guest speaker at local organizations with private memberships and guest lists he pre-approved is documented, but they’re not Town Halls where his entire district is invited. In fact, when he arrived at an outdoor playground where he was scheduled to speak about his filed ballot measure, and noticed some D4 constituents he had not been expecting, he refused to address the audience, ran away, called off the press, cancelled the event and rescheduled it at a private home with a private guest list, effectively shutting out many of his constituents. This recall is not about revenge; it’s about our right to be able to vote on whether or not to continue to be betrayed, ignored and shut out by someone we elected whose actions have not lined up with his campaign promises to be transparent, inclusive, and give us a voice in City Hall about issues affecting our safety and quality of life. Signing the petition to recall does not automatically remove Joel from office; it only gives us the opportunity to have a vote at some future date if enough valid signatures are collected. My family, friends and neighbors have all signed the petition and donated to RecallEngardio.com and we urge you to please do the same.
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My right to have my voice heard throughout an entire process is the most basic, important right I have as a citizen of this country, state, county, locality, and Joel stripped that from me and from you and from thousands of other constituents. You might be willing to trade your right for a few concessions, but I am not.
To disenfranchise constituents IS HIGHLY unethical. Joel disenfranchised thousand upon thousands of constituents. Joel did not even attempt to listen to them on an incredibly important issue, and he snuck around to avoid hearing them. Joel disenfranchised. That is unethical.
I urge you and everyone to SIGN the petition to recall Joel Engardio, the disenfranchiser.
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Funny how the recaller of 3 unethical recalls Joel engardio will be recalled.
He never thought the Leopards would eat his face… HA!
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