SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio accepted defeat and doubled-down on Sunset Dunes park as his shining achievement.
Engardio was a driving force behind shutting down a 2-mile-long stretch of the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean to vehicles, making space for the creation of the park.
Preliminary results from Tuesday’s special election show nearly 65% of District 4 voters supported recalling Engardio.
“My time as a city supervisor will be shorter than expected. I accept the election results. But we can still celebrate. We are on the right side of history. Sunset Dunes is a success. The feared traffic ‘carmageddon’ never came. We created something positive. Very soon, we will wonder why this was ever a controversy,” Engardio wrote.
During last November’s citywide election, San Francisco voters approved the plan, dubbed Prop K. Once the Great Highway closed, resentments rapidly grew among local residents who previously relied on it.
Backers of the recall say Engardio betrayed his constituents. For Tuesday’s recall election, only voters who live in District 4 on the west side of the city cast ballots.
“I really don’t feel like he had the voice of our neighborhood,” a resident who voted in favor of the recall told KRON4.
Mayor Daniel Lurie wrote on X Tuesday night, “As I campaigned for mayor last year, I heard countless west side families say what San Franciscans have been feeling for years: that their government is doing things to them, not with them, and that government is not working to make their lives better.”
Engardio said parts of the Great Highway would have vanished with or without Prop K, eventually.
“Severe coastal erosion meant the Great Highway was going to lose its greatest utility as a direct connection to Daly City — no matter what. Mother Nature gave us a lemon. The southern section of the road is falling into the ocean. The creation of Sunset Dunes is the lemonade,” the supervisor said.
Since opening, Sunset Dunes has become one of the most visited parks in the city, he said.
To rally support for the recall, Engardio said his critics also fueled anger over proposed new housing density and affordable housing projects.
Engardio wrote, “There was a lot of ugly rhetoric and disinformation spread online about Sunset Dunes and my recall. It was disappointing to see so much fearmongering over welcoming new people to the Sunset.”
The supervisor asked, “Do we want to be a city that looks to the past and preserve it in amber? Or do we want to be a forward-looking and innovative city that welcomes new people and ideas?”
The oceanside park provides a joyful outdoor recreational space for tens of thousands of people who use it each week, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said.
Wiener said he strongly opposed the recall, “but the voters of District 4 have spoken.”
“The recall organizers have been very clear that recalling Supervisor Engardio is only their first step. They intend to seek to destroy Sunset Dunes,” the senator wrote. “Various leaders of the recall movement are currently trying to turn entire neighborhoods into massive, sprawling ‘historic districts’ designed not to advance historic preservation but rather to stop new housing or any change whatsoever.”
Wiener warned, “If successful, this agenda — freezing the city in amber, destroying a popular park, and stopping new housing –including in the Sunset, where home prices are explosively expensive — will deeply harm San Francisco and San Franciscans.”
Recall votes are still being counted and the special election’s results will be certified in coming weeks.
About 46,000 voters live in District 4, according to the census. Elections officials said more than 10,000 residents signed a petition to make the recall happen.
San Francisco District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan said she plans to introduce a bill to reopen the Great Highway.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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