Supervisor Melgar won, now the trick will be to manage her constituents’ competing interests

District 7 incumbent Myrna Melgar faced a particularly bruising re-election campaign. She squared off against significant numbers of her own constituents by supporting hot-button issues like Proposition K to close the Great Highway to cars, and upzoning parts of her district that have been previously limited to single-family housing. “If I lose this election on this issue, then that’s the right thing to do,” Melgar said in June, after a particularly contentious meeting about zoning changes coming to her district, and the rest of the city. 

But she didn’t lose the election. No matter the ideological differences, most of her constituents agree: She’s good at the actual work of being a district supervisor. 

“When I call — somebody does get back to me,” said Peggy da Silva, a West Portal resident who has reached out to Melgar’s office over concerns like city workers using gas-powered leafblowers. “They’re pretty good, they listen,” she added.  

That assessment was echoed in interviews with over a dozen residents and business owners from neighborhoods across District 7. “She’s a big advocate for the community,” said Hanley Chan, a veteran affairs commissioner and West Portal resident. Chan campaigned for Melgar’s re-election, even though he opposed Prop. K. 

So, barring unforeseen lunacy, Melgar will be managing the competing interests of her constituents for four more years — including the district’s hot-button issues: upzoning, housing and transit. 

District 7 is the largest district by geography and encompasses constituents from across the political spectrum. It contains more single-family homes, more homeowners and more drivers than elsewhere in the city — but it’s also home to more dense neighborhoods around S.F. State, Parkmerced and City College. Those more urbanized areas played a big role in securing Melgar’s win this November. 

Melgar did less well in low-density neighborhoods like West Portal, West of Twin Peaks and St. Francis Wood. Her main competition, Matt Boschetto, won 15 precincts in those areas, or 50 percent of first-choice votes compared to Melgar’s 35.2 percent.  

Still, even if she managed to get significant support, she is well aware that many residents outside of the most urbanized areas appear reluctant to change — and remain reliant on cars. 

The hot button issues of housing and transit

More than half of District 7’s homes are occupied by their owners compared to the citywide average of about a third, according to Political Data, a campaign data firm. In census tracts within the district’s borders, 86 percent of households have at least one vehicle, compared to 70 percent citywide. 

In the coming years, the district will welcome new housing projects explicitly designed for pedestrians, transit-users, and cyclists rather than car owners. This includes 1,100 units at Balboa Reservoir, up to 3,500 units in the parking lots around the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall, and more housing further down the pipeline at the old El Rey Theater and along Laguna Honda Boulevard. 

“What I learned is that all of these issues are controversial,” said Melgar, about the process of moving these projects ahead during her first term. “All these issues that involve change.” 

Some of the most controversial projects in and around the district have hinged on the challenge of  getting around — and parking — in a district where many see driving as a necessity. In West Portal, when Melgar initiated traffic flow changes near the Muni station after a car crashed into a bus shelter and killed a family of four, local merchants strongly opposed the changes, which redirected car traffic around the area.

Today “any project that we do to improve public transit is going to seem like a major inconvenience,” said Andy Pham, a resident of Ingleside Terraces. Pham takes public transit often but still drives occasionally.