In my work as a journalist, I asked tough questions and held government accountable. As a supervisor, I’ll do that from inside City Hall. In that spirit, my new campaign video — “Investigate” — pays homage to San Francisco in the film noir era when the reporter or private eye took on a big case to advocate for the little guy.
Read MoreBefore buying our house, my husband Lionel and I took the Red Lobster test. What if we both lost our jobs and had to get by working as servers at the seafood restaurant? Could we still afford the house? Looking at San Francisco’s $9.6 billion budget, I wonder if City Hall should take the same test.
Read MoreI believe bicycles are the future for transportation in urban areas, which is why I’m interested in how we can achieve a smooth transition while autos continue to dominate. When I wrote my column with the headline “Time to Mandate Bicycle Licenses” I was hoping to start a conversation about how to bridge the generational and geographic divide between older westside motorists and younger bicyclists throughout San Francisco so our roads can be safely shared.
Read MoreWho would you hold accountable if your car was broken into six times in front of your house? Some are looking at the judiciary -- and they're organizing.
Read MoreWe regret not building enough BART tunnels 50 years ago. Our grandkids will thank transit planner Liz Brisson if she gets her westside tunnel built.
Read MoreIf a newly created public advocate is the one elected official dedicated to holding all other elected officials accountable to the people they serve, who oversees the public advocate? And how do we keep that office from becoming a bloated, ideologically driven and inefficient parody of the offices it monitors?
Read More“It was a kick in the gut and a wake-up call,” Paul Barbagelata said about his car being stolen in front of his West Portal home -- only a few weeks after his neighbor’s car was also stolen. A vacuum of leadership around a westside crime wave has motivated residents to take matters into their own hands.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- People and pets in San Francisco rely on parks for quality of life in an urban setting. City Hall must keep our parks fully accessible and funded without resorting to budget set-asides.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- “All my neighbors know people whose children cannot find homes of their own,” said Frank Noto, a senior who has lived in his westside home for 30 years. “Decades of downzoning and anti-housing politics got us where we are today.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Baby boomers changed everything because they were never content with the old rules of sex -- or career, or parenting or retirement. Now senior citizens, they are beginning to face a final taboo harder to break than sex ever was. Death has a lot of room for improvement.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- When it comes to things that evoke absolute feelings of love or hate, Airbnb is in the same league as Donald Trump, LeBron James and cilantro. In San Francisco, forces against Airbnb clash with those who swear by the polarizing innovation. There is a solution, but not everyone will like it.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- David Traylor attacked a tourist in a crack-fueled schizophrenic episode. But he isn't psychotic, in jail or dead today thanks to San Francisco's Behavioral Health Court. He is medicated, has a home and a job. Yet homeless and mentally ill people who haven't committed felonies are left to suffer as they scream at commuters and use the sidewalk as a toilet. Why don't we treat people who can't take care of themselves before they become violent?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Legislative aide Gary McCoy proved that the human spirit can survive some very dark places when there is a path to realize its full potential. Yet McCoy also proves that simply throwing money at social services is not what saved him.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- What do Groundhog Day, the boogeyman, Whack-a-Mole and the phrase “like sand slipping through your fingers” have in common? They illustrate San Francisco’s perpetual housing crisis.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Large Catholic and Asian populations on the westside are less inclined to embrace issues like marijuana dispensaries or LGBT rights accepted by the rest of San Francisco without question. So it’s a profile in courage that Assemblymember Phil Ting doesn’t just give lip service or stay neutral on LGBT issues when he needs westside votes to keep his job.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- “Sometimes when you put people together the sum is worse than the parts, which is the best way to describe the old board of trustees,” said Rafael Mandelman, president of City College's new board. “We can’t afford to have factions pitted against each other like before. My role is to keep folks working together and focused on saving the college.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- At first glance, this is another sad eviction story in the ongoing saga of San Francisco’s overheated housing market: An elderly Latino couple living in the Mission for 50 years versus millennial newcomers seeking a hip neighborhood. Yet what kind of story is it if the Spanish-speaking grandparents are the ones doing the evicting?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Now that I have both a column and a voting record as a new member of the Democratic County Central Committee, everyone wants to know if I’ll adjust my views for maximum votes. If only it were that simple.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Even in San Francisco, a city synonymous with social justice and LGBT pride, the intersection of race and sexual orientation/identity can be complicated.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Everything I know about women’s prisons I learned watching the Netflix hit “Orange is the New Black.” So it was tempting to ask Vicki Hennessy – a candidate for sheriff who began her career in 1975 guarding the women’s jail in San Bruno – how real the show is.
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