Editor:
San Francisco YIMBYs love to ask a bad-faith question: “Why are you so against a homeowner wanting to build a multiplex on their property?”
It assumes homeowners want multiplexes when most clearly do not and tries to paint neighbors defending their community as selfish. Cramming a multiplex onto a narrow Sunset lot would be absurd. Infrastructure, parking and emergency access aren’t designed for that density, and no one wants it. If Sunset residents truly wanted multiplexes, we would have enacted legislation ourselves decades ago, and you would already see them everywhere.
A recent poll of Sunset residents asking whether they preferred a single-family home or a luxury condo showed 48 out of 50 voters choosing the single-family home. This reflects a clear preference for livable streets, yards and multigenerational space. The Sunset is home to newcomers, long-term homeowners and renters who got along peacefully before Engardio arrived. If residents truly wanted changes like multiplexes, we’d pursue them ourselves through community discussion, not top-down mandates from politicians like Joel Engardio.
Engardio’s policies, however, are actively making life harder for families and stripping residents of agency over their own neighborhood. The closure of the Upper Great Highway choked traffic, increased stress, and made daily life miserable. When neighborhoods become unlivable, families are forced to move. Homes get scooped up by developers or wealthier buyers, accelerating displacement. This isn’t protecting newcomers; it’s pushing them out.
Some accuse recall supporters of being “anti-change,” but change isn’t inherently good. Policies that disrupt daily life, displace families, and hand neighborhoods to developers are destructive – a cancer on community stability. The priority now is removing a divisive politician like Engardio before he can inflict further damage.
Sunset residents are not hostile to people moving in. We are hostile to policies that displace working families and undermine the fabric of our community. The next time someone asks that bad-faith multiplex question, remember it’s a manipulation meant to cast neighbors as gatekeepers while ignoring the real forces: traffic, construction chaos and policy-driven displacement pushing families out.
Vote YES on A. Recall Engardio.
Wendy Liu, D4 resident
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Remember, Engardio was the one who personally added the provision to strip ADU’s, accessory dwelling units IE ‘in law units’ or ‘backyard cottages’ from all rent control protections. The ADU initiative was literally enacted specifically for low-to-mid income renters, not for enriching private equity developer groups as a sole priority. He sold out the entire reason the program exists and left those who rent these new market rate units from ANY protection from gouging.
This is the YIMBY priority when it comes down to it : developer interests far surpass local constituents when there’s money on the table, and there’s always money on the table in SF politics. Engardio isn’t our representative, he is their own property. They bought him and they own his vote and agenda. It’s disgusting.
Yes on A. Restore accountability in government one vote at a time.
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you live in a city.
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Even New York City — the densest city in America — protects residential areas. Staten Island, large parts of Queens (like Bayside or Forest Hills), and areas of Brooklyn (like Dyker Heights) are full of single-family homes. Every major city needs balance. Without it, you get the chaos of places like Kowloon’s Walled City — density with no roads, no sunlight, no livability. Is that really your vision for the Sunset?
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Westside Traitor Joel Engardio has got to go!
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A facebook poll made by the author in a closed group is not a scientific poll. We have a housing crisis. There won’t be any working class families in the Sunset if we do not build more housing.
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Let’s be real: the type of housing Engardio pushes isn’t for working-class families. Take the Westerly, Scott Wiener’s pet luxury condo project nearly vacant today, despite being built in a supposedly ‘housing crisis’ era. Meanwhile, working families are already living in the Sunset, thriving in single-family homes, enjoying yards and community. Engardio’s policies don’t help them they push families out and pave the way for developers.
Sure, this wasn’t a scientific poll it was meant to show local residents’ preferences for their neighborhood, not produce formal data. Yet Engardio supporters selectively embrace “official” numbers that suit their agenda, like SFMTA data claiming the Upper Great Highway closure didn’t worsen traffic, while dismissing community-sourced evidence, like my poll showing residents’ overwhelming preference for single-family homes. That’s not analysis that’s cherry-picking. The real issue isn’t whether people want housing it’s how policies are being implemented. Engardio’s approach displaces families, creates construction chaos, and hands properties to developers, which doesn’t help working-class Sunset residents one bit. Most families here want livable streets, yards, and multigenerational space preserved, and that’s exactly what the poll reflects.
Again let me reiterate: Working-class families are already living in the Sunset and thriving. The real threat to them isn’t a lack of new housing it’s policies like Engardio’s UGH closure that make life difficult, forcing families out while lining developers’ pockets.
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These houses are mostly $1M+. If there’s “working class” families in them, they either inherited it or have some unusually good rental deal. If something happens to it, they may have to move away, as they won’t be able to afford anything market rate.
We’re basically out of space for new single family homes. The only way to reduce prices for them would be to reduce demand, which I don’t foresee happening (and is generally a bad sign for the economy). Sure, you can subsidize, but that creates winners and losers for its own system. It still leaves people who want a home without one, if there aren’t enough homes to go around. But if we build multiplexes, then we can increase supply, and maybe displaced and new working class families can live in the Sunset, even if it’s not in a detached home. Yeah, ideally not luxury multiplexes, though even the “luxury” condos of today will become the regular condos 30 years from now.
I also think it’d be a bit overdramatic to move away because a highway that bypassed your neighborhood got turned into a park.
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Well of course most people prefer a single family home over a condo. But if two families want to live in the sunset and we build a SFH instead of a duplex, only one of them gets to. Which one? Probably the wealthier one. Now, if you’d prefer to have fewer and wealthier neighbors, go ahead and vote that way, but don’t act like it isn’t selfish.
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For me to even consider turning my family’s dream home into a multiplex, the city would have to pay for relocation, moving, construction, and guarantee that my property value and quality of life wouldn’t suffer. Since none of that’s happening, these multiplex fantasies are just that — fantasies. It’s easy for outsiders to demand ‘density’ when they’re not the ones being asked to tear down the homes they’ve built their lives in.
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Before the YIMBY crowd jumps in with their usual lines — no, nobody’s ‘afraid of change,’ and no, it’s not ‘selfish’ to protect the homes and community we’ve built. What’s selfish is pushing impossible fantasies like multiplexes on Sunset lots while ignoring the real costs. If you expect longtime homeowners to tear apart their customized homes, you’d better be ready to pay for everything — relocation, moving, design, construction, and compensation for disruption. But funny how none of you ever offer that. You just guilt-trip neighbors from behind a keyboard while living comfortably in your own detached homes.
If multiplexes are so easy and desirable, then lead by example: build one on your own property first. Until then, don’t lecture us on sacrifices you’d never make yourselves.
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