San Francisco, CA
Recall campaign against San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio officially launched
SAN FRANCISCO – Efforts to recall San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio shifted into a new gear as organizers officially launched the campaign on Saturday.
At the United Irish Cultural Center in the Sunset District, dozens of community members gathered to sign the recall petition. Some people even volunteered to collect signatures from District 4 voters. Among them was Frances Misenas, a District 4 resident who actually voted in favor of Proposition K.
“I’m for a park, I actually love the idea of a park,” Misenas said. “But the process was not transparent, and it wasn’t clear, and it doesn’t represent our neighborhood’s concerns.”
Proposition K permanently closes a stretch of the Great Highway near Ocean Beach to transform it into a park. Residents of San Francisco’s west side, particularly from the Sunset District, expressed frustration and anger over the supervisor’s role in helping to pass the controversial measure.
“I have concerns about safety because there’s increased traffic in our neighborhoods. My neighbor just last week had a car run into his home,” Misenas said.
Critics, including Misenas, argue that Engardio failed to adequately engage with constituents before pushing Proposition K to a citywide vote. They contend that closing the two-mile stretch of the Great Highway has created significant traffic problems, diverting cars into residential streets and compromising the safety and convenience of local residents.
Nancy, a District 4 resident living near the Great Highway, expressed her frustrations, saying, “When (traffic) gets heavy there, I can’t get in and out of my garage and cars won’t stop.”
Marc Duffett, owner of Ocean Park Motel, echoed similar sentiments, calling the situation “very offensive, and I think a lot of people are very angry about having it shoved down our throats.”
Organizers of the recall effort argued that Engardio’s actions hurt public safety and claimed his failure to adequately consider the concerns of his constituents was a key reason for the recall. Richard Corriea, a recall organizer, said, “He’s made us less safe on the west side. He’s ignored his constituents.”
Proposition K passed by about five percentage points. The November results showed voters living near the Great Highway overwhelmingly rejected Proposition K, while those living farther away supported it.
In response, Supervisor Engardio has defended his support for Proposition K, stating that the coast “belongs to everyone” and that erosion along the southern part of the highway made the decision inevitable.
“The southern part has literally fallen into the ocean because of the severe coastal erosion,” Engardio said. “I respect that people are going to disagree about what to do with the Great Highway, but you can’t beat Mother Nature. She’s already decided that this road has lost its greatest utility.”
The supervisor also pointed to his broader contributions to the district, including improvements to education, public safety, and the popular night markets.
“Don’t think we should recall someone based on one policy issue,” Engardio added.
However, recall organizers remain steadfast, with Corriea arguing that the issue goes beyond a single issue: “He’d like to say it’s one thing. It’s betrayal and he’s made us less safe on the west side.”
As of now, recall organizers have until late May to gather 9,400 valid signatures. They report having already collected 1,000 signatures since launching their campaign just five days ago. Misenas, for her part, is ready to continue her efforts, emphasizing that the issue at hand is about safety.
“I’m just going to talk to my neighbors first, my neighbors on my block,” she said, highlighting the real-world consequences of the road closures.
If the recall effort proves successful and enough signatures are gathered, organizers said a special recall election would take place likely in October.
SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco supervisors are calling for a hearing by the board into the massive power outage in the city last month.
Calls for a hearing
What we know:
Supervisor Alan Wong and other lawmakers say residents deserve answers about the outage on December 20, which, at its height, affected about a third of the city.
Wong added that the credits offered by Pacific Gas and Electric are insufficient to cover lost food, wages and many other disruptions. The utility has offered customers and businesses impacted by the Dec. 20 blackout $200 and $2,500 respectively.
Wong in a statement said power was gradually restored during the initial outage, but that periodic outages continued for several days and that full restoration was achieved on Dec. 23.
“This was not a minor inconvenience,” said Sup. Wong. “Families lost heat in the middle of winter. Seniors were stranded in their homes. One of my constituents, a 95-year-old man who relies on a ventilator, had to be rushed to the hospital at 2 a.m. People watched their phones die, worried they would lose their only connection to 911.”
Wong’s office had sent the utility a letter after previous outages on Dec. 7 and Dec. 10, regarding the utility’s lack of reliability. The letter called the frequency of the outages unacceptable.
PG&E agreed with Wong’s office’s characterization of service specific to the Sunset District and met with the supervisor.
Despite this development, the root cause of the outage on Dec. 20, that impacted some 130,000 residents citywide, was due to a substation fire near Mission and 8th streets. That fire remains under investigation.
Wong thanked fellow supervisors Bilal Mahmood, Connie Chan, Stephen Sherrill, Danny Sauter, and Myrna Melgar for co-sponsoring his request. The boardmembers have asked board President Rafael Mandelman to refer their request to the appropriate committee.
Wong is separately submitting a letter of inquiry to the SF Public Utilities Commission requesting an analysis of cost and implementation of what it would take for San Francisco to have its own publicly-owned electrical grid.
The other side:
A PG&E spokesperson addressed the board on Tuesday, asking for the hearing to be scheduled after they get results of an independent investigation.
“We have hired an independent investigator company named Exponent to conduct a root-cause investigation. We are pushing for it to be completed as soon as possible with preliminary results by February which we will share with the city,” said Sarah Yoell with PG&E government affairs. “We are proud of our ongoing investments to serve San Francisco.”
Yoell assured the utility would be transparent with whatever they find.
PG&E added that they have met all state requirements and that they have a current Safety Certificate approved by OEIS (Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety).
Loss of inventory
Abdul Alomari, co-owner of Ember Grill in the Tenderloin, said his business lost electricity during the massive outage.
“It’s not just me. Across the street, all these restaurants here, nearby businesses. It hurst a lot of people. I’m just one small voice from so many people here that got hurt,” said Alomari.
He plans to attend the PG&E hearing and said Tenderloin merchants already have a tough time.
“Less people come here, the Tenderloin, Every single bit of help helps. It doesn’t help that every three months we get a power outage for four hours and we lose business,” said Alomari.
He said compensation from PG&E alone is not the answer. He wants reliability and stability.
“That’s only short time if we have things like this happen all the time, eventually it’ll off set what we get,” Alomari said.
The Source: PG&E statement, interviews with the supervisors, interview with a restaurant owner and original reporting by Amber Lee.
A parcel tax plan to rescue Muni would charge most homeowners at least $129 annually if voters approve the policy in November.
The finalized tax scheme, which updates a version presented Dec. 8, comes after weeks of negotiations between city officials and transit advocates.
The plan lowers the levels previously proposed for owners of apartment and condo buildings. They would still pay a $249 base tax up to 5,000 square feet of property, but additional square footage would be taxed at 19.5 cents, versus the previous 30 cents. The tax would be capped at $50,000.
The plan also adds provisions limiting how much of the tax can be passed through to tenants in rent-controlled buildings. Owners of rent-controlled properties would be able to pass through up to 50% of the parcel tax on a unit, with a cap of $65 a year.
These changes bring the total estimated annual tax revenue from $187 million to $183 million and earmark 10% for expanding transit service.
What you pay depends on what kind of property you or your landlord owns. There are three tiers: single-family homes, apartment and condo buildings, and commercial properties.
Owners of single-family homes smaller than 3,000 square feet would pay the base tax of $129 per year. Homes between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet would pay the base tax plus an additional 42 cents per square foot, and any home above 5,000 square feet would be taxed at an added $1.99 per square foot.
Commercial landlords would face a $799 base tax for buildings up to 5,000 square feet, with per-square-foot rates that scale with the property size, up to a maximum of $400,000.
The finalized plan was presented by Julie Kirschbaum, director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, at a board meeting Tuesday.
The plan proposed in December was criticized for failing to set aside funds to increase transit service and not including pass-through restrictions for tenants.
The tax is meant to close SFMTA’s $307 million budget gap, which stems from lagging ridership post-pandemic and the expiration of emergency federal funding. Without additional funding, the agency would be forced to drastically cut service. The parcel tax, a regional sales tax measure, and cost-cutting, would all be needed to close the fiscal gap.
The next steps for the parcel tax are creating draft legislation and launching a signature-gathering campaign to place the measure on the ballot.
Any measure would need review by the city attorney’s office. But all stakeholders have agreed on the tax structure presented Tuesday, according to Emma Hare, an aide to Supervisor Myrna Melgar, whose office led negotiations over the tax between advocates and City Hall.
“It’s final,” Hare said. “We just need to write it down.”
SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco Superior Court judge dismissed claims in a lawsuit against Proposition K, the ballot measure that permanently cleared traffic from the Great Highway to make way for a two-mile park.
One advocacy group, Friends of Sunset Dunes, said the legal action affirmed Proposition K’s legal standing and called the lawsuit against the park “wasteful.”
Proposition K passed with more than 54% of the vote in November 2024, but the debate didn’t end there. The Sunset District supervisor was recalled in the aftermath of that vote by residents in the district who argued their streets would be flooded by traffic and that the decision by voters citywide to close a major thoroughfare in their area was out of touch with the local community.
What they’re saying:
Friends of Sunset Dunes hailed the judge’s decision in the lawsuit, Boschetto vs the City and County of San Francisco, as a victory.
“After two ballot measures, two lawsuits, three failed appeals, and dozens of hours of public meetings and untold administrative time and cost, this ruling affirms Proposition K’s legal foundation, and affirms the city’s authority to move forward in creating a permanent coastal park to serve future generations of San Franciscans,” the group said in a statement.
The group added that their volunteers are working to bring the coastal park to life. Meanwhile, “anti-park zealots continue to waste more public resources in their attempt to overturn the will of the people and close Sunset Dunes.”
“Now that they’ve lost two lawsuits and two elections, we invite them to accept the will of San Franciscans and work with us to make the most of our collective coastal park,” said Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes.
The supervisor for the Sunset District, Alan Wong, doubled down on what he had stated earlier. In a statement on Monday, Wong said he is “prepared to support a ballot initiative to reopen the Great Highway and restore the original compromise.” The compromise he’s referring to is vehicles allowed to drive along the highway on weekdays and a closure to traffic on the weekends.
Wong, in his statement, added that he’s talked to constituents in his district across the political spectrum and that his values align with the majority of district 4 residents and organizations.
When he was sworn in last month, Wong indicated he was open to revisiting the issue of reopening the Great Highway to traffic. He also said he voted against Proposition K, which cleared the way and made Sunset Dunes official.
Engardio’s two-cents
Last September, Joel Engardio was recalled as the Sunset District supervisor in a special election. The primary reason for his ouster was his support of Sunset Dunes, the park which also saw the support of other prominent politicians, including former Mayor London Breed, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and State Senator Scott Wiener.
Engardio on Monday issued his own statement after the judge dismissed all claims in the lawsuit against Prop. K.
“It’s time to consider Sunset Dunes settled. Too many people have seen how the park is good for the environment, local businesses, and the physical and mental health of every visitor,” Engardio said. “Future generations will see this as a silly controversy because the park’s benefits far outweigh the fears of traffic jams that never happened. The coast belongs to everyone and it won’t be long before a majority everywhere will embrace the wonderful and magical Sunset Dunes.”
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