FOUR CANDIDATES VYING to be the next District 4 Supervisor in San Francisco participated in a forum Wednesday night, answering how they would address the city’s most pressing problems while facing a few tough questions.
Dozens of Sunset district residents and candidate supporters gathered at Holy Name of Jesus Parish, where moderator Jade Tu asked questions of the candidates. Tu is a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee.
Alan Wong is the current District 4 Supervisor. He was appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie in December after District 4 voters recalled former supervisor Joel Engardio, primarily over his support for Proposition K, a ballot measure to permanently close the Great Highway and turn it into a park. The measure passed, but the majority of District 4 voted against it, sparking the recall effort.
Wong is now trying to prove to voters that he deserves to be elected to the seat and serve the remainder of Engardio’s term.
“It is my greatest honor to be able to serve the neighborhood that I was born and raised in,” he said to the crowd.
He is facing four challengers: Albert Chow, Natalie Gee, David Lee and Jeremy Greco.
Stance on the Great Highway
While the candidates often shared similar views on what they support, they differ in background.
Chow owns the small business Great Wall Hardware and is the president of People of Parkside Sunset, a neighborhood group for residents and merchants in the Sunset district. Chow led the effort to recall Engardio.
“Everyone, I’ve been fighting for you for the last two years,” he said. “People have asked me in the past if I wanted to run for supervisor. I always said ‘no,’ because I was very happy with my supervisors, until this guy, Mr. Engardio, lied to us and stole our voice and stole our Great Highway.”
He tried to position himself as the most representative of everyday District 4 residents since he is the only candidate who is a small business owner and he is not a politician.
“I’ve lived in the Sunset for almost 50 years,” he said. “I am into helping our community through my hardware store. I know so many of you in here as friends, as customers and so forth, and I care about this community so much.”
Gee is the chief of staff for District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton and is also a part-time Pilates instructor. She has raised more money than all the other candidates combined, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
She pointed to her experience in City Hall as what may give her the edge over her challengers.
“We need new leadership who is thoughtful, experienced and independent, and that is what I bring to the table,” she said at the debate. “I am also someone who is able to bring people together, to reach across the aisle. I am not afraid to talk to my colleagues to get things done, because I’ve been doing that for the last eight years.”
Lee teaches at San Francisco State University and is also the executive director of the Chinese American Voter Education Committee, a nonprofit that helps get Asian Americans registered to vote. He has run for District 1 Supervisor three times and most recently ran for the state Assembly.
He tried to convey that he would be a supervisor who heavily engages community input on impactful decisions while also asking “tough questions,” he said.
“I think it’s a vitally important time for the Sunset district, for District Four, to choose a supervisor who’s going to fight for the district, who’s going to work hard for the people of this district,” he said. “You need a supervisor who is going to ask the tough questions of our mayor, the tough questions of our department chairs and our various department heads about where our money is going.”
Greco is the fifth candidate, but he did not participate in Wednesday’s debate. He is a campus coordinator at Presidio Hill School and has lived in the Sunset district for more than two decades.
Chow and Gee appeared to receive the loudest applause from the audience after they each answered questions. Their supporters showed up early to the debate to hold signs outside as attendees entered the church.
Even though they are all in favor of opening the Great Highway to cars on weekdays and allowing it as a park on the weekends, some candidates, except for Gee, seem to use Sunset Dunes Park regularly.
“I’m a cyclist, so I love riding Sunset Dunes,” Lee said. “Almost every other day I’m out there riding.”
“I have been out there with my two young boys, three and seven, and I’ve got crazy boy energy in my house, so I got to let them out every once in a while,” Chow said. “They get on their scooters or they get on their bikes. They’ve learned to ride their bikes out there on the Great Highway.”
Candidates pressed on credibility, ties, policing
Tu asked each candidate a tougher question.
With Wong, Tu brought up how during his time on the Board of Trustees for City College of San Francisco, there were threats to the school’s accreditation due to budget issues.
In 2024, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges sent a letter to the Board saying that the actions of the trustees were neglecting the long-term fiscal health of the college.
“If you were unable to stabilize the finances of a single community college, what specific lessons did you learn that will prevent you from bringing that same fiscal instability to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors?” Tu asked Wong.
Wong dismissed the argument that he brought fiscal instability to the college, saying he helped pass policies that ultimately improved its fiscal health.
“Fiscal sustainability is one of the main things that I brought when I joined the City College Board,” he said. “I passed policies required mandatory budget updates at every single board meeting for City College trustees and passed a policy that requires us to have multiyear budget planning five years in advance.”
For Chow, Tu brought up how he often emphasizes protecting neighborhood character and Sunset values, phrases that could be interpreted as wanting to keep a certain demographic in the neighborhood.
“Terms like those were often used in the past as coded language to oppose Asian families moving into the Sunset in large numbers,” Tu said. “Given that District 4 is now a majority Asian neighborhood built by those very newcomers, how are your current slogans different from the exclusionary rhetoric of that era?”
Chow said those slogans refer to keeping the Sunset as a distinctively quiet, suburban-like area full of small, single-family homes compared to the rest of the city. Ideas like the upzoning residential areas to allow for more dense development go against his vision for the Sunset.
“There’s a vibe, it’s why we like it here,” he said. “We like the low density. We like the wide streets, the great schools, the parks, the beach and all that.”
Tu pointed out that Lee moved to the Sunset just in time to file for candidacy for District 4 Supervisor, a move some saw as “district shopping.” Supervisor candidates are required to live in the district they are running to represent.
“How can you prove that your commitment is specifically to the families of District 4, rather than simply to obtain a seat at City Hall?”
Lee said that he bought a house in the Sunset district and had been looking for a home in the area for many years. He also emphasized his ties and commitment to the Sunset district.
“That’s not a small investment, that’s an investment that we saved for our retirement home,” he said. “The Sunset has been my cultural home. It’s where my friends are, it’s where my family is. We have deep connections, both my wife and I.”
For Gee, Tu questioned her ability to work with law enforcement because she previously stated in a forum that police should use less-lethal weapons instead of firearms. Last year, the San Francisco Police Officer’s Association wrote a letter to Lurie voicing its opposition to Gee as a choice for District 4 Supervisor when Lurie was deciding on an appointment.
“How do you expect to work effectively with the police department whose union has already officially declared you unfit for this office?” Tu said.
Gee clarified that she is not against cops having guns but prefers less-lethal weapons before the use of lethal force.
“Instead of pulling your guns out first, maybe pull out your taser,” she said.
The race will use ranked choice voting, where voters can write down multiple candidates by preference. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters in early May.