My second-place showing against incumbent Norman Yee and three other challengers for District 7 supervisor feels like a success. Thousands of voters embraced my campaign’s forward-looking message, which will ultimately influence the direction of our city.
Read MoreIn 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 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 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 -- 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 -- A flood of previously unengaged residents easily connecting with City Hall through technology could transform San Francisco into a place of true progress. Yet change of that magnitude is scary for everyone invested in the current balance of power.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- It’s easy to forget that hippies and gays were originally despised as invaders and displacers when they first arrived in San Francisco. Does this mean a time will come when tech workers are celebrated in The City’s folklore?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- For a nation that prides itself on democracy, we sure make voting inconvenient and confusing. But what if there was a promise of voting nirvana on the other side of the madness?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- If San Francisco is able to solve its housing crisis and become a city where middle-income families can survive, we might celebrate the day Eugene Lew, 78, learned how to use a MacBook computer in the Apple store at Stonestown Mall.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- In an effort to save San Francisco from itself, the Emmy-award winning director behind the PBS hit "Saving the Bay" is producing a new series called "Saving the City." It will highlight successful cities that know what to preserve and what to let go: "Cities change, and if they don't, they die."
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Tech bros get a lot of bad press for self-absorbed and jerky behavior. How did they become our best hope against the superbugs that threaten to kill 10 million people a year?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- To understand how a sleepy suburb spawned start-ups like YouTube and food truck restaurants like Curry Up Now, it helps to know where San Mateo’s economic development manager learned about cities. Marcus Clarke lived in San Francisco -- branded by SF Weekly as “The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S.” He knows what not to do when it comes to planning San Mateo’s future.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- My favorite Muppets are Statler and Waldorf, the cantankerous yet lovable old men shouting wisecracks and hard truths from the balcony. I get to see them regularly because I go to a lot of neighborhood meetings in San Francisco, where there’s never a lack of Statlers and Waldorfs in the audience.
Read MoreJoel Engardio speech on why moderates are the true progressives in San Francisco. Engardio was the guest speaker at the Golden Gate Breakfast Club in August 2014.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Consider how Detroit went from being the nation’s most innovative boomtown a century ago – much like San Francisco and Silicon Valley today – to the bankrupt, abandoned shell of itself now. And what cautionary tales we can learn.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- The short walk from Twitter's headquarters to Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu's office might as well be light years. Consider the 204,562 paper files that represent San Francisco's 204,562 properties. Keeping track of that many physical files means Chu never knows if the day will end in comedy, frustration or disaster.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- There must be others like me in San Francisco who embrace liberal values but also crave a city that runs on common sense. Forward-thinkers who believe in progress and aren’t afraid of change. True progressives.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- For seven years, 64-year-old Janet Kessler has been voluntarily observing and photographing urban coyote behavior throughout San Francisco’s parks. She regularly logs six hours a day, taking up to 600 pictures. “People think coyotes are vermin, dangerous or the big bad wolf,” Kessler said. “But they’re wonderful animals we can live with if we treat them with respect and take the right precautions.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Elementary school graduations are cute, yet they hardly match the hat tossing euphoria of the U.S. Naval Academy or the pomp of an Ivy League procession. But don't tell that to the first-ever graduates of the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila this month. With the mythological phoenix as their mascot, they deserve a celebration fit for rising from the ashes of public education in San Francisco.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- There isn’t a millennial or hoodie in sight at GemShare. The app is great, but what really stands out is that most employees of the startup are over 40 and women lead them.
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