By John Ferrannini
Two of the candidates from the June 2 race to finish recalled District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio’s term will challenge new Supervisor Alan Wong again in November for the next four-year term representing the Outer Sunset on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
The next election will be held Nov. 3.
Jeremy Greco, campus coordinator at Presidio Hill School, and hardware store owner Albert Chow, will be on the ballot.
After their loss in June, Natalie Gee, chief of staff to District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton, and former parks commissioner David Lee, will not be on the ballot.
Gee stated that the decision came “after a few days of reflection and honest conversations with the people I love most.”
Lee and Chow did not return requests to comment or be interviewed, respectively, for this report.
Greco – who was notable as the only candidate to express support for not reopening the Upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic on weekdays, which means he holds the same position that led to Engardio’s ouster – said that his path to victory lies in raising more money next election.
“I only had $4,000 raised and came close to 2,000 votes – fourth place,” he said. “I’m really proud of that. What I can learn is to be competitive. I’ve had a number of people tell me that I have to raise money, which is something I’m not comfortable with. I also have to build a team. Fortunately, people have been reaching out to help.”
Greco said he wants to run on a platform of supporting police walking the beat in the Sunset, environmentalism and “integrating housing where artists and seniors can live together.
“Running for office this time was one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever had,” Greco said. “I’ve taken part in democracy and I’ve voted, but I’ve never run for office. I’ve always wanted to, and it was a real privilege to do so, and I overcame the odds with this last election. I can continue to overcome the odds.”
Westside political insiders are less confident that anyone can overtake Wong’s bid for re-election. He received a whopping 64% in the last round of ranked-choice voting, on top of winning 46% of first-place votes in the field of five.
San Francisco Working Families Democratic Club board member Cyn Wang, who lives in District 4, said, “Save some colossal surprise, I don’t see things changing between now and November.
“My perception is that San Franciscans in District 4 feel the City is moving in the right direction, and that District 4 voters support more housing, support more transit, support streamlined bureaucracy and permits … Alan Wong represented the policy ideas and the platform that best reflected that,” Wang said.
Wong, a former member of the City College board, was appointed by SF Mayor Daniel Lurie in the aftermath of the Engardio recall and the mayor’s admittedly-disasterous appointment of Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz – a 29-year-old former pet store owner who resigned after just a week in office – to the seat. Lurie used his political cachet in support of Wong, who received hundreds of thousands in donations, both directly and to third parties.
Josephine Zhao, president of the Chinese American Democratic Club, argued that the ledger, and not his positions on issues, is the reason why Wong won. Zhao’s club had endorsed Chow as a first choice and Wong as a second choice. She pointed out that Wong was the most likely second-choice of Chow voters when votes were redistributed during ranked-choice voting.
“What didn’t work for Albert is he doesn’t have the same amount of money,” Zhao said. “What the money did is it drowned out what Alan did on day one after his appointment, when he voted for the upzoning of the Sunset.”
Indeed, the day after being appointed, Wong voted for Lurie’s family zoning plan, which raised some height limits on the westside.
Zhou also said that Wong benefited from an op-ed he wrote in Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao Daily denouncing the Upper Great Highway closure.
Thomas Li, president of the Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club, held a contrasting view. Li argued that voters want to move on from the Upper Great Highway matter, and weren’t necessarily opposed to the upzoning measure.
Li said that Wong “ran a good campaign focusing on the issues and while he’s been in office, he hasn’t squandered his time. He’s been focused on what neighbors are concerned about and everyday issues.”
Indeed, Wong made it a point to focus on matters such as the frequent Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) power outages in the district, and his effort to involve citizens in reforming so-called “dumb laws.”
“Folks in his district are really concerned about housing affordability,” Li continued, “Him sticking his head out in favor of family zoning helped him with people in his district, rather than the vocal minority against housing.”
Li concluded that, “Working so closely with the mayor’s office is key. The mayor giving his endorsement to Alan helped.”
Categories: Politics
Li’s comments are disingenuous. People are not against “housing” but against destroying buildings (rent controlled buildings with two units or less can be destroyed) to build hideous high rises whose units will be affordable only to very wealthy people.
Ed Lee himself would be in jail on FBI-discovered corruption charges, so his exit was well timed in terms of his legacy. Even has a club…. 🙁
Mayor Lurie paid for Wong’s appointment, plain and simple. (I voted for the mayor, by the way.) The top three venture capitalists who contributed to Wong’s campaign were visible clear as day on the massive billboard — the financial disclosure literally took up half the billboard — that the mayor’s office took out on the side of the Walgreens at 22nd and Irving.
Lurie received political contributions for Wong through SF Believes, the political action committee that was specifically set up to receive financial contributions for all the measures Lurie created and then supported. Guess what? On election night — within only a few hours of the polls closing — all of those measures were reported as passing at a uniform 75–80% approval rate.
It’s almost like the numbers were run through AI, which is an industry that Mayor Lurie has welcomed with open arms (calling San Francisco an “AI-first city”), and which is funded almost completely by venture capital. Did I mention that venture capitalists were the top three contributors to Wong’s campaign?
The city of San Francisco is living under Big Brother right now. Every outdoor surface is relentlessly plastered with AI advertising. The first thing Lurie did as mayor was to open up a car-free Market Street to Google, Lyft, and Uber — and then clear the way for Google’s Waymos and Lyft bikes to be absolutely *everywhere*. Did I mention that in 2019, Lyft was reported by its own internal analysis as a failing business that would never turn a profit?
Meanwhile, Lurie pays out of his own pocket to be personally represented by McKinsey, the same PR firm that was officially fined for its role in actively causing the U.S. opioid crisis. In February 2025, Lurie appointed former McKinsey employee Daniel Tsai — who the San Francisco Standard reported *also helped cause the U.S. opioid crisis* — as San Francisco’s director of public health. Did I mention that a morally compromised public relations professional is now in charge of San Francisco’s public health?
(Note that the San Francisco Standard itself is funded by billionaire and venture capitalist Michael Moritz, and openly features a section called “Real Estate Is Power”.)
Which brings us to Cyn Wang’s quote, which is basically a repeat of the mayor’s talking points. Her quote is also written/stated (I personally have never said “Save for. . .” in a conversation) in that strangely decisive, leading way that is so indicative of all this top-down Wiener/YIMBY/billionaire propaganda, when she says that all of District 4 wants what the mayor wants.
“Public relations” is the nice word for propaganda. Propaganda is the act of influencing public opinion by repeating a message over and over again, in different venues and with different methods.
I believe that Joel Engardio himself told his supporters that he was setting up the Westside Family Democratic Club in the Richmond District to swing the Chinese-American vote. I just looked up the Working Families Democratic Club, and it seems that they were founded in 2024 and only had three events in 2024.
I’m guessing the group may be one of the many groups with some variant of “Democrat”, “Park”, “Family”, “SF”, and other California-themed words picked straight out of the encyclopedia and slapped onto a political action committee (Manzanita Action Fund).
I appreciate Mr. Ferrannini interviewing so many different people, and Josephine Zhao’s willingness to say it like it is. You can tell when someone is speaking for themselves or not.
Finally, Thomas Li of the Edwin M. Lee Asian Pacific Democratic Club somehow avoids mentioning a vital point of Lurie’s ‘Family Housing Plan’, which is that the plan’s definition of “affordable” starts at $130,000 — and only a handful of units in each building are designated as ‘affordable’. The rest of the units in these now-approved new buildings will be market rate, aka the sky is literally the limit.
The protesters that Li calls a “vocal minority” — are the ones who pushed for these basic facts. The first version of Lurie’s plan had no facts, only marketing.
Unless Mr. Li’s club is made up of billionaires who can afford market-rate housing — which is ironic, since Mayor Ed Lee (the namesake of the club) started out as a grassroots organizer in Chinatown, historically known as San Francisco’s “ghetto” — he and his club are in for a big surprise when they get pushed out for development that doesn’t guarantee that: 1) They can come back, or 2) Afford to come back. What a time to be alive.
Mr. Li, you and others are absolutely Wrong about Alan Wong!! If you want the photos that go along with this statement, let us know and we will be happy to accomodate you and any one else!
Did you see this 48 Hills article (below)? Neither Alan Wong or his staff would address the serious issues of the 1200
block of La Playa St., until I contacted The Clerk Of The Board! But alas, after COB contacted Alan Wong, neither
Alan Wong or his staff have yet to address the issues, 6 months later! I did call a meeting with 7 neighbors, and Mr. Wong,
and after at least a month, Mr. Wong set a date, for a month later, Feb. 27th 2026. It has come to our attention that one
of the Aides in the D4 office lives on this block, right at the head of the block, so can witness this neglect!
The 4, NO PARKING signs, for street sweeping were removed 1 year ago, July 2025, and never replaced, with no explanation,
so no street sweeping now for 1 year, with a Wind Tunnel that is always present from the wind and sand in this Ocean Beach
area. The build-up of sand from the beach across the street sits in the gutters at the curb, and interferes with parking, and lands on the street at times! Also, there is much speeding on the 1200 block of La Playa St. due to the fact that since the Great Highway has been closed, the commute traffic has now been directed to La Playa St., the New Great Hwy as the commute route, and no one is honoring the posted 25mph speed limit, on this residential street! The only speed limit sign on the 1200 block of
La Playa St. is near Lincoln, on the west side of the block, for the South bound La Playa St. traffic. The North bound commute traffic has no speed limit signage, which should be on the East side of La Playa St., near Irving, and these drivers are not honoring the residential speed limit of 25 mph! There needs to be mph signage in that area! This is not a highway, but Residential street where families with children and pets have made their homes for decades!
With this D4 office, going over their head to a higher source is the only option! Is this particular block out of Alan Wong’s demographic with-in his District 4? We see him interacting in reels on Instagram with other D4 neighborhoods, trying to make
sure that all is not neglected. Since there is a citywide, district clean-up, that Mayor Daniel Luried, and his wife Becca Prowda, have widely promoted and advertised, even with a reel of the couple in a cable car, driving thru the city, will Mr. Wong have
DPW or any city department out here on the 1200 block of La Playa St. to replace the missing NO PARKING signs, and speed limit signs, or any other department necessary to complete a rehab of the complete neglected of 1200 Block of La Playa St?
This month’s long neglect by Alan Wong is like a Slap In Our Faces!
Alan Wong is up for election as the D4 Supervisor in November!
The political transformation of Sup. Alan Wong – 48 hills
I guess the City is showing its true colors. Unless you can make the cleanup of your block into an Instagram event that showcases Mayor Lurie and “First Lady” Prowda, all the sand and speeding will stay as is. We are looking at a billionaire-implemented caste system.
Re: the speeding, I recommend documenting everything and then going to talk to each house that has an “I [Heart] Sunset Dunes” poster in the window, and asking them for help. See if that gets you anywhere. Every last Sunset Dunes supporter should be involved in helping to keep everyone around that ‘park’ safe.