Back to supervisor map
Back to supervisor mapMyrna Melgar
District 7 Supervisor
District 7 includes Inner Parkside, Golden Gate Heights, Inner Sunset, Parnassus Heights, Clarendon Heights, part of Twin Peaks, West Portal, Forest Knolls, Midtown Terrace, Forest Hill, Miraloma Park, Sunnyside, Sherwood Forest, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Park, St. Francis Wood, Monterey Heights, Mt. Davidson, Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terraces, Stonestown, Lakeside, Parkmerced, Lake Merced, City College, San Francisco State, part of Ashbury Heights, and part of UCSF Parnassus Heights.
Elected
November 2020
Won by 2,191 votes.
Up for Re-Election
November 2024
Myrna Melgar is the Supervisor for San Francisco's District 7. An immigrant from El Salvador, Melgar is the first woman to serve as District 7 supervisor, and the first Jewish Latina to serve on the Board of Supervisors since district elections were implemented in 2004.
Policy positions & priorities
Here's where Supervisor Melgar stands on the issues:
Public safety
Melgar has proposed firing all police officers without cause and rebuilding the department from the ground up. As she put it in 2020, she "support[ed] disbanding the SFPD and requiring officers to reapply to a newly constructed, less violent police force." Despite making that proposal while running for office, she has never put forward legislation to disband the SFPD. She has, however, repeatedly used her office to hinder the police. For example, she vocally supported reappointing a former public defender to the Police Commission, despite the commissioner's long record of obstructing police activity. And she supported the "Cop Tax" ballot initiative, which would have required a new tax before fully staffing the police force.
Melgar opposed recalling former DA Chesa Boudin. And like Boudin, she has opposed cracking down on fentanyl dealing and open-air drug abuse on the city's streets. Sharing her perspective, she told the SF Chronicle in 2023 that she doesn't view drug tourism as a concern: "People have come to San Francisco to do drugs always. This is not new." She expressed concern with overdose deaths, but also worried that enforcing drug laws is "criminalizing people."
Melgar has been particularly focused on protecting drug dealers who enter the country illegally. As the Chronicle reported in extensive detail, many dealers are undocumented immigrants from Honduras who come here specifically to sell drugs on our streets. They can't be deported because San Francisco is a sanctuary city (i.e., the city doesn't cooperate with federal immigration authorities). And they exploit a California law that allows defendants to claim they were "trafficked": dealers have repeatedly escaped conviction by arguing that they were under the control of coyotes or cartels, so they shouldn't be held responsible for their actions. Supervisor Dorsey proposed addressing this by creating an exception to the city's sanctuary laws that would allow fentanyl dealers to be deported. Melgar voted against the proposal, which she compared to Nazi Germany and called "totally counter to our San Francisco values." She then led a protest against the proposal on the steps of City Hall.
In her 2024 campaign, Melgar has renewed her commitment to defunding the police. Her response to GrowSF's endorsement questionnaire states that she still supports defunding, and she told the SF Democratic Party that she still supports the 2020 ballot initiative that removed minimum police staffing levels.
Housing
After a questionable start, Melgar has developed into a stronger housing advocate during her first term in office. Despite campaigning as a pro-housing candidate, she began her term by casting a series of votes to block housing projects. Most notoriously, she helped block 495 units of housing on a valet parking lot (24% of which would have been subsidized "affordable" housing, meaning it would be priced below market rates). In explaining her vote to the Chronicle, Melgar said that the project sponsors should have made a deal with TODCO, a poorly performing housing non-profit that donates heavily to far-left politicians and causes. Melgar's friend and political supporter, Jon Jacobo, was an executive at TODCO.
However, in the latter half of her term Melgar has been a leader in supporting housing development. She supported measures to make it easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, then sponsored successful legislation allowing the division of certain large homes in her neighborhood into smaller units. After the state mandated that San Francisco create 82,000 units of housing by 2013, she successfully pushed through a plan to allow higher buildings along commercial corridors. She was one of only three supervisors to oppose Aaron Peskin's ordinance limiting housing density in parts of North Beach in 2024. And she has supported major housing developments in her district, including championing a project to build housing near the Stonestown mall.
Transportation
Melgar has identified transportation as one of her top priorities, and has generally voted in favor of public transportation. She supported keeping JFK Drive car-free and reportedly bikes to work.
In 2024, after a family was struck and killed by a car at a bus stop near the West Portal MUNI station, Melgar partnered with the mayor and the SFMTA to alter traffic patterns and limit car travel on West Portal Ave. The street's merchants rebelled, pointing out that the traffic changes would not have prevented (and in fact had nothing to do with) the fatal crash. Further fueling the controversy, Melgar told the press that she would prefer to "take all of the cars off West Portal, and that critics needed to "have their feelings catch up to where their brains are." After a series of community meetings, the SFMTA approved a compromise plan with fewer changes.
She has taken inconsistent positions on the closure of Upper Great Highway to cars: in 2022 she opposed extending the closure to cars on weekends, arguing that closure was "antagonizing" to drivers. But in 2024 she was among the supervisors who introduced a ballot initiative that would close Upper Great Highway to cars entirely, seven days per week, to allow the future creation of a seaside park.
Homelessness
Melgar identifies homelessness as a top priority, but she has not been a leader on homeless issues or proposed meaningful fixes to the problem. Homelessness has grown in her district since she took office (despite falling in SF as a whole).
Promotion of progressive candidates
Melgar has promised to prioritize voting for "the most progressive candidate always," as long as the candidate also meets her racial and gender requirements, which she has committed to prioritize above all other considerations. In a written statement seeking the endorsement of a local political club, she described her "system for endorsements":
I will support the most progressive candidate always, except if that candidate is a cis hetero white man, in which case I will instead support in this order, the most progressive:
If a cis hetero white progressive man is running against any of the above or a white cis hetero woman, I will make no endorsement.
- Black man
- Black woman
- Person of Color
- Gay person
- Woman
Melgar has carried this system out in office. For example, she nominated far-left supervisors Shamann Walton and Connie Chan for Board of Supervisors President, and opposed the recalls of extremist officials Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez.
Key votes and actions
Housing
Supervisor Melgar voted to block the construction of 495 units of family-sized housing on a parcel at 469 Stevenson St. in the SOMA neighborhood. 100 of those units would have been affordable, including for families making only 55% of the area's median income.
The vote has been called the city's "peak NIMBY moment," in part because it blocked the project by rejecting an environmental report----despite the building site being a Nordstrom valet parking lot, where it would have no negative impact.
The vote is also cited as an example of undue influence, because opposition to the project was led by a landlord called TODCO that spends millions on lobbying and on political campaigns while failing its low-income tenants, and profits by keeping housing supply low (which drives rents up).
TODCO's influence may have affected Melgar's vote: in describing her concerns about the project, she told the SF Chronicle that project proponents should have negotiated with TODCO.
The vote triggered an investigation from the city's ethics department.
The vote also triggered an investigation of impropriety at the state level, followed more recently by intervention from Governor Gavin Newsom.
Voted against redevelopment of 1151 Washington Street, a project that would replace a single family home with 10 townhomes.
Proposed legislation allowing existing homes to be divided into more units in part of the city's west side.
Shepherded a plan to upzone parts of the city and enable state-mandated housing growth, known as the "Housing Element," through the Board of Supervisors.
Was one of only three supervisors to vote against Aaron Peskin's initiative limiting density in parts of North Beach.
Strongly supported, and repeatedly voted in favor of, a project to build housing near the Stonestown mall--one of San Francisco's largest development projects in recent history, and the largest on the city's west side.
Recalls
- Opposed the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the recalls of former School Board Members Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga.
Transit
In 2022, Melgar was one of only two supervisors to vote against keeping the Great Highway available to pedestrians and cyclists from Friday afternoon through Monday morning (closing it to cars).
Supported Car-Free JFK, which closed portions of Golden Gate Park off from cars.
Attempted to change traffic patterns at West Portal, although the plans were partly withdrawn after neighbors objected.
In 2024, submitted a ballot initiative to permanently close the middle portion of the Great Highway to cars.
Public safety
In seeking the endorsement of a progressive political club, indicated that she not only supports defunding the police, but would fire all the city's police officers without cause and make them reapply for their jobs.
Opposed a proposal to allow deportation of undocumented fentanyl dealers, and helped lead a public protest against it.
Supported the early re-appointment of progressive police commissioner, Cindy Elias, despite troubling conflicts of interest.
Endorsed Brooke Jenkins, the strongest candidate and the only real prosecutor running for DA, but only after endorsing NO on the Chesa Boudin recall, which GrowSF supported.