Mayor Daniel Lurie’s appointment of Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz to the District 4 Supervisor seat was a puzzling decision in the eyes of local business owner and political advocate Albert Chow.
Chow was the potential pick for Lurie due to his presence in the community as the owner of Great Wall Hardware at 1821 Taraval St., and his efforts as a key organizer in both the fight to keep the Great Highway open and the recall of Joel Engardio in September.
Now, with Alcaraz out of the job after a week of revelations into her questionable business practices, District 4 is back to square one.
“We need to protect and preserve our community as much as possible, but we’ve been without real political representation for two months now,” Chow told me last week.
The clock is ticking for Lurie as he stumps for his Family Zoning plan, which is designed to boost housing construction in the city. Family Zoning needs to pass in January, or San Francisco could be subject to a state takeover with a broader plan. That leaves precious little time for another round of candidate interviews and vetting.
I asked Chow today whether he expects another call from the mayor. Chow said that he “checks off a lot of the boxes,” but remained unsure given he was passed over after a lengthy interview process.
Initially, Chow interviewed with a group of Lurie’s staffers, then sat down with Lurie for a one-on-one talk, he explained. A third interview came with political strategist Han Zou, Lurie’s former campaign manager and current director of public affairs. (Chow spoke with another consultant to the mayor, whom he did not name.) Throughout the process, he was quizzed on his views and political positions for hours.
“I was thrown a lot of hypothetical situations and a lot of background questions. How do you feel about cops and defunding the police? How do you feel about SFMTA? How do you feel about parking downtown, homelessless, the fentanyl crisis, the Great Highway, concerts in the park, the Family Zoning plan, all those things,” Chow said. “Not just the issues, but my values overall, too.”
His last interview came on Oct. 20, two weeks before the announcement of Alcaraz’s appointment. I asked Chow whether he felt that his public critiques of Lurie’s Family Zoning plan left the mayor questioning Chow’s support.
“I said I needed time to have townhalls, get the pulse of the Sunset and where it’s at on the zoning plan, and there would be a back-and-forth. Including with me warning about how we could fall under state control of building houses,” he said. “There was just not enough time to get everyone in [the community] involved.”
“I was just being truthful. There's no reason to be bullshiting about something like that to the mayor.”
Chow was on the shortlist of candidates, alongside names like Mario Flaherty of the San Francisco Fire Department’s Local 798 union; Susan Sun, assistant director at SF Recreation and Parks Department; and former fire chief Joanne Hayes-White. Flaherty did not respond to my request for comment, and Sun declined to talk with me for this story.
The mayor had set up an “impossible situation” in which he had to find someone who is aligned with his Family Zoning Plan, but also able to placate its critics and those who continue to oppose the Great Highway shutter in District 4, said one City Hall insider who has worked with previous supervisors and mayors and who asked not to be named because he is active in local politics.
Lurie clearly saw value in Alcaraz as a political outsider whom he could strongly influence, he said. Meanwhile, the District 4 community remains “hyper-focused” on scrutinizing its supervisor, including with threats of another recall, the insider added.
“If it were me, I likely would have figured out a way to appoint someone like Albert because then at least you provide the recall advocates what they want. You give yourself some credibility with the Chinese community that has been vocal,” he told me. “And Lurie would have a way to find the votes for the Family Zoning plan from other parts of the city, even if you stomach a ‘no’ vote from Albert if necessary.”
Mayors normally want their appointed figure to win re-election, but the drama around Alcaraz has complicated the June 2026 race for D4.
“It’s not a perfect solution, but you could imagine Albert being on a path to victory against a progressive candidate in Natalie Gee,” said the insider, referring to the community organizer and legislative aide for Supervisor Shamann Walton. Gee filed for candidacy last week.
When I spoke to Chow before Alcaraz’s departure, he said he was seriously preparing for his own candidacy. He claimed Engardio had failed to consult the community enough on the Family Zoning Plan, possibly as a side effect of fighting the summer’s recall campaign. Chow never intended to be a politician, and remains clear-eyed about the risk of attempting to represent D4 now.
“It’s the ninth inning, two outs, two strikes. I’m not entirely sure if I want to be the reliever there,” Chow told me with a big laugh.
But, he added, a conversation with the mayor could change that.
