Today, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie assigned Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz as the new supervisor for District 4 in the Sunset following the recall of former supervisor Joel Engardio in September.
Lurie appointed the 29-year-old to the vacant supervisor seat early this morning. Former District 4 supervisors Carmen Chiu and Katie Tang were both in attendance at the press conference for Alcaraz’s appointment.
“This neighborhood deserves to be represented by one of its own,” Lurie said. “Someone grounded in people, not politics. Someone who can bring a fresh perspective to City Hall and who’s ready to put in the work.”
Alcaraz, a lifelong Sunset resident, is a former art and music teacher and pet shop owner. She has no prior background in politics but has heard her neighbors’ concerns for years, leading up to her appointment. Alcaraz went to introduce herself to Lurie at “Sunset After Dark,” a night market that brings together food, community and culture. She told Lurie at the market that it had been “too long since someone who was from the Sunset represented the Sunset,” Alcaraz said in the press conference.
“I looked for someone who is a bridge builder, a problem solver and someone who cares deeply about their neighborhood and city as a whole,” Lurie said in an Instagram post today.
She bought and ran The Animal Connection, a District 4 neighborhood pet shop, for six years, starting at the age of 22. Alcaraz was able to keep the shop open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic because she knew how much it meant to the residents of the Sunset District. This was the kind of grit Lurie was looking for when choosing a new supervisor, as he said in the press conference, and knew that Alcaraz had the ability to know what it means to serve the Sunset District community.
Alcaraz’s place in San Francisco dates back generations. Her father came to San Francisco from the Philippines as a teenager, and her mother arrived in the late 1980s on a visitor visa. Her parents met at San Francisco State University and moved into her great aunt’s home on 45th Avenue and Lawton Street.
The recall election on Engardio was prompted by Sunset residents’ concerns about his support for Proposition K, which would close the upper Great Highway to create a park.
“Over the past few months, I talked to people about the anger and intense division in the Sunset, and what might happen with the District 4 supervisor seat,” Alcaraz said in a press conference today.
Alcaraz also mentioned working towards a compromise on the Great Highway and strengthening the Family Zoning plan to maintain local control.
Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes, said he is optimistic given that Alcaraz has a more personal approach rather than “prescribing top-down solutions from City Hall.”
“We want to be crystal clear: Allowing cars on the park in any way is not a ‘compromise.’ It’s a park closure,” Lux said in a statement. “Our community deserves better: a permanent coastal park that San Francisco can be proud of, not a return to a halfway measure that left our neighborhood embroiled in argument for five years.”
Ella Garrison, a nursing student at SFSU and lifelong resident of the Sunset District, is relieved to see someone born and raised in the Sunset representing the district.
“It’s like a breath of fresh air with all the other political drama happening right now,” Garrison said. “She’s a Sunset girl, she’s with the people, and I think that’s cool.”
