Editor:
I am proud to support Sunset Dunes, the new park replacing the Upper Great Highway, and to oppose the costly and wasteful attempted recall of our elected supervisor, Joel Engardio. I am a father, spouse to a small brick-and-mortar business owner in the Outer Sunset, daily cold-plunger, surfer and an environmentalist currently serving as vice chair of the Sierra Club in San Francisco.
The Sierra Club supports reimagining the Upper Great Highway as a space accessible to people and nature. We were proud to endorse Prop K. Ocean Beach is no place for a highway. A 2019 study found that the largest source of microplastics in California’s coastal waters isn’t plastic straws or bottles – it’s dust from car tires. Letting thousands of cars a day drive on the beach is like pouring micro plastics into the ocean.
Sunset Dunes offers a rare opportunity to restore coastal habitat. My six year old wants to access it almost every day to walk, bike, and play safely near the water, and in doing so, she begins to inquire about and understand what it means to steward our coastline, her community and wildlife habitats.
Sunset Dunes is an environmental, climate and economic win. Efforts to recall our supervisor, Joel Engardio, are misguided.
A recall wastes taxpayer money and Joel’s political capital by diverting his attention away from what Sunset Forward surveyed as our district’s top priorities: community, housing, neighborhood cultural and park services, thriving commercial corridors and economic resilience. Instead, we will be forced to re-litigate the creation of an already voter-approved, world-class park that won by a 10 point margin.
You don’t have to love the process. You don’t even have to love the park. But we all can love our City, our community, our planet and understand that making space for people and nature over cars is the future that endures.
Don’t let a disagreement over a single vote undo decades of environmental and community building progress. Do not sign onto the misguided recall.
Brian Reyes, District 4 resident
Executive Committee Vice-Chair
Sierra Club, San Francisco Group
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Lame. Westside Traitor Joel must go regardless of what happens with the Great Highway. We can’t tolerate the lying and sneaking behind our backs and filing to get Prop K on the ballot at the last minute.
LikeLiked by 4 people
It must be easy to support “Sunset Dunes” when you don’t live in District 4. To be clear: this isn’t a park. It’s a fenced-off sand trap with art students painting asphalt and calling it environmentalism. Meanwhile, families in the Sunset are stuck in gridlock, seniors are missing medical appointments, and delivery trucks can’t even access homes.
Brian Reyes talks about microplastics and climate wins — but where’s the climate win in shifting pollution from the coast to our residential streets? The traffic from closing the Upper Great Highway has increased emissions and made life harder for working families. But that’s not his problem, is it?
And let’s talk about the “eco-art.” Gallons of paint are being dumped onto asphalt in a sensitive coastal zone. If it’s so green, I invite Brian Reyes to eat a spoonful. The hypocrisy is staggering.
What Reyes and his pals at the Sierra Club don’t mention is that Prop K was rejected by the majority of voters in District 4. We said no. Joel Engardio said, “Too bad.” That’s not democracy. That’s an agenda.
Sunset Dunes is not a community-led project. It’s an Engardio vanity project — all optics, no substance. If this is his idea of leadership, it’s clear he’s more interested in Instagram likes than solving real problems. Our streets are jammed, our families are paying the price, and Reyes wants a pat on the back for turning a functioning road into a sand sculpture.
You want environmentalism? Start with clean transit and basic access. Until then, stop gaslighting the Sunset with buzzwords.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Brian has long lived in District 4. I should know, he’s my neighbor. It’s very odd of you to immediately accuse him of not.
Meanwhile, the Recall campaign is run entirely by people who do not live in the district who have hired out of state staff to go around the neighborhood collecting signatures. That’s not my opinion, it’s a fact. So why is it even a question and how is your support of outsider recall not hypocrisy given your comments here?
LikeLike
You misread I believe. Wendy was clearly referring to the citywide vote result that Brian posted instead of the local result, where it failed. “It must be easy to support “Sunset Dunes” when you don’t live in District 4.” – That does not refer to or mention him personally, does it. Either way it’s clear there is an agenda that facts aren’t getting that close to, and his choice to post non-local polling rather than the district’s actual sentiment speaks for itself.
The recall is a local-only issue until PR blurbs from non-profits start creeping in telling us we just have to stop criticizing an entirely corrupt process and result. The courts will decide the issue ultimately whether skipping CEQA was proper or not, and a layman’s read of it indicates the latter. But regardless of that outcome, Engardio lost the trust and respect of huge swaths of his district and we are voting on that basis to replace him immediately. He’s shown his true colors and they are not Sunset but Dollar bill green. We believe there are better options.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Let’s talk about actual outside influence.
If you’re so concerned about outsiders, how do you explain the money flooding Engardio’s campaign from donors who don’t even live in the Sunset? Tech execs like the Yelp CEO are bankrolling him—yet you’re accusing us, your neighbors, of being the problem?
That’s projection.
You say the recall is “entirely” run by outsiders. Got proof? Everyone I’ve met collecting signatures lives here—parents, seniors, longtime residents fed up with being ignored. Meanwhile, Engardio’s own campaign manager, Lian Chikako Chang, lives in the Richmond. She doesn’t represent Sunset values or speak for families like mine. So let’s not pretend he’s some homegrown hero.
If Brian Reyes actually lives in D4, then he should know better. Sunset Dunes may look nice in renderings, but for thousands of us who live here and depend on the Upper Great Highway, it’s made life objectively worse. Traffic is brutal. Parents are late to work. Seniors are missing appointments. That’s not a “climate win.” It’s hardship.
Now zoom out: why does Engardio seem to loathe District 4? He ran on listening to residents, then forced Sunset Dunes on us after we rejected Prop K. If he had any integrity, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He’d have held town halls. He’d have asked. He didn’t.
This recall is happening because Engardio chose performative politics over public service. A sand trap with painted asphalt doesn’t make up for broken trust and ignored families.
Defend it if you want—but don’t gaslight the rest of us who are living with the consequences.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I love when people like you try and convince voters that you know something when you really don’t. You lose any credibility with the very people you are trying to win over.
To set the record straight – the recall campaign is very much grassroots. It has over 900 volunteers, many of whom live in D4. Some are even your neighbors that you are so eloquently throwing under the bus. There are also volunteers and donors from other Districts — supporters that believe recalling Joel Engardio is warranted. And we love having them on the team; we value their support and contributions. Now, have we hired out of state staff to help canvass? Yes. It’s not an uncommon practice and if we really want to dig into it I bet Joel has used paid canvassers (perhaps out of state too) in his previous campaigns. So if you’re going to throw stones at the recall, please fact check before launching.
LikeLike
Correction :
K lost by a 2/3 – 1/3 margin in the Sunset where the vote is happening, so if you want to give lip-service about caring about the Sunset as a District you might as well post the local result – not the downtown Billionare PR purchases of sentiment from Noe, Bernal, Pac Heights, etc. Local voters will decide if he’s recalled or not, not the ‘City Family’ of ‘non-profit’ Billionaire charities he’s embedded himself with.
I question every claim made in this op-ed about the “environmental” win that closing a single road affords, forcing those drivers onto slower more congested stop and go routes only adds to local air pollution. Do the math please, then tell the truth. If this is the type of baldfaced claim that gets full backing here, we’re doomed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’d like to thank those with productive comments for their thoughts, whether for or against. To those name calling, making assumptions about who I am and my friends, and using provocative language, I think your words speak for itself. I will take in stride as I am the one bringing forth an opinion. Still, I will definitely share with my daughter once she is of age so she has a sense of the tenor in this moment, during a time where national rhetoric has percolated all the way down to the local level. I sincerely hope she and future generations learn from our mistakes by taking a more productive approach when engaging with someone when there is a disagreement; our world needs it.
I have no right words to counter, so I can only hope we can get beyond this type of discourse especially online, and invite you to the meaningful conversations taking place offline. When that happens, I invite you and those willing to engage in productive conversations to share your pain points, seek common ground, ask questions and come to a shared pool of meaning, in search of what Sunset Dunes brings to the table . . . community and a place of belonging. I’ve learned from those who disagree with me on this issue and it only came about because we were willing and sometimes on the park itself. Join us out there.
For those readers who haven’t stepped foot on it, try it out. It’s all good. It won’t bite. It’s beautiful, wonderful, doesn’t judge, is a step back from the rat race, and all the superlatives you can think of when taking that first bite of ice cream, magically catching one after years of endlessly paddling in 54 degree water and eating it (for my senior OB rippers), or hearing your child’s laughter; PURE BLISS.
LikeLike
Your high hat dismissive comments aside, on the average day no more people go out to the Great Highway now than did before it was closed.
Living in the Parkside, I go out there all the time and can safely say during the summer gloom it will be even less, especially on weekdays. Nothing that the preexisting pathway would not already support.
The compromise weekend closure was accepted by all and working fine. People on both sides of the issue were reasonably accomodated. That was initiated by our previous supervisor who sensibly listened to both sides of this issue.
So now in exchange for the what will be a very lightly used Sunset Dunes Park, the neighborhoods and people out here are to be completely disrupted? Without any due consideration.
And when they take legitimate issue with that they are expected to submit to preachy bromides from people who continually ignore the very real daily life impacting complications this whole thing has introduced out here.
I repeat this a lot, but it bears repeating, not one precinct in District 4 voted for Propositon K. Which should be an embarrassment for someone who purportedly represents them. It is certainly not a recommendation.
LikeLiked by 2 people
First of all, sunset Dunes , a world class park, oh please. I worry about the Sierra Club in symuch hands. And I’m glad you and your 6 year old has the luxury of daily visits , to enjoy the frequent I crowded closed roadbeds in your world class park, sandwiched between a truly world class 2 1/2 miles of Ocean Beach, and the landscaped bike/jogging/ walking path built by Rec & Park and used for decades by myself and others. That and the fact that one of The world‘s largest urban parks, Golden Gate Park lies less than 3 miles away from the furthest point on Sunset dunes. perhaps a valuable lesson for your child would be that we can’t all have everything we want right outside our front door while others are forced to sacrifice. And they should be taught maybe your six-year-old should be taught to realize that many six year olds and families cannot have the luxury you have because they are forced into a longer commute that involves many more miles additional traffic and possible accidents to get to where they need to be going that would be a very valuable lesson to the child even if not, one that could be sanctioned by the Sierra club, which I am a bit a member of for over 40 years. It’s what serves the greater good and sunset dunes is serving the luxury of a few for the sacrifice of many that might be a lesson for your child in addition for yourself.
Peter Mandell
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Brian! Despite all the furor now, I deeply believe that ten, even five years from now it will be unfathomable when we look back, and think that this park was controversial. And I am glad it’s already giving you and your daughter so much. Thank you for all your work to support it!
LikeLike
You want to talk about furor now vs. how we’ll feel in five or ten years? Let’s be clear: history will not forget what Joel Engardio did. It will not forget how a so-called “moderate” sold out an entire district to serve tech billionaires, developers, and political climbers. It will not forget the gaslighting, the lies, the contempt for working families who said NO to Sunset Dunes and were ignored anyway.
WE. WILL. NOT. FORGET.
Engardio didn’t just “make a park.” He destroyed trust. He governed by press release. He sabotaged the CEQA process. He handed our neighborhood over to special interests and called it “pragmatism.” The school board recalls that Engardio supported? That was nothing compared to the sheer audacity of what he’s pulled. That was child’s play. THIS is generational damage.
I have friends—born and raised in San Francisco—who’ve never seen this level of arrogance and malfeasance from any supervisor. Ever. Sunset Dunes is not a symbol of community. It’s a symbol of betrayal.
And no, I’m not setting foot in that sand trap. If I want a park that respects people’s needs, I’ll go to Presidio Tunnel Tops where there’s shelter, actual amenities, and no condescending sermons attached.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You apparently haven’t been around 5-10 years yet, because Ocean Beach has always been there along with a path the entire length of the Great Highway.
You added nothing but crappy “art” that nobody asked for at the cost of Millions.
What a joke. It’s just so pathetic that this is something you find worthy of bragging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lian, in a month, you are going to look back at this campaign and wonder what could you have done differently.
Joel, in six months, when you are formally recalled, you are going to look back and wonder what could you have done differently.
The answer is the same in both cases. Engage the District – not just a subset of supporters. Be transparent and tell the truth. I could have forgiven you Joel if you just held a meeting and said you made a mistake – a really really bad decision. But you didn’t. Instead you chose to blame others and avoid your constituents (me). I am ashamed that I voted for you. I will not make that mistake again. See, I admitted my big mistake and hope the District will forgive me. Wasn’t too hard. You should try it sometime — albeit it’s too late to save your political career.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You don’t have to love the process. You don’t even have to love the park. But many, many of us are signing to recall Engardio, whether you like it or not. The vast majority of transportation in San Francisco happens by cars, and “Sunset Dunes” isn’t going to change that. If Engardio is truly concerned about the cost of this recall to the city, then all he has to do is recognize how he’s betrayed the majority of his constituents and simply step down.
LikeLiked by 3 people
is this guy saying its the official Sierra club position that any roads near the water where people might use their brakes should be shut down? In that case, we need to get started on closing Highway one from Pacifica to San Luis Obispo right away. Also be sure to close Highway 101 on the way to SFO And the Golden Gate Bridge Problem solved.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is about recalling a supervisor who deliberately snuck around to avoid communication with, and input from, thousands of constituents regarding an important piece of legislation that directly affected them. Although you might like the result this time, what about the next time he does it regarding something you don’t like? Above all, I value the right to be heard and not be disenfranchised. Recall Engardio.
LikeLike
Everyone knows that the Sierra Club has been taken over by YIMBYs. On environmental issues and problems in Golden Gate Park it has nearly always been completely silent!
There has been no move against the privatization (and deforestation of large parts of) Strybing Arboretum, the horrific lighting and astroturfing at the Ocean Beach soccer fields, the closing off of the Western part of the park for weeks for the benefit of a corporation, or many other issues and problems.
There is no doubt that sending cars on detours so that entitled techies can cruise down a road on their leisure creates more pollution and is anti-environmental.
But the Sierra Club is a pro-real estate org now. They endorsed that horrendous YIMBY-extraordinaire Danny Sauter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When members of the San Francisco Sierra Club’s Executive Committee changed and the group who replaced them withdraw the Club’s demand for an Environmental Impact Report before supporting the permanent closure of the Great Highway I discontinued my longstanding membership. My previous belief that the Sierra Club was for championing environmental safety was challenged and ultimately destroyed by their decision to no longer insist on collecting and reviewing important data relevant to the impacted area and sharing it with the impacted community. They ignored supporting protections to the Wildlife Sanctuary in the sand dunes where the endangered Snowy Plovers nest, the destruction of native plants, and the exacerbated erosion of the sand dunes themselves from unrestricted foot traffic that continues to desecrate the area. No consideration was given concerning the effect of bright lights at night shining on the wildlife, and the only conversation surrounding this uninformed decision was that making the road car-free was best for the environment with no facts or studies supporting that misguided position. Since I live there and personally witness delays to first responders to beach rescues, gridlocked traffic on the surface streets, increased graffiti and noise near the beach, it is clear to me that our community’s safety has been compromised, and the Sierra Club is not the environmentally protective organization it once was.
LikeLiked by 1 person