"My time as a city supervisor will be shorter than expected," Engardio said in a concession statement posted on his blog Tuesday night. "I accept the election results. But we can still celebrate. We are on the right side of history." Engardio went on to defend the Sunset Dunes park that stirred the controversy that led to his ouster a park that came with the closure of the Great Highway to traffic, inconveniencing some drivers on the city's west side,
Engardio's pro-business, pro-law enforcement, pro-building agenda has a constituency here in San Francisco. It certainly includes the billionaire tech and landlord donors who underwrote the ascendant leadership of the Democratic Party, and are underwriting Engardio's anti-recall campaign. But Engardio's championing of Prop. K, the measure to transform The Great Highway into a park, enraged a broad swath of the Westside - including thousands of Chinese San Franciscans.
No matter what happens in San Francisco's special recall election on Sept. 16, Supervisor Joel Engardio will perhaps always be remembered as the man who closed the Upper Great Highway and turned it into Sunset Dunes. This is certainly driving rancor and discussion more than his relatively abridged legislative record, strategists said. Since taking office in January 2023, Engardio has sponsored 29 pieces of legislation, mostly focusing on district issues. Only nine of those are ordinances that bring actual policy change.
The Recall Diana Becton group aims to gather over 72,000 signatures for a recall election against Contra Costa County's district attorney, citing dissatisfaction with her performance.
