SF Voters Expand Mayor Lurie's Powers and Keep Sunset Dunes Car-Free

Detailed precinct returns from Tuesday's election reveal a decisive consolidation of executive authority at San Francisco City Hall alongside strengthened neighborhood support for coastal parkland and public transit funding. Voters approved Charter Propositions D, E, and F, granting Mayor Daniel Lurie direct authority to fire department heads and reducing Board of Supervisors oversight over select municipal contracts—a structural realignment that San Francisco State University political science professor Jason McDaniel compared to the charter authority exercised by former Mayor Willie Brown when he took office in 1996.

While Columbia University political science professor Lincoln Mitchell noted that Lurie must translate formal charter authority into tangible progress on housing and street conditions, Tuesday's supervisorial contests also reshaped the legislative map. In District 10, Lurie-endorsed moderate Theo Ellington won election to succeed progressive Supervisor Shamann Walton, leaving District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder—who cast the lone vote against Lurie's July 2025 budget—alongside Supervisors Chyanne Chen and Connie Chan in the opposition bloc. With reliable allies Alan Wong, Matt Dorsey, Danny Sauter, and Stephen Sherrill on the board, swing Supervisors Bilal Mahmood and Myrna Melgar, together with newly elected District 8 Supervisor Gary McCoy (a former Nancy Pelosi staffer and HealthRIGHT 360 advocate succeeding Rafael Mandelman), are positioned to decide contested coalitions.

A seven-map precinct analysis of the San Francisco Department of Elections Cast Vote Record illustrates how neighborhoods voted across local and state contests. In the congressional race to succeed Nancy Pelosi, state Senator Scott Wiener defeated Supervisor Connie Chan 55% to 45%, winning strong majorities in the Castro and Pacific Heights while Chan led in Chinatown and the Outer Sunset but underperformed in Bernal Heights, where Jackie Fielder had won 60% in 2024. Nearly every precinct citywide voted Yes on Proposition H to fund Muni transit service through a new parcel tax, reaching 90% approval in some precincts. In addition, 55% of San Francisco voters backed Proposition 40 to tax billionaires for health care, and 80% opposed Proposition 39's strict voter identification rules—the highest county opposition rate in California.

Along the Pacific coast, voters defeated Proposition G with 64.8% voting No (156,141 votes) to 35.2% Yes (84,828 votes), rejecting a bid to reopen the Upper Great Highway to weekday automobile traffic and preserving Sunset Dunes Park. After 55% of citywide voters created the park under Proposition K in 2024, support in the 8 precincts directly abutting the highway flipped from 40% in 2024 to 58% in 2026 (with the 7 closest park-front precincts voting 58% No on Proposition G). Outer Sunset residents Adam Browning and Tom Fenwick of La Playa Street and California Academy of Sciences employee Allison Shafer noted that Sunset Dunes has become San Francisco's 3rd most popular park, complete with a skate park, benches, murals, and coastal recreation paths.