San Francisco Supervisor Recalled Over Closure of Upper Great Highway

SAN FRANCISCO—Supervisor Joel Engardio conceded a special election late on Sept. 16, with nearly two-thirds of Sunset District voters approving Proposition A to recall him from office.

Engardio said in an X post at 9:47 p.m.: “My time as a city supervisor will be shorter than expected. I accept the election results.”

Preliminary results issued at 10:41 p.m. by the Department of Elections showed that 64.64 percent of voters, or 10,625 voters, wanted Engardio removed from his position, with 5,812 votes opposed and only 3,500 ballots uncounted at the time.

That number is similar to the 63.7 percent of voters from the same district who said no to the 2024 ballot’s Proposition K, a measure to replace the Upper Great Highway with a park that was later named Sunset Dunes.

Engardio cosponsored and endorsed the measure, but residents of his district complained that it would greatly affect their lives because of gridlock and traffic safety issues.

The recall effort began shortly after the measure was passed in late 2024. Citywide, 54.7 percent of voters supported Proposition K.

Selena Chu, an active advocate for the recall, told The Epoch Times that she was proud of the communities in the Sunset and Richmond districts.

“We sent a strong message to elected officials: As a public servant, you should listen to your constituents. If not, they will recall you,” Chu said.

The recall campaign raised $257,090, less than one-third of the $829,099 raised by the “stop the recall” side, according to public records.

Tech executives Chris Larsen of Ripple and Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp together contributed $375,000 for Engardio’s anti-recall campaign.

About 1,000 volunteers collected 85 percent of the approximately 10,000 signatures needed before May 18 to validate the recall, according to Chu.

“I’ve never seen so many volunteers involved in a campaign gathering signatures in San Francisco history,” Chu said, adding that usually a campaign would hire people to do that.

Engardio stood behind his decisions.

“Sunset Dunes is a success,” he said in the X post. “It’s good for the environment, good for our local economy, and it’s bringing joy to people of all ages.”

The closure has already affected traffic patterns. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority counted a 700-vehicle increase on the Lower Great Highway, a narrower road adjacent to the two-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway, which was closed, according to a San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency report issued on July 25.

Two western roadways crossing Golden Gate Park—Upper Great Highway from Fulton Street to Lincoln Way and Chain of Lakes Drive—have about 3,200 fewer vehicles daily than before the closure, according to the report.

“Those trips may have shifted to 19th Avenue or to east-west roadways, changed mode of travel, or are no longer taken,” the report stated.

For the past eight years, Josephine Zhao, an Inner Sunset resident and mother of two, has often driven on the Great Highway to Chinatown or downtown after dropping off her children at school in Southwest Sunset in the morning. The trip usually took about 25 minutes, but now she cannot make it in an hour, she said.

“The recall is not just about the closure of the Great Highway,” Zhao said. “It’s about our supervisor’s role he played, in how he put Prop K onto the ballot.”

Zhao, who is also president of the Chinese American Democratic Club, accused Engardio of leaving constituents in the dark while in the process of hammering out the proposal.

“He did it behind closed doors with a few people, a few of his friends, and without consulting with the community at all, and we got caught by surprise,” she said.

Engardio, who was elected supervisor in 2022, stated in his concession post on X: “I inherited a contentious debate about the future of the Great Highway and met with advocates on both sides. … Prop K allowed for more public debate in the most open, democratic, and transparent process possible. Every voter had an equal say because the coast belongs to everyone.”

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a Sept. 16 statement that he was aware of constituents’ feelings “that their government is doing things to them, not with them, and that government is not working to make their lives better.”

Lurie will appoint a new supervisor once the election result is certified by the Board of Supervisors.

“Our team is evaluating next steps for the District Four supervisor seat,” he said.

Crystal Lu contributed to this report.