Anti-car crusaders lose one in San Francisco
Joel Engardio helped make traffic a lot worse in the Sunset District
See update for September 20, 2025, at end of post.
Having lived in San Francisco much of my life and in and around the San Francisco Bay Area for, by far, most of it, I would have opposed the closure of Great Highway from Golden Gate Park to Sloat Boulevard. The City did it anyway and now Supervisor Joel Engardio is out of a job, voted out in a recall election that has revealed a division in the so-called ‘moderate Democrats’ who allegedly run now run The City between those who were for the closure and those who, perhaps sticking a finger in the air, now oppose it.[1]
They made it into a park which is apparently quite popular,[2] which surprises me. Great Highway on the western perimeter of the Sunset District, adjacent to Ocean Beach (which is on the Pacific Ocean), is mostly a cold and windy place. The right of way is on what seems a bit like a dyke, elevated both above the neighborhood and the beach (though sand dunes were notorious for occasionally closing the road, particularly in the southbound direction). There were two lanes in each direction; before they put timed traffic signals on it, you could zoom down it at a ridiculous speed. It was a bypass when traffic on 19th Avenue (Highway 1) was backed up (which was often) and Sunset Boulevard was inconvenient (which is mostly). So it’s long, narrow, and exposed, not at all a place for a picnic.
I know coming back from the airport to Marin County (on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge), I would save time on Great Highway right up until I hit the area around the Cliff House at the north end of the route. From there I would make my way across the Outer Richmond to Lincoln Boulevard in the Presidio—and none of this was fast. I often went that way anyway just because I adore the ocean and, when we first moved to San Francisco when I was a child, the first places we lived were in the Richmond District, not far from Lincoln Boulevard and the Presidio.
So I understand the resentment of Sunset District folks whom Engardio failed to represent as he had favored the closure. Traffic that could have used Great Highway was now to be diverted onto their streets, making 19th Avenue traffic even worse. It’s not an area that has ever had great bus service (though the N-Judah and L-Taraval light rail lines serve slivers of it).
And I have to tell you, even in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has as good a public transit system as you’ll find in the U.S., my antipathy toward buses formed there. They were okay—not great—if you were fortunate to have one bus that would take you from where you were to where you were going. But if a transfer was involved, let alone between bus systems, you were dead meat—and I did this a lot over a lot of years. The anti-car folks who were part of the coalition to turn Great Highway into a park are never, ever going to win me over because my experience with buses there was so miserable, particularly on Sundays and holidays, particularly if you’re working a graveyard shift.
The Sunset District is also, by San Francisco standards, a relatively conservative area. We always muttered about “West of Twin Peaks” folks (Dianne Feinstein, who would surely have been a Republican if it was possible to be a Republican and a politician in The City, drew much of her support from there) when we talked about City politics. How Engardio could possibly have even dreamed he’d get away with supporting a Great Highway closure will mystify me until the day I die.
I live clear across the country now. It’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford to live in or near The City, or, for that matter, the west coast, ever again. So it’s really not my problem. But I really wish the anti-car crusaders would get off their high horses and see what it’s like for real people.
Update, September 20, 2025: It’s entirely possible, perhaps even probable, that having claimed one scalp, recall proponents have let their success go to their heads as they now turn their sights “on District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who, like [Joel] Engardio, supported Proposition K, the 2024 ballot measure that closed the Great Highway to cars, while representing west-side neighborhoods that voted against it.”[3]
They are also threatening “Supervisor Danny Sauter, a moderate Democrat who represents Chinatown, Financial District, and North Beach.” It’s not just anti-car policies that have provoked their ire but “Mayor Daniel Lurie’s upzoning plan to build more housing on the west side.”[4]
As a kid, I lived in the Richmond District, which covers a smaller area but includes a fairly high proportion of apartment buildings. Apart from business districts along Geary Boulevard and Clement Street, the rest is mostly single-family housing.
The Sunset District has a lower proportion of business and a lower proportion of apartments. It’s almost all single-family housing. And we aren’t talking the Victorians that some neighborhoods in San Francisco are famous for. These are just ordinary houses. Lurie’s ‘upzoning’ plan would allow more taller buildings, dramatically altering the character of the neighborhood and supposedly creating ‘affordable’ (to whom?) housing.
I’m pretty sure that allegedly ‘affordable’ housing would still be well outside my price range. But developers would make some money, which is probably what this is really about.
[1] Dustin Gardiner, “Why the San Francisco recall election is a warning sign for moderate Dems,” Politico, September 18, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/18/moderate-dems-san-francisco-at-each-others-throats-00570501
[2] Dustin Gardiner, “Why the San Francisco recall election is a warning sign for moderate Dems,” Politico, September 18, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/18/moderate-dems-san-francisco-at-each-others-throats-00570501
[3] Han Li, “Feeling emboldened by recall, activists turn ire on another supervisor. She’s not worried,” San Francisco Standard, September 19, 2025, https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/19/feeling-emboldened-recall-activists-turn-ire-another-supervisor-s-worried/
[4] Han Li, “Feeling emboldened by recall, activists turn ire on another supervisor. She’s not worried,” San Francisco Standard, September 19, 2025, https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/19/feeling-emboldened-recall-activists-turn-ire-another-supervisor-s-worried/