{"id":458511,"date":"2026-09-09T19:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458511\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T19:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:14:37","slug":"victory-seems-assured-for-district-4-supervisor-alan-wong-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458511\/","title":{"rendered":"Victory seems assured for District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents of the Pine Lake Park neighborhood in western San Francisco were unpleasantly surprised when a no-left-turn sign suddenly appeared at the busy intersection of 34th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong \u2014 who represents most of the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods \u2014 said he hit the gas.<\/p>\n

Within a short time, Wong had prevailed upon the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Caltrans \u2014 which was involved because Sloat Boulevard at that location is also part of State Route 35 \u2014 to remove the offending sign, which many residents were ignoring despite the risk of getting traffic tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was affecting the daily lives of people trying to get to work,\u201d said Wong, the apparent leader in the race for his seat, which will be contested in\u00a0the Nov. 3 election. \u201cThe government needs to fix these everyday things that are impacting people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong cited the no-left-turn sign removal \u2014 which came after a review found there was no need for it \u2014 and the separate installation of a traffic signal that protects left turns<\/a>\u00a0from Lincoln Way into Golden Gate Park as two \u201cvictories\u201d that illustrate how he has focused on constituent concerns since Dec. 1, when Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed him<\/a> to fill a vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long, City Hall has been focused on a lot of grandiose pie-in-the-sky ideas, and I just want to bring things back to Earth and focus on the basics of governance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He bested second-place finisher Natalie Gee, a relative progressive, who ultimately received 8,427 votes, or 35.63% of votes cast.<\/p>\n

Wong\u2019s win meant he could serve the rest of the term of former Supervisor Joel Engardio, who was recalled in September 2025 \u2014 largely over his support for a November 2024 ballot measure that closed two miles of Great Highway to make way for Sunset Dunes park.<\/p>\n

Wong, a Sunset native whose parents immigrated from Hong Kong, is now running for a full four-year term. Also on the ballot are candidates who finished in third and fourth places in June, respectively: Albert Chow, a Sunset-district hardware-store owner who helped lead the effort to oust Engardio and now says he is not actively campaigning; and Jeremy Greco, a school campus coordinator running a shoestring campaign who has continued his electioneering.<\/p>\n

With Wong\u2019s strong electoral showing and Gee out of the race, campaign spending for the Nov. 3 election has dropped dramatically from the primary.<\/p>\n

A similar dynamic has been evident in District 2, where Supervisor Stephen Sherrill \u2014 another Lurie-backed candidate \u2014 had an even more dominant showing<\/a> in June, winning 69.25% of the vote. Sherrill, who was appointed to an empty seat by former Mayor London Breed, is also vying for a full term.<\/p>\n

As of the end of July, Wong had raised just $33,460, while Greco had raised $1,100,\u00a0according to city campaign-finance disclosure data. There were no reports of third-party spending.<\/p>\n

By contrast, candidates for District 4 in\u00a0the June election spent more than $1.1 million \u2014 and third-party groups spent more than $1.5 million \u2014 to support and oppose candidates.<\/p>\n

Wong\u2019s campaign alone spent about $411,000 for the primary, and Gee\u2019s spent $409,000 \u2014 both with public financing.<\/p>\n

In addition, SF Believes \u2014 an independent committee supporting Wong that had backing from some business figures who also supported Lurie\u2019s 2024 bid for mayor through another committee \u2014 spent $580,000.\u00a0The group GrowSF<\/a>, which supported Wong, independently spent $293,800.<\/p>\n

The union-backed Affordable SF Now committee, supporting Gee, independently spent more than $350,000.<\/p>\n

With less than two months until election day, Wong said his priorities remain the same, including public safety, reducing homelessness, making the government more responsive to citizens, and cutting red tape.<\/p>\n

In addition, Wong said he wants to influence certain policies of the San Francisco Unified School District \u2014 which is run by an independently elected board \u2014 such as pushing for zone-based school assignments.<\/p>\n

Wong\u00a0\u2014 who attended local public schools and\u00a0was recently promoted to captain in the California Army National Guard \u2014 also sponsored a resolution that was passed by the supervisors in May that recognized \u201cthe importance\u201d of the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps program and encouraged the school district to ensure the program is provided to high school students and \u201cpreserved as currently constituted.\u201d<\/p>\n

A past president of the elected City College of San Francisco board of trustees, Wong was a champion of free tuition at the school. He was one of the supervisors who successfully advocated to protect funding for that program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the public-safety front, meanwhile, Wong said The City \u2014 which has seen crime numbers drop sharply \u2014 is \u201cdoing a little bit better,\u201d but there was work to do. He cited the example of a large store at which inventory is kept behind locks, which he said is \u201cnot normal.\u201d He also said that \u201copen-air drug market\u201d activity can still be found downtown.<\/p>\n

Overall reports of crimes in The City were down just over 18% from Jan. 1 through Aug. 30 when compared with the same time for the period in the prior year, according to San Francisco Police Department statistics.<\/p>\n

Burglaries and vehicle thefts were both down more than 23%, while robberies were down nearly 18% and rapes were down almost 13%. That followed a nearly 25% drop in overall crime in 2025.<\/p>\n

Wong said he considers it part of his job to be a \u201ccheerleader\u201d for public-safety agencies, which he said have not always enjoyed adequate support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my No. 1 job in terms of public safety as the elected official is to support the work that they are doing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there are officers that are not doing their job, they should be held accountable. But by and large, our officers are here to protect and serve \u2014 and I\u2019m here to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong said that if prospective police officers don\u2019t feel valued, they will not come work for The City. Recruitment has been on the upswing, and Wong said he wants that to continue, with hundreds of police officers hired to bring the agency up to full staffing.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Southeastern
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Drawbridge replacement will bring biking and pedestrian access, but not before affecting traffic congestion and public transportation service in the area<\/p>\n

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\n \"Holiday
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Crews will this month install drainage systems, repair pavement and fix damaged, cracked medians along over a mile of road<\/p>\n

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\n \"These
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This week, The City will honor the Grateful Dead, host outdoor markets and festivals, and stage free opera performances in the park<\/p>\n

Wong was a co-sponsor of legislation to approve a labor agreement with the San Francisco Police Officers Association covering the period from July 1 through June 30, 2030, that included a cumulative 14% pay increase and pay bumps reflecting the lengths of officers\u2019 tenures.<\/p>\n

Wong expressed strong support for law-enforcement use of technology such as drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need to balance public safety and technology and surveillance with civil liberties, and that\u2019s a careful balance that we need to maintain,\u201d Wong said. \u201cAnd I think that we have a lot of protections \u2014 a lot more protections in San Francisco than other other cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some have objected to The City\u2019s use of surveillance technologies, saying among other things that they violate people\u2019s privacy rights, but Wong said supporting police use of technology is \u201cpractical and responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other positions Wong characterized similarly included his second-day-in-office vote in favor of Lurie\u2019s Family Zoning plan<\/a>, which increased allowable densities in parts of The City, particularly in northern and western neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Doing so was \u201cpractical and responsible\u201d given the threats of state sanctions if the plan was not adopted quickly, Wong said.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that San Francisco faced a Jan. 31 state deadline to adopt a plan for 82,069 new housing units by 2031, with the penalty for missing potentially being the \u201cbuilder\u2019s remedy\u201d \u2014 under which projects could be approved by meeting basic standards \u2014 as well as the potential loss of more than $100 million per year in state funding.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, Wong cited his vote in favor of an ordinance lowering The City\u2019s inclusionary-housing requirements, which require developers of projects above a certain size to build below-market-rate housing units \u2014 either as part of a project or at a separate site \u2014 or else pay fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have an exorbitant fee but have no housing built,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of those pie-in-the-sky ideas that is not practical.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, supervisors gave initial approval to a controversial ordinance sponsored by Wong and Lurie that would allow developers of certain projects to pay fees in lieu of planting sidewalk trees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among other things, the ordinance exempted accessory dwelling units from tree-planting requirements \u2014 something advocates said could make it easier for small-property owners to add housing units to the local supply.<\/p>\n

With tongue in cheek but serious intent, Wong launched a \u201cdumb laws\u201d contest in March that generated more than 200 nominations for laws and regulations that could merit changing.<\/p>\n

The winning submission concerned a city rule that generally said habitable rooms must have a ceiling height of 7 feet, 6 inches, while state law requires 7 feet.<\/p>\n

Wong is currently sponsoring legislation to bring The City standard in line with the state\u2019s, a move he said could add to The City\u2019s housing stock by making it easier for homeowners to legalize unauthorized living spaces.<\/p>\n

Wong also sponsored an ordinance \u2014 which the mayor has already signed \u2014 that got rid of a health-code provision that prohibited the transporting of bread in open baskets or containers on city streets, as well as a prohibition on selling unsterilized rags and other types of cloth to be used for cleaning in industrial places of employment, or operating a laundry for sterilizing such rags, without a permit.<\/p>\n

Greco, who said one of his top goals is to improve elder care in The City, said he and Wong \u201care completely different in every single way with our positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He criticized the\u00a0ordinance allowing fee payments instead of planting street trees in certain conditions, for example, and said he wants to keep Sunset Dunes closed to vehicles.<\/p>\n

Greco received 1,976 votes in the first round of vote counting before being knocked out after the second round.<\/p>\n

Though he acknowledged that Wong \u201cdid dominate\u201d the June primary, Greco said he was surprised at how well he himself did. He said he sees a possible route to victory given that Wong only got 11,647 votes in the first round of counting out of 25,275 votes tabulated.<\/p>\n

Regarding Great Highway \u2014 which Wong called \u201cthe most commonly brought up issue in the neighborhood\u201d \u2014 Wong says he believes allowing vehicles back on the road on weekdays is the right thing to do, in part to alleviate the effects on commuters.<\/p>\n

If citywide voters reject Praffop. G, however, Wong said it will \u201cbe hard to justify future efforts to advocate to reopen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also rooting for Prop. G is Chow, who said he decided against campaigning for supervisor after looking at the June vote totals and determining his chances of winning were slight.<\/p>\n

Chow, whose campaign spent more than $272,500 ahead of the June election, said he could not ask people for money given his low probability of success in November. He expressed dismay at the amount of money that went to support Wong.<\/p>\n

For the future, Chow said he hoped Wong would seek amendments to the Family Zoning plan and generally be a voice for the Sunset district at City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he moves the ball forward \u2014 hey, I can rally around the leader,\u201d Chow said.<\/p>\n

But Chow left his name on the ballot in case Wong were to make a bad move \u2014 or in case voters might deliver an unexpected verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I win, I won\u2019t turn it down, either,\u201d Chow said.<\/p>\n