Advocates React: Sunset Supervisor ‘Recalled’ Again

Beya Alcaraz, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s appointee to replace recalled District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, resigned Thursday amidst questions about her inexperience, her apparent mismanagement of a pet store, and her texts about tax evasion.

Alcaraz was appointed one week ago. She already announced her willingness to destroy Sunset Dunes and put cars back on the stretch of asphalt once known as Upper Great Highway. “I hope the Mayor can appoint someone who will lead the city forward, not rehash the same tired complaints again and again,” wrote Zach Lipton, Boardmember of Friends of Sunset Dunes.

From a statement issued Thursday evening from Mayor Lurie’s office announcing Alcaraz’s departure:

My hopes for the Sunset haven’t changed. I’ve heard again and again about the fraught politics that have divided District 4, and I believe the residents of this community deserve better. They should have a supervisor who can be fully dedicated to representing them, advocating for their families, and bringing people together. My team and I will get back to work finding that person right away.

From Streetsblog’s view, this is just more evidence of the utter stupidity of recalls and the need for reform to make them far more difficult to carry out, especially near the end of a politician’s term. This has been incredibly wasteful, expensive, and has left the district without representation. Mayor Lurie should appoint someone from Engardio’s staff who is experienced and vetted and can get on with the hard work of governing.

Advocates, meanwhile, just hope Lurie will pick someone less retrograde who doesn’t support a third referendum on the future of Sunset Dunes.

“It’s long past time for San Francisco to decide whether we want to be a dynamic, vibrant city that looks to the future or a monument to our worst decisions from the past,” wrote Lipton. “Destroying one of the city’s most visited parks is as unimaginable as rebuilding the Central and Embarcadero freeways.”