Joel Engardio and Gordon Mar

Joel Engardio

I believe San Francisco’s best days are ahead.

I know it has been frustrating living in San Francisco when everything seems to be going in the wrong direction.

But I’m not giving up. I believe the City we love can realize its full potential. I’m running for supervisor to create our best San Francisco.

I’m focused on getting the basics right: safer streets, better schools, more middle-income housing and vibrant small businesses.

It’s Time to Replace the Status Quo

What we have now is not working. Our supervisors are not listening to what residents say they need.

The school board recall is a good example: 80% of Sunset District voters supported recalling a school board that wanted to rename schools instead of reopening them. But Supervisor Gordon Mar opposed the recall. He even endorsed Alison Collins for school board when she planned to end merit-based admissions at Lowell High School. 

More than 67% of Sunset District voters supported recalling an ineffective district attorney. Yet Supervisor Mar appeared in “Stand with Chesa Boudin” ads during the recall. Mar endorsed Boudin from the start, over candidates like Nancy Tung who had experience prosecuting crimes.

It is Time to Focus on Making Things Work

Here’s how I’m already doing the work:

• Education: I helped lead the recall of incompetent school board members when our kids were suffering. The local media said my work was “key to the school board recall’s smashing success.”

• Public safety: I lead the group Stop Crime SF and we held former District Attorney Chesa Boudin accountable for his failure to put victims first. I support criminal justice reform, but for it to succeed, residents must feel safe and victims cannot be ignored.

• Stop Asian hate: My group Stop Crime SF ran a campaign to stop anti-Asian discrimination and attacks on Asian seniors. My in-laws are Chinese and they’re afraid to visit San Francisco. It shouldn’t have to be that way. 

• Holding City Hall accountable: As a journalist for over 20 years, I know how to uncover government inefficiencies and give residents a voice. City Hall’s budget doubled the past decade, and nothing is twice as good. We need to audit every program and change how the money is being spent. We deserve an innovative city government that is fiscally responsible, free from corruption and fully transparent.

• Protecting our rights: I’m a civil liberties advocate who worked for the national ACLU to establish and protect constitutional rights for LGBTQ people, women, immigrants and voters. I also focused on free speech rights and upholding the rule of law.

My Background

I was raised by a single mom. She cleaned houses for a living. She didn’t have much money or education, but she taught me how to get things done with the resources we had.

My husband Lionel was born in Taiwan. He grew up in poverty under martial law. Now he’s a software engineer in Silicon Valley. His story is the true American Dream. 

For nearly a decade, we’ve owned a home in the Lakeshore neighborhood between Lowell High School and Stern Grove. 

I’m a forward-thinking and practical Democrat. That means I embrace innovation. I’m focused on results and common sense solutions.

I’m Running for Supervisor Because I Believe San Francisco is Worth Fixing

There’s a lot to fix about our city and it can feel daunting. But I still see a lot of joy – in our natural beauty, our people, families and food.

Always remember the joy! That’s what motivates me to keep going. Imagine how nice things will be when we’re living in a city that works.

Voters have a real choice in District 4. There are only two candidates. Incumbent Gordon Mar represents the status quo. I represent a change in direction. 

Let’s create our best San Francisco. I would be honored to have your vote. 

Learn more at engardio.com.

Gordon Mar

Let’s keep moving District 4 forward

It has been the privilege of my lifetime representing District 4 as your supervisor. Over the past four years, I’ve fought for working people over big corporations, and for our neighborhood over downtown interests. I’ve fought for our fair share in funding and services, and I want to keep fighting for you.

We’ve worked together to keep our neighborhoods safe by creating the Sunset District Five Point Community Safety Plan, coordinating public safety strategies between SFPD and neighborhood leaders, expanding foot patrols and community policing, passing laws to better track crime and taking proactive steps to prevent crime before it happens.

We’ve worked together to support our schools by securing more than $8 million in new funding for SFUSD college and career readiness programs for high school students, and science, technology and math grants to all District 4 schools. I protected teachers’ raises, negotiated a decade of funding for free City College and brought City College classes to the Sunset.

We’ve worked together to address the housing affordability crisis by securing historic investments in affordable housing in the Sunset for teachers, families and seniors, waiving fees for accessory dwelling units and converting units vulnerable to displacement into permanently affordable housing. 

And we’ve worked together to preserve and enhance our neighborhood’s unique quality of life by creating the Outer Sunset Farmer’s Market and Mercantile and the Sunset Chinese Cultural District. 

I first ran for supervisor because I want my daughter, who is a senior at Lowell High School, to be able to afford to live in the City and the neighborhood she’s growing up in – with clean and safe streets and a good quality of life. I’m running again to continue that work, so that the character of our neighborhood as a place where working class people can buy a home and raise a family can be protected. These issues aren’t abstract for me, they’re personal: I’m the only parent in this race, and the only candidate who lives in the Sunset. 

The Sunset deserves a supervisor who builds consensus and finds compromise within our neighborhood while being uncompromising in fighting for our neighborhood. Someone with deep roots and a record of accomplishments here. I’m proud to be that voice and of all we’ve accomplished together. While we did this work together for the Sunset, my opponent was running for office three times to represent another neighborhood. He wants to represent a district he’s only lived in for a few months, after spending the past decade trying and failing to represent District 7. 

I’m proud to have the endorsement of diverse and committed Sunset District community leaders – small business leaders like Albert Chow of POPS and Bill Barnickel of OSMPA and Angie Petitt of Sunset Mercantile, and senior community leaders like Anni Chung of Self-Help for the Elderly and Margaret Graf of Senior Power. I’m proud to have the support of city leaders including School Board President Jenny Lam, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, Assemblymember Phil Ting and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I’ve worked to build coalitions and find common ground, which is why I have the endorsement of the Democratic Party, Sierra Club, SF Women’s Political Committee and over three dozen labor unions representing tens of thousands of working people, including the nurses, teachers, sheriffs and firefighters unions. 

 You don’t have to take their word for it – or mine – because I have a record. Rhetoric is easy. Getting results isn’t, and I’ve gotten results for our district, our schools, our small businesses and the diverse communities who call the Sunset home. With your support, I hope to continue getting results, working with and serving you for the next four years.

Learn more at gordonmar.com.