Joel Engardio Betrayed District 4
By Albert Chow
Joel Engardio’s tenure as supervisor of District 4 has been marked by a pattern of betrayal. During his campaign, he promised to keep the compromise of the Upper Great Highway as a shared space that most neighbors supported. Yet a year later into his term, he clandestinely drafted a ballot measure with a handful of people to reverse that very compromise, closing the Upper Great Highway for park use and ignoring the overwhelming majority wishes of his own constituents.
The most troubling aspect is the level of secrecy and deception he employed. He concealed his intentions from his own staff, local small businesses and even fellow supervisors in order to persuade them to support his plan. This duplicity erodes public trust and undermines the integrity and respect required for elected office. District 4 residents deserve leadership guided by openness and accountability. We already see this happening at the federal level and in other state governments. We deserve much better.
Engardio also has a pattern of taking credit for grassroots successes. The Irving Street Night Market originated as an idea long before Engardio came into office by neighborhood groups. Though he did little to organize the event, he later claimed credit when reporters asked about its popularity, which incensed so many that helped make the event possible. This self-aggrandizing degrades the participatory nature of community and ruins respect towards leadership. Our community cannot accept public officials who place self-promotion above genuine collaboration.
Engardio’s opportunism extends even further. He claims his Proposition G would bring back Algebra 1 to eighth grade, but in truth, the SFUSD had this already under development. He timed his ballot measure so he could claim it as his success for schools. However, the Board of Supervisors has no control over SFUSD.
At the end of the SFMTA Taraval Project he claimed he secured $1 million to compensate Taraval merchants for the losses they incurred during the construction project, but that was in fact achieved by Mayor London Breed’s office and the Office of Small Business.
Even initiatives that should benefit local commerce have become vehicles for his agenda. On Sept. 17, 2024, Engardio organized an “End of Taraval Night Market” along the Great Highway at the west end of Taraval without consulting or inviting the People of Parkside Sunset, Taraval’s merchant association. This was at a time when small businesses were struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the SFMTA Taraval Project losses. Instead, he brought in outside vendors, diverting customer traffic away from district merchants while using this event with public funds to promote “Yes on Proposition K” rather than supporting the local economy.
Finally, we cannot overlook the questionable influence of extremely wealthy out-of-district donors. Engardio accepted five- to six-figure donations from billionaires who do not reside in District 4 and whose priorities conflict with the values of our neighborhood. Recently, when asked why he closed the Upper Great Highway, he casually suggested that demographic shifts would render the issue irrelevant in a few years. This was a cold and callous dismissal of multigenerational families who define this community. He implies that the old will die off and be replaced by another different set of folks with a different set of values. Joel lost touch with the fact that people moved here, have always moved here, raising their families here, loving what the “Avenues” represents – a suburban vibe, a safe neighborhood, multigenerational families, good schools and open spaces. That has not changed in almost 100 years and is not changing anytime soon.
Joel Engardio’s record reveals a consistent pattern of secrecy, self-interest and misrepresentation. It is not about “one mistake,” but a fundamental disregard for the community he was elected to serve. Sure, he is filling pot holes and knocking on doors now, but for the past year Joel Engardio has shown his face little in public and when he does, he is often booed off. Why? Because when you know in your heart you have betrayed the community you are ashamed to be in public. The community that sees you and disrespects you because you are not the leader they thought they supported.
For the sake of District 4 and for the sake of our democracy, Joel Engardio must be recalled.
Albert Chow represents the Recall Engardio 2025 campaign.
Categories: Commentary
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Bravo! This is a perfect summary of why Engardio should be recalled, and an excellent explanation of why this is not simply “one issue”. Engardio has betrayed on so many levels that a recall is really our only option. Thank you, Albert, for the great commentary.
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Everything stated is absolutely true and serves as a simple outline of why D4 voters have organized to recall Joel Engardio. Thus is not only about Engardio effectuating the permanent closure of the Great Highway by bypassing his constituents and making the issue a citywide vote that removed their rights to information and engagement, but about his ongoing pattern of secrecy, deceit and silencing the voices of his constituents to specifically exclude most of them from participating in matters affecting their daily lives and income. Thank you for explaining this, Albert Chow. Good job.
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Great Commentary! He has to be RECALLED. He has betrayed his constituents!
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Joel is part of the movement to destroy the communities of the city which are the heart and soul of San Francisco. Communities bear the burden of taxes but are being cheated of services as access to public transportation. To truncate the Great HIghway and make it into a recreational area is a starry eyed proposal that engenders traffic congestion and the great difficulty of driving in the city. I reside in assisted living without this awful change that is destroying the city’s history and culture. But I am also a native and don’t plan to migrate to another locality. We must resist this terrible, grotesque transformation of San Francisco. One means of doing this is to recall a man who does not represent the interests of District 4 but is a hired gun of destructive interests. No to Joel Engardo!
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Bravo! That sums it up perfectly. Joel does NOT represent D4 and he MUST be recalled.
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This is really good commentary and summarizes the feeling that many of us feel out here in district 4. Our voices were ignored, no town halls were held, and we were basically ignored and pushed over.
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The Recall Engardio campaign Vote Yes on A is being accused of wrecking the piano that was on the Great Highway Seriously folks most of the campaign workers are in bed at night not destroying property The people accusing us have sunk to a new low.
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I have lived in District 4 for 55 years, own a house here, and have raised my two sons here. I love the quiet but friendly character of our neighborhoods. I voted to keep the Great Highway as a road, open to cars.
However, I am appalled by the untruths, misinformation, and hate that is coming from the Yes on A folks. They claim that Mr. Engardio somehow tricked them, not telling anyone about his support for making a park of the Great Highway, but I knew about it. He wrote about it in his newsletter. Another complaint is that he takes credit for the actions of others. Again, not true; he organizes and provides direction so that things get done. A proper role for a leader or a City Supervisor. The Yes of A people choose to ignore when he gives credit to others. They also choose to ignore the good things he has done for regular residents, those of us who have no political ambitions: the safety officers in our neighborhoods, the “fix-it” file where we can tell his office about pot holes or other some problems which he gets fixed, the catalytic converter identification to deter theft. These are all small things, but they add up to a Supervisor who cares.
Most telling of all is that no one started criticizing Mr. Engardio until Prop K passed. If there were problems with his performance, surely people would have spoken out earlier. So is this expensive and hateful campaign really just to punish Mr. Engardio for not agreeing with a small group of people?
I hope the people of District 4 will vote to keep Mr. Engardio in office and not let the Mayor choose our supervisor. You can always vote against him in the regular election next year.
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I appreciate your perspective, but I have to speak up as someone who’s lived in the Sunset for nearly 20 years, raised a child here, paid off a home, and built a life in a neighborhood full of working-class immigrant families, especially Chinese families, who make this place what it is.
Let’s be real: the Sunset isn’t flashy. It’s quiet. Predictable. Even boring and that’s exactly why we love it. It’s a refuge. A place to raise a family, retire in peace, or build a stable life with neighbors who look out for each other. The Sunset doesn’t need to be “fixed.” It needs to be respected.
But instead of preserving that calm and stability, Joel Engardio has brought disruption after disruption. Closing the Upper Great Highway didn’t improve our lives it created traffic chaos, endangered commute times for nurses, caregivers, and working families. Hosting city-sponsored events that excluded local merchants? That’s not community-building that’s opportunism. Taking credit for community-led initiatives and then using them to elevate his brand? That’s not leadership that’s self-promotion.
And the worst part? These disruptions feel strategic like he’s manufacturing decline to make the Sunset look broken, just to seduce property developers and justify redevelopment. His toxic policies are steamroling over a vibrant, functioning, multigenerational neighborhood, making families leave, and calling it obsolete when really, it just doesn’t fit his political ambitions or the priorities of his wealthy out-of-district donors.
The recall isn’t about one policy or one road. It’s about a pattern of arrogance, secrecy, and disrespect. Engardio treats the Sunset like a blank slate not a living, breathing community. We’re not his experiment. We’re not a stepping stone for his next office.
The Sunset isn’t broken. There’s no crisis here just a supervisor creating one to justify drastic changes that nobody asked for.
That’s why I’m voting YES on A. Because the Sunset deserves better than a manufactured crisis and a manufactured leader.
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For anyone who thinks Joel Engardio broke any promises, I encourage you to check out a snapshot of his issues page on July 2022, 4 months before the board of supervisor’s election.
In it, he clearly mentions that he sees the closure of the great highway extension as an opportunity to create a permanent oceanside park and even calls out the NYTimes article that talks about how closing the highway to cars has made it a popular destination.
Is it really valid to call him a “traitor” or “liar” when he literally put his pro-park stance on his Issues page on his website months before the election?
Citation: https://web.archive.org/web/20220727002840/https://engardio.com/parks-environment
P.S. Albert, I may disagree with you politically on this specific issue but I was a patron of your store quite a bit before the fire as it was incredibly convenient and you guys always had great service. I wish you the best of luck with bringing it back.
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You should read and highlight the first sentence.
Duplicity: acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another
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