{"id":206033,"date":"2026-03-05T19:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T19:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206033\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T19:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T19:22:11","slug":"district-4-candidates-confronted-with-their-biggest-controversies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206033\/","title":{"rendered":"District 4 candidates confronted with their biggest controversies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five San Francisco candidates running in the June special election to represent the Sunset District<\/a> were challenged Wednesday night \u2014 each questioned on an earlier controversy: taxes, upzoning, police staffing, school district funding and, of course, Sunset Dunes park<\/a> and the Great Highway<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should voters trust your ethics and ability to meet important deadlines in City Hall for grants, projects, and other legal obligations?\u201d KQED reporter Sydney Johnson, who moderated the event, asked Albert Chow, referring to the hardware store owner\u2019s missing tax returns<\/a> for his nonprofit People of Parkside Sunset. The latter received at least $440,000 in city funding between 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Chow said he had taken responsibility for that lapse, but also blamed COVID and having a child. He has since filed the returns, he said, and pointed to various activities that the nonprofit has organized such as outdoor movies at McCoppin Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The filings have not yet shown up on Internal Revenue Service\u2019s tax-exempt organization search or ProPublica\u2019s nonprofit explorer<\/a>. Chow told Mission Local he had talked to his accountants in early January and they are still in the process of filing, but \u201cI\u2019ve done my due diligence to correct the situation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAlbert Chow speaks to the audience at a District 4 candidates forum on March 4, 2026. Photo by Junyao Yang.<\/p>\n

And so the evening in front of 120 people at the United Irish Cultural Center continued during the first public debate for all five candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the incumbent supervisor Alan Wong, who was appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie<\/a> in November, the tough question aimed at Wong\u2019s support for the controversial upzoning plan<\/a>, which increases the height and density<\/a> for housing development in the Sunset<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will Wong work to move the 1234 Great Highway affordable housing project forward? Johnson asked. A lack of funding paused the eight-story, 199-unit affordable housing project for seniors in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong, in his fourth month as the Sunset supervisor, punted. \u201cI\u2019m still developing my policy perspective on this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson next moved to Natalie Gee<\/a>, the chief of staff for District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton\u2019s office, who the police union wanted disqualified<\/a> in November\u2019s appointment process, because of her alleged intention to weaken the union. The union has since endorsed Wong, who in 2020 also called for cutting the police department budget<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the police, Gee said she would work with the San Francisco United School District to \u201cbring in folks on a pipeline.\u201d She also said she would staff other emergency services, such as firefighters, nurses and mental health professionals. \u201cWe know that the cops can\u2019t be the only ones serving our neighborhood,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For David Lee, a long-time educator and Chinese voter registration advocate, the question focused on whether the city should provide more funding to the school district<\/a> even as it faces its own budget deficits<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He too failed to answer the question directly and instead blamed SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su for letting the four-day educators\u2019 strike<\/a> happen, and emphasized accountability from the superintendent and the school board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lee moved to District 4 in September after running twice for District 1 supervisor and then for State Assembly. Throughout the evening, he touted his advocacy to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of Sunset merchants against PG&E over the black-out<\/a> during the holiday season<\/a>. He also called for creating a substation for the Taraval Police District, which covers the largest area and population<\/a> in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ASunset residents gathered at the United Irish Cultural Center to hear from five supervisor candidates who are running for election on March 4, 2026. Photo by Junyao Yang.<\/p>\n

Then it was about the Sunset Dunes, the oceanfront park created by the 2024 ballot measure Prop. K<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeremy Greco, a school administrator and the only candidate who supports Sunset Dunes<\/a>, was asked how he would explain his position to the 64 percent of voters in the Sunset who rejected Prop. K<\/a>, which closed the Great Highway to cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greco replied with a story about how his view of the park changed thanks to Ocean Calling<\/a>, an art installation on Sunset Dunes near Ortega Street, where people can make a \u201ccall\u201d to lost loved ones, though no one picks up on the other end.<\/p>\n

Last February, when Greco\u2019s friend died, he walked over and made a call. When his mother-in-law died in April, his entire family went and made another call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA few nights later, they had a concert there and my wife and I sat there with my daughters. The sun set and music was playing, and somebody had a microphone and everyone was shouting out the names of someone who passed away,\u201d he said, his voice shaking. \u201cIt was one of the most beautiful things I\u2019ve ever seen, and that shows how art can change somebody.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other candidates\u2019 answers and demeanor on the Great Highway question<\/a> were different from their answers a week ago in front of an audience wanting cars back on the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, as candidates faced a crowd more likely to support the park, their tones softened.<\/p>\n

Chow, an outspoken supporter of opening the Great Highway to cars<\/a>, praised the \u201cbeauties\u201d on Sunset Dunes, \u201cthe octopus, the giraffe, the skateboard park.\u201d \u201cAll that stuff is great,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can have that and have the road too.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gee, a part-time pilates instructor, asked everyone to take a deep breath to \u201crelease the tension in your body\u201d when talking about the Great Highway. She focused her answer on the process of closing the road, saying it happened too soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the voters voted to close it, we could\u2019ve figured out a way to phase it in over years,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were other options on the line that we could have looked into [for] some sort of compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong, who last week raised his voice blaming his challenger for sabotaging his ballot measure to bring cars back<\/a>, skipped talking about the fight entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He sounded almost apologetic. \u201cAs supervisor, I have to wrestle between these different opinions. Ultimately I came to the decision that I did,\u201d he said. \u201cI have great respect for the people that are passionate about Sunset Dunes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five San Francisco candidates running in the June special election to represent the Sunset District were challenged Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[35072,101,103,102,104,106,105,18069],"class_list":{"0":"post-206033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-election-2026","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news","15":"tag-sunset"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}