Editor:
Move Fast and Break Things: The Startup Politics of Joel Engardio
“Move fast and break things” once meant innovation. Under Supervisor Joel Engardio, it’s become a blueprint for civic dysfunction.
Since taking office, Engardio has treated the Sunset like a beta product – iterating fast, apologizing never, and viewing longtime residents as outdated features. His governance isn’t responsive; it’s agile without ethics.
Engardio governs like a tech CEO chasing buzz – pushing updates, optimizing headlines, and treating constituents like KPIs in a growth funnel. His politics weren’t shaped in town halls but cloned from pitch decks. High on optics, low on usable code.
His biggest failure? Shattered trust. Engardio abruptly ended the Upper Great Highway pilot – a compromise meant to run through December 2025 – eight months early. There was no community input, just a top-down push to close a vital arterial road. This wasn’t civic leadership. It was a launch timed for optics, not outcomes. Months of public compliance were erased without so much as a changelog.
The UGH closure wasn’t a long-term vision. It was a rapid-response patch during the pandemic. But instead of rolling it back, Engardio hard-coded it into policy. A temporary workaround became a permanent disruption, just when the Sunset needed the UGH reopened to reboot, reconnect, and recover.
Despite the fallout – gridlock, economic stagnation, community distress – Engardio’s supporters stood by him. But they’re not the working parents scrambling to drop kids off or the local merchants whose foot traffic collapsed. These are early adopters who bought into the Engardio brand, blind to real-world consequences. Businesses, already battered by COVID-19 and the rail rebuild, were left with no runway. Engardio didn’t optimize for their recovery; he shipped another update, then moved on.
Next on his roadmap? Upzoning the Sunset. No transparency, no buy-in. He’s not governing – he’s scaling. His donor list says it all: Lucas Lux (Google Cloud), Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp). This isn’t grassroots. It’s venture-backed governance with a UX built for people who don’t live here.
Engardio ran on pragmatism. What we got was disruption cosplay. When challenged, he didn’t pivot – he muted critics and deleted trust.
At the “Sunset Dunes” launch, the absurdity peaked. Protesters from the Recall campaign organized a car parade to demand visibility. Media coverage ignored them, spotlighting Engardio’s “let them eat cake” moment. That’s the model: Convert neighborhood distress into PR assets, then scale the narrative.
The real Sunset – the one living with the fallout – was never onboarded. Supervisors are elected to serve, not beta-test ideology. Joel Engardio isn’t effective. He’s a founder chasing metrics. The Sunset deserves better. https://www.recallengardio.com/
By Jason Fong
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Well said!
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Break things is the self-centered tech bro ethos.
Now we all get to live with the results of a bunch of rich jerks getting in the way of us going to work and driving our kids around.
Why did Joel sign onto this?? What’s in it for him?
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“What’s in it for him?”
Campaign donations from techie / real estate Billionaires, of course! Literally his core constituency, the ONLY constituency he truly acts in the interest of.
He’s quite obviously planning to springboard into the CA legislature to further his gentrification efforts in catering to the techie-riche plutocrats like his arrogant “hero” Scott Wiener does currently.
But WE can put an end to his graft and lies – SIGN the petition, Recall Liar Engardio.
Nip a corrupt dissembling sellout’s career right in the bud, turn off the money taps, and send a message to his handlers – the Sunset is not your yuppie playground, it’s our home! We will fight for it and the Billionaires can put their wasted millions directly in the write-off column come tax time.
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Great question. Engardio didn’t always think this way. He came to San Francisco in his twenties searching for acceptance and opportunity. But after three failed runs for office in his 40s, he finally won in a district he barely lived in and now he’s governing like he has something to prove.
So what’s in it for him?
Validation. Access. Influence.
Engardio has finally been accepted by the political cool kids: the tech elite, the YIMBY power brokers, the Twitter-class influencers. His donor list reads more like a startup pitch than a neighborhood support base. He’s not building community; he’s chasing clout.
And honestly? It has all the markings of a mid-life crisis. Some people buy sports cars. Joel Engardio bought the myth of disruption. He ditched the working families who elected him for the promise of legacy-building with the venture-backed set.
The UGH closure and anti-car crusade were never about climate. They were about proving he belongs, proving he’s not just a local official, but a visionary. Except real visionaries don’t leave families stranded, merchants abandoned, and entire neighborhoods ignored.
He’s not scaling solutions. He’s scaling himself.
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Absolutely correct on every point, especially about the financial backers and what can be expected if Joel Engardio is not removed from office asap. Support the recall. Sign the petition to recall him and donate to the grass roots effort of his constituents to put someone else in his place who will actually represent them.
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ever point is true. For a rookie supervisor to do so much damage he needed coaching. Wiener ? All the other supervisor? Haven’t heard anything from any elected officials. This whole mess is run by unelected department heads.
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What was the prompt you used to generate this article?
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Excellent letter. Thanks for your opinion and clarity. I collected signatures for the recall. I spoke to many neighbors and friends. It was all extremely civil and respectful. The recall is less about the UGH highway closure and much more about broken trust, which I think Jason covered very well. In many ways Joel is the most active and engaged supervisor we’ve had in District 4 since my wife and I moved here to raise two children in 1999. However, it’s important to not confuse activity and motion for progress. Government service is not transactional like business. I know of what I speak. I not only started, ran for 29 years and retired from a small business in San Francisco, I also have worked in state, local and federal agencies. I also have a graduate degree in management and public policy. San Francisco has its challenges. Joel’s style is not what will address those challenges. I’m not a huge fan of the recall option. But in Joel’s case I worry about the projects he has in mind for District 4 that he isn’t telling us about and that 2 out 3 District voters will be against as we were against closing the UGH. For me it will always be “Recall Park.”
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