Myrna 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

melgarstaff@sfgov.org

(415) 554-6516

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.

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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, she "support[s] disbanding the SFPD and requiring officers to reapply to a newly constructed, less violent 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 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.

Housing

Melgar campaigned as a pro-housing candidate, and housing advocates hoped that she would use her experience as a leader in the city's Department of Building Inspections and Planning Department to combat the city's housing shortage. Unfortunately, she has repeatedly voted to block housing, including a controversial vote to block 495 units of housing on a valet parking lot (24% of which would have been "affordable" housing priced below market rates), and a vote to block converting a single-family home into 10 units, among others. On the positive side, she has supported measures to make it easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, and has proposed allowing the division of certain large homes in her neighborhood into smaller units.

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. But she also favors drivers over pedestrians and cyclists at times; for example, she opposed extending the Great Highway's closure to cars on weekends.

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. She has carried this out in office, nominating far-left supervisors Shamann Walton and Connie Chan for Board of Supervisors President, and opposing the recalls of far-left officials Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez (who were recalled from the SF School Board) and Chesa Boudin (who was recalled as SF District Attorney).

In choosing what candidates to support for public office, Melgar has promised to prioritize a candidate's race and gender above other considerations, including what those candidates actually believe. 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:
Black man
Black woman
Person of Color
Gay person
Woman
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.

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.

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

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.

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.