Latest news with #PropositionK
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: Forget the Great Highway. This is what the S.F. recall of Engardio is about
Regarding 'S.F. recall is overkill' (Letters to the Editor, May 30): By focusing on the closure of the Great Highway to vehicle traffic, those against the recall of San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio are missing the point. Engardio failed to represent the wishes of his constituents when he spearheaded the campaign for Proposition K, which closed the Upper Great Highway to cars for a park. Engardio had no interest in a compromise solution like the one that had been in place for weekend closures. Instead of working to improve pedestrian safety and easing traffic congestion, he has made both issues worse. Engardio appears to be more interested in pleasing his big-money backers like Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Ripple founder Chris Larsen, tech investor Ron Conway and Twilio co-founder John Wolthuis than the constituents in his district. Engardio has said traffic is not as bad as people had expected. Some studies found it to be much worse. Over 10,000 valid signatures were submitted to get the recall on the ballot. The voters of the Sunset District decide Engardio's fate. Kenneth Jones, San Francisco How Dems can win President Donald Trump has been caught in another scandal: He recently pardoned a man — who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes — a month after his mother attended a $1-million-a-head MAGA fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. This is a blatant quid pro quo that would have led to the impeachment and conviction of any other president. With Trump, it is par for the course. Sadly, few Trump supporters will care about this suspicious action. However, MAGA folks will take great joy in watching Trump detractors whine and complain about this fishy pardon. As one of my friends wondered, are we witnessing the death of outrage? As a scholar who studied political rhetoric for four decades, I believe the rules of the game have changed, and the rhetorical playing field is no longer the same. The moral of the story is clear: Democrats can't regain control if their message is exclusively or primarily 'not Trump'; they must convince Americans that they will fix the problems that negatively impact people's lives. This can be contrasted with what Trump has and hasn't done. Such a message offers the best persuasive strategy for Democrats. Richard Cherwitz, Camas, Wash. Keep lid on Dead tickets While tickets for the Dead & Company concerts in Golden Gate Park this August are listed at $245 for single-day admission and $635 for three-day passes, many fans worry Ticketmaster will quietly introduce dynamic pricing — sending costs skyrocketing in real-time based on demand. This controversial model has already priced out many fans for Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift shows. If implemented for Dead & Company, it would turn a community celebration into an exclusive, high-cost event — on public land that's supposed to belong to everyone. San Francisco should take a stand. The city should demand transparency from promoters and prohibit surge pricing at events in public parks. Dead & Company's shows should reflect the inclusive spirit of the band and the city that helped shape it. Let's make sure these shows are a celebration for all — not just the wealthy few. Dan Steiger, San Francisco Pictures tell story I see these events live every day because I walk for exercise in areas where there is drug use. It's disgusting and needs to be shown to emphasize the need to clean up the streets. Putting lipstick on a pig does not change the pig. Good for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie for trying to address the problem. Catherine Maxey, San Francisco Prioritize teaching English Regarding 'S.F. parents are trying to start first K-8 Mandarin immersion charter school. It won't be easy' (San Francisco, May 24): I was disturbed to read about Mandarin-immersion education for children. Judging by the lack of literacy and poor communication skills of today's youth, we should be immersing our students in English, which should be the official language of the United States of America.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Mayor Daniel Lurie will loom large over the city's next recall fight
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie finds himself in a difficult position now that the campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio has officially qualified for the ballot. Engardio, a staunch moderate, has been a loyal supporter of Lurie's policies, backing his legislative efforts and appearing by his side at news conferences. But the Sunset District supervisor is facing political peril: Organizers are seeking to oust Engardio over his enthusiasm for a major road closure that was unpopular among his constituents. With the question of whether Engardio should be removed from office heading to Sunset voters in September, Lurie must decide whether to back Engardio and risk being on the losing side of the voters' will. Alternatively, the mayor could choose to stay out of the recall fight and send a potentially chilling message to Engardio and other allies. 'It's a dilemma,' said political consultant Eric Jaye. 'On the one hand, you risk your reputation with the voters. On the other hand, you risk your reputation with other politicians. And politicians like fellow politicians who are willing to stand up and be counted when the going gets tough for them.' The animating issue behind the recall battle is the fact that Engardio supported the closure of the Upper Great Highway to cars and most voters in his district did not. Lurie opposed the successful ballot measure last year that permanently shuttered the road to vehicles to make way for Sunset Dunes Park. He also drew broad support for his mayoral campaign from voters throughout the west side, including the Sunset. However, as mayor, Lurie has advanced a major rezoning of the west side to allow for denser housing construction in a swath of the city that has seen little residential development in recent decades. The move upset some west side residents, and it could be a factor in the effort to remove Engardio, who has made positive comments about the mayor's rezoning plan. 'I would be stunned if this vote didn't turn on that issue,' Jaye said. 'You have a constituency of people who are concerned about traffic and a constituency of people concerned about Engardio ignoring the will of his district. We're going to see whether or not Engardio and Lurie are ignoring the will of neighborhood voters with their massive upzoning.' But Todd David, a supporter of Engardio, doubted that any effort to link Lurie's rezoning initiative to the highway closure would be an effective recall strategy. David was one of the principal organizers of Proposition K, the measure that permanently turned the Great Highway into a promenade for pedestrians, runners and cyclists. He said an attempt to combine the highway discontent with mayoral rezoning frustration would probably fail to win over voters who did not already sign the recall petition. 'You're not bringing along a whole bunch of new people,' he said. 'There are outliers who will never support an upzoning in their neighborhood that are just a 'no change' crew, and I think that 'no change' crew is the crew that signed the recall. Overwhelmingly, people support more new housing in their neighborhood, including the Sunset.' So far, Lurie has not indicated how he might proceed. He has not weighed in on the recall qualifying for the ballot or signaled whether he will publicly back Engardio in the September election. In an earlier interview with the Chronicle, he said that, when it came to the Great Highway closure, he 'understand(s) everybody's concerns … but as a city, we have to move forward.' 'We will continue to monitor and make adjustments where we can as we see any impacts,' Lurie said. Engardio, meanwhile, told the Chronicle on Friday that he was 'in touch with the mayor and his team and we will have conversations soon.' 'I've been working closely with the mayor to pass legislation that addresses pressing issues that Sunset residents care about like public safety, housing, and our local economy,' he said in a statement. If Engardio were to be removed by voters in his district, the mayor would face another hard choice. At that point, he'd be tasked with appointing Engardio's successor. The decision would allow Lurie to handpick someone aligned with him, ensuring that the Board of Supervisors' political balance does not shift in the short term. But Lurie would also need to be mindful of the fact that the appointee would serve only until an election in June. The mayoral appointee would presumably run in that election, but they could face stiff competition from a progressive eager to build off the recall momentum to recapture the seat. When Engardio won the district in 2022, he defeated progressive Supervisor Gordon Mar by just 460 votes. So Lurie would probably want to appoint an Engardio-like moderate who doesn't have Engardio's political baggage from the Great Highway closure. 'The mayor is doing an incredible job, and he is able to get a lot done because he has a majority of pro-growth, pro-safety people on the board' of supervisors, said Sachin Agarwal, a co-founder of the moderate group Grow SF that supported Engardio's 2022 supervisor run. 'The most important thing we can do is continue to have that majority, and whether that's Joel or someone the mayor supports, we need someone who is focused on the basics.' Regardless of what Lurie does, David, the Engardio supporter, said he thinks the embattled supervisor can prevail by pointing to the ways he's tried to deliver on essential issues. For example, Engardio worked to secure funding for merchants to help them deal with impacts of controversial street construction, and he backed the return of algebra curriculum to eighth grade as well as the continuation of merit-based admissions at Lowell High School, David noted. As for Lurie's potential role, David said the mayor has had 'an outstanding working relationship with the Board of Supervisors.' 'I think it would be in the mayor's interest to want to continue to have a strong ally on the board,' he said. 'If, God forbid, Joel got recalled, then the mayor also would get to appoint somebody, but that person's name ID would be much lower than Joel's going into election season.'
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: California's top environmental safety law does what it's supposed to do
Regarding 'California environmental law nearly killed a childcare facility in our community. Enough is enough' (Open Forum, May 27): Napa County Supervisors Anne Cottrell and Liz Alessio say in their op-ed that they want to make it easier to build projects like affordable housing and childcare centers, but bulldozing our state's most important environmental and public health law is not the solution. Drastically weakening the California Environmental Quality Act, as state Sen. Scott Wiener's SB607 proposes, would include allowing polluting projects in neighborhoods with minimal to no environmental review. That's bad for children and families. Deregulation of projects like freeways, power plants and railyards will increase air pollution and lead to public health problems. CEQA is one of the primary tools California communities have to protect their residents' health and safety. The Senate Appropriations Committee rightly saw that SB607 was too extreme and, on May 23, refused to pass it as drafted. S.F. recall is overkill Regarding 'Engardio recall to make S.F. ballot with enough signatures verified, organizers say' (San Francisco, May 24): The story says that San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio 'came to prominence by ousting officials through recall campaigns.' This diminishes Engardio's years of work before any recalls. As the story acknowledged, Engardio 'campaigned on a platform of public safety and transparency.' Engardio has also worked to engage residents in the city's political process and holds town halls and meetings, not to make speeches, but to listen. He thoughtfully considers everyone's opinions — agree or not — and consistently advocates for our kids, seniors and small businesses. Recalls have been reserved for egregious, unethical behavior, misconduct or corruption, not for disagreeing with a proposition -- in Engardio's case, his advocacy for Proposition K, which closed the Upper Great Highway to cars. I did not support Prop K, but I don't support short-sighted, knee-jerk reactions to a single issue that doesn't go my way. With many people running for office to be something, we need more people like Engardio running to do something. That's why I will vote no on the recall. Amy Bacharach, San Francisco Parrots are endangered Whether flying free in the wild or locked in cages at pet stores, private homes or rescues, parrots are in urgent need of our help. The picture is bleak as we recognize World Parrot Day on Saturday. The escalating demand for pet parrots has resulted in overcrowded rescues and sanctuaries worldwide. Pet stores and online breeders have made it all too easy for anyone to purchase these complex animals. An estimated 3 million to 5 million birds are bred in the U.S. per year. However, captive parrots are among the most frequently abandoned pets. Their wild nature and inclination for loud and frequent vocalizations, flying and destructive tendencies are often too much for guardians. Meanwhile, the demand for parrots as pets drives the capture of parrots in the wild; 28% of all parrot species are endangered or threatened and 58% are in decline. In many areas, the poaching rate is 100% — no chicks escape the illegal wildlife trade; 90% of trapped birds die after capture, and it is estimated that for every bird smuggled across a border, up to 90% die within the first year. To end this global parrot crisis, we must collectively advocate for an end to the sale and breeding of these majestic wild animals. Lucy Pax, Walnut Creek
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Engardio recall to make S.F. ballot with enough signatures verified, organizers say
San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio, who came to prominence by ousting officials through recall campaigns, now appears all but certain to face his own after recall organizers said Saturday that city election officials verified that more than 99% of signatures they sampled Friday were valid. 'I feel like David beat Goliath,' said Albert Chow, one of the organizers of the recall. 'No one told us we had a chance in hell to pull this off.' Campaign organizers needed 9,911 valid signatures from registered voters in District 4 by May 22 to qualify for a recall election. The recall campaign ultimately collected about 14,000 signatures, and by the end of Thursday had submitted just under 11,000 signatures to the San Francisco Elections Department that it had validated internally. 'This was the definition of grassroots effort,' Chow said. 'We went through a ton of effort to prescreen every signature before turning it over' to the elections department. Jamie Hughes, who is running the recall, said the sample narrowly missed immediate qualification because of a duplicate signature. Now, the Department of Elections will have to verify every one of the submitted signatures, Hughes said, which could take several weeks. 'We were pretty confident in our validation process, and we spent a lot of time on it, especially over the past week,' he said, adding that he was 'pretty confident' that after the counting was complete, the signature petition would meet the necessary bar to be placed on the ballot. Engardio, who had angered many of his constituents by endorsing Proposition K, which closes a stretch of the Great Highway to create the Sunset Dunes park, said in a written statement that he understood community concerns and was working with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to improve traffic and pedestrian safety along with other constituent services. Engardio said he was confident that even if the recall measure qualified for a vote, his constituents would oppose it. 'I supported an open and transparent democratic process where everyone had an equal say at the ballot box. And everyone had ample opportunity to campaign for and against the issue,' he said. 'I invite people to explore Sunset Dunes and our coast in new ways. The coast belongs to everyone and now it's more accessible to people than ever.' Engardio also criticized the recall effort, which he said would not reopen the Great Highway and sets a 'bad precedent' for recalling elected officials over policy disagreements. 'If there's a recall every time we disagree with one issue, we won't have a functioning government,' he said. Engardio, a former journalist, was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2022, after capitalizing on his support for the successful 2022 recall of several school board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Engardio won the District 4 seat after three previous unsuccessful campaigns for supervisor. A former journalist, he campaigned on a platform of public safety and transparency. But Engardio infuriated many in his district after sponsoring and voting for the initiative to close a 2-mile stretch of the city's westernmost coastal boulevard, the Upper Great Highway, to cars to create a park. Prop K was opposed by a majority of voters in the Sunset and Richmond districts, the neighborhoods closest to the Great Highway, although it passed with more than 54% of the vote citywide. The measure spurred a lawsuit even before the park opened on April 12, and west side residents called the closure of the highway a 'war on cars' that would harm their quality of life and increase commute times. Engardio previously defended his vote by arguing that voters across the city deserved to weigh in on the proposition to close the Upper Great Highway and make it a park and argued that attempting to recall an elected official over a single vote wasn't 'helpful to us moving forward as a city.' That argument, Chow said, missed the point. 'We're firing Engardio because he messed with the community,' Chow said. 'He went against the community even when he was told not to do so.' Chow and others were particularly angered after seeing Engardio's financial backing, including high-profile support from Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who donated $125,000 to the supervisor's cause. 'His constituency is tech billionaires, not D4 residents,' Chow said. 'This is about taking out someone not working for the community who voted for him.'
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Campaign to oust S.F. Supe Engardio says it has needed signatures for recall
The campaign to recall San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio over his support for the permanent closure of the Upper Great Highway to cars has collected 14,000 signatures to turn over to the San Francisco Elections Department for review, campaign leader Jamie Hughes told the Chronicle Wednesday evening. The campaign needed 9,911 signatures from registered voters in District 4 by May 22 and exceeded that minimum, Hughes said. District 4, which Engardio represents, encompasses the Sunset District. The recall campaign will submit the signatures to the Elections Department Thursday to begin what could be a dayslong process by the department to certify that sufficient valid signatures were collected before a recall election is called. The department must hold an election not less than 105 days and not more than 120 days from the date of calling an election. Elections officials will take a random sampling of 5% of the collected signatures and check if they are from registered District 4 voters. If the sampling shows the proportion of valid signatures is more than 110% of the required number, then election officials will declare the recall petition successful, according to Elections Director John Arntz. If it is computed to be between 90% to 110% of the required number, elections officials will check if every single submitted signature is from a registered District 4 voter. Hughes said 90% of the collected signatures came from the volunteer effort. The remainder came from paid signature gatherers. 'This campaign has been the definition of grassroots and District 4 has really come together to make their voices heard,' Hughes said. Hughes, an ally of former progressive Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, took the helm of the recall effort after former leader Vin Budhai stepped down last week, citing 'strategic differences.' Reached Wednesday night, Engardio said it's too soon to know if the recall has qualified for the ballot and urged people to wait for the Elections Department to determine if there are enough valid signatures. 'In the meantime, I'm continuing to do my job fixing problems for residents, supporting small businesses, and working with Mayor Lurie to pass legislation that addresses pressing issues on public safety, housing, and our local economy,' Engardio said. If the recall qualifies for an election, Engardio said he is 'confident' that a majority of Sunset voters will oppose it. He said that recalling him won't reopen the Great Highway to cars and sets a 'bad precedent' for recalling officials over a 'single policy disagreement.' The recall effort was launched by Budhai and Sunset District residents outraged by Engardio's effort last year to champion a ballot measure to permanently close a two-mile stretch of the city's westernmost coastal boulevard, the Upper Great Highway, to cars in order to create a park. During last November's election, the measure, called Proposition K, was opposed by a majority of voters in the Sunset and Richmond districts, the neighborhoods closest to the Great Highway, although it passed with more than 54% of the vote citywide. The measure has invited a lawsuit even as the park opened on April 12. Westside residents called the closure of the highway a 'war on cars' that would harm their quality of life, saying they relied on the Upper Great Highway to get around their neighborhood. Recall supporters have said commute times have increased on the westside since. 'I believe closing the highway was a total mistake,' Tommy Yang, a Sunset resident and owner of Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant, said during an April 22 recall rally in the Sunset in Mandarin. 'You are not watching out for Sunset residents,' he said, referring to Engardio. Engardio supporters have backed his effort to create a park for all San Franciscans to enjoy. Others said recalls are undemocratic and a waste of money, as well as argued it isn't worth recalling Engardio over, given his other efforts to champion westside interests. 'The city's got bigger problems and if we're focusing tax dollars on recalling Engardio, I think it's a dumb effort,' Sunset resident and business owner Lareina Chu previously told the Chronicle, pointing out the city is already having a municipal election next year where voters could decide to oust Engardio. 'I think he's done a good job.'
