About Joel Engardio

Message from Joel:
I believe San Francisco’s best days are ahead — if we are willing to address today's problems with equal doses of innovation and pragmatism.

This includes the willingness to do bold and positive things like create Sunset Dunes and build the housing our kids and grandkids will need to stay here.

We also have to make sure we’re excelling at the basics a city needs to thrive: safe streets, great schools, better public transportation, and vibrant small businesses.

Sunset Dunes is good for the environment, our local economy, and the well-being of every visitor. Before long, we will wonder why it was controversial. We won't be able to imagine San Francisco without a coastal park and all of its benefits.

There’s no reason to keep fighting over a park and a road when the park is popular and traffic is fine. It’s time to focus on more pressing issues like affordability, protecting our immigrant community, and everything else that has the world on fire.

San Francisco cannot claim to be a progressive city when it fears change. Let’s be the most progressive city that improves the lives of our residents by embracing the future.

Joel Engardio

Read Joel’s blog post “Sunset Dunes: The Right Side of History.”

Background
Joel Engardio was raised by a single mom who cleaned houses and offices for a living in Saginaw, Michigan. She didn’t have much money or education, but she taught her son how to get things done with the resources they had.

Joel’s husband Lionel Hsu was born in Taiwan. He grew up in poverty under Martial Law and became a software engineer in Silicon Valley.

Joel and Lionel became westside homeowners in 2014. Joel moved to San Francisco in 1998.

Joel and Lionel want to make sure the next generation has access to the San Francisco dream. They were married in 2015, the year same-sex marriage was allowed nationwide by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Journalism
Joel Engardio came to San Francisco to take a job as a journalist. He wanted to advocate for people who don’t feel heard. He believes San Franciscans deserve an innovative city government that is fiscally responsible, free from corruption, and fully transparent.

Joel has won multiple journalism awards for his reports, essays and documentaries in outlets like the San Francisco Examiner, USA Today and PBS. Joel produced and directed an award-winning PBS documentary focused on First Amendment rights.

Joel hosts the popular presentation SF Politics 101 where he educates residents about how they can be participants in creating our best San Francisco.

Work History
Joel Engardio worked in print and broadcast journalism for more than 20 years. He also worked for tech startups in healthcare, public relations firms including Firebrand, and nonprofits including Out & Equal and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Protecting Our Rights
Joel Engardio became a civil liberties advocate who worked for the national ACLU to establish and protect Constitutional rights for LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and voters. Joel also focused on free speech rights and upholding the rule of law.

Joel’s contributions in journalism and at the ACLU were recognized by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy with a scholarship to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Supervisor Record
Joel Engardio represented District 4 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. District 4 is best known as the Sunset. It has about 80,000 residents living west of 19th Avenue between Golden Gate Park and Lake Merced (see district map).

Joel’s election in 2022 made history as the first openly gay supervisor elected to a westside district.

Not every resident is going to agree with their elected supervisor on every issue. Many residents supported Joel on issues like public safety, education, and small business — even if they disagreed with him on Sunset Dunes.

During his time at City Hall, Supervisor Engardio:

Joel voted his conscience on issues that divided the Board of Supervisors and the public. Supervisor Engardio:

Helped write the Gaza ceasefire resolution and cast the key vote to make it veto-proof. The ceasefire resolution passed 8-3, which could override threats of a mayoral veto.

Defended San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy to ensure it was not amended or watered down.

Called for the release of the Banko Brown shooting video when the district attorney tried to keep the public from seeing the footage of a security guard killing an unarmed person.

Stood with labor when the vote wasn’t unanimous.

Labor Union History
Joel Engardio was a proud union member of NABET-CWA when he worked for ABC News at its network studio in New York. He was also a member of the freelance union of the Pacific Media Workers Guild when writing a column for the San Francisco Examiner. Joel supports collective bargaining so workers can have better pay, working conditions, and benefits. He supports the right to strike. The UAW was an essential part of the community in the Michigan factory town where Joel was raised. One of his first jobs was in a fast food restaurant and Joel supports making it easier for fast food workers to unionize. Joel also saw how badly his mother was treated when she cleaned offices as an independent contractor without a union to support her.

Lifelong Democrat
Joel Engardio is a lifelong Democrat who served as a longtime board member of two of San Francisco’s largest political clubs: the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club and the United Democratic Club.

Joel also served as a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, which governs the local Democratic Party.

In 2022, State Senator Scott Wiener said: “I'm endorsing Joel Engardio for supervisor because the years he spent advancing Democratic values and LGBTQ rights under fierce resistance will serve him well. Our city needs leaders who can take the tough stands for creating our best San Francisco."

Education
Joel Engardio is a product of public schools. He has a degree in history and journalism from Michigan State University and a masters in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Joel earned his college degrees on full scholarship.

In San Francisco, Joel helped lead the effort to bring algebra back to middle schools. His ballot measure Prop G in March 2024 passed with 81 percent of the vote. Read more about why a decade-long ban on 8th grade algebra was a well-intended but failed policy that had to be reversed.

Public Safety
Joel Engardio believes we should prosecute serious crime and repeat offenders while seeking criminal justice reform and police accountability. Joel supports criminal justice reform. For it to succeed, residents must feel safe and victims cannot be ignored. Reform and safety go together. We can have both. Read more about Joel’s views on public safety.

Public Health
Joel Engardio is a longtime volunteer for Stanford University’s Asian Liver Center, which works to end the epidemic of hepatitis B and liver cancer in the Asian American community. Joel’s contributions to the effort were acknowledged in a letter by the center’s director, Dr. Samuel So. Joel has also written numerous articles about the issue and introduced a resolution at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to sound the alarm about the threat of hepatitis B.

A Love Letter to the Sunset
This is Joel Engardio’s love letter to San Francisco’s Sunset District in video form.

Joel worked with producers at City Hall’s cable channel to pack the video full of Sunset life. It’s a whirlwind of people, places, history, food, and culture.

Farewell speech at San Francisco Board of Supervisors

In Joel Engardio’s final remarks in the board chambers, he again asked “What would Jimmy Carter do?” when it comes to creating our best San Francisco.

Watch the speech or read the transcript.

Awards