Facing a recall, Joel Engardio reaps the whirlwind

The cliched definition of “irony” involves a diabetic running to the drugstore being struck by a truck carrying insulin. 

In Supervisor Joel Engardio’s District 4, enraged locals would claim that truck ought to have been traveling on the Great Highway but was instead diverted onto crowded residential streets — and begin circulating recall petitions. 

Engardio is both a smart man and a student of local political history. So he understands the irony of the situation he’s in, even if he doesn’t appreciate it. Engardio ascended into the forefront of local politics by fomenting anger at the system and supporting recall movements. But he now finds himself in the crosshairs of those angry at the system — namely, him — and supporting a recall movement — of, namely, him. 

At issue is Engardio’s championing of Proposition K, which he and four other supervisors placed on November’s ballot. The measure, which closed the Great Highway to vehicles in hopes of creating a future park, passed citywide with nearly 55 percent of the vote. 

So, the Great Highway will be devoid of cars. And a park may yet come. But the unintended consequences are legion. Prop. K was a clear lifeline for embattled progressive District 1 supervisor Connie Chan, who inveighed against a proposition that 63.9 percent of her constituents voted down. It may end up blowing up Engardio’s career. And, speaking of blowing stuff up, Prop. K was the legislative equivalent of drilling into the fault line in the San Francisco moderate movement between old-school westside homeowners and YIMBY, e-bike urbanists, planting explosive charges. 

Rarely will you see a more divided electoral map: 

Map by Kelly Waldron. Data from the San Francisco Department of Elections.

In Engardio’s District 4, 63.7 percent of voters went no on K. These are alarming numbers for a district representative, at least one who aspires to continue being a district representative. You may recall that Trevor Chandler finished a highly respectable fifth citywide in his March race for a spot on the Democratic County Central Committee — but placed a distant 16th in District 9. This boded poorly for his subsequent District 9 supervisorial campaign. And, lo, he was trounced by a 60-40 tilt. 

Similarly, it bodes poorly for Engardio that a near supermajority of his constituents are against him on Prop. K. But it gets worse: In the three conservative-voting precincts grafted into District 4 that wholly provided his slim margin of victory in the 2022 election, nearly 77 percent of the voters were against Prop. K.

This is Engardio’s political base, and these are his neighbors — Engardio, too, was grafted into District 4 in 2022. But what the statistics don’t show you is that not only did vast numbers of District 4 residents vote against Prop. K,they did so vehemently: They blackened that circle with animus. 

Perhaps big checks from a billionaire-backed entity to subsidize signature-gathering will materialize, as they did in the school board and DA Chesa Boudin recalls supported by groups like TogetherSF and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and GrowSF. Or not: If anything, all or most of these groups and their wealthy backers are with Engardio.

But perhaps no big check is necessary. That’s because there are a lot of angry westside voters out there right now — and it’s not overtly ideological. Progressives, moderates, whatever — lots of them are pissed (but especially moderates). And driven. 

At the moment, there’s no means of quantifying just how angry District 4 voters are; “ripshit” seems to be the term of art among veteran political observers.