District 4 Candidate Series: A Conversation with Albert Chow

This episode marks the start of a District 4 candidate mini-series on The Sunset Connection.

I’ll be speaking with every candidate who agrees to come on the podcast, using the same questions and the same format each time. The goal is simple: give Sunset residents the chance to hear directly from the people asking for their vote.

To kick things off, I’m joined by Albert Chow, a San Francisco native, longtime Sunset resident, and small business owner. We talk about what led him to run, how his background has shaped his priorities, and how he approaches tradeoffs when community voices conflict.

Local elections are often decided by very small margins. Clear, direct information matters. My hope is that this series helps voters make thoughtful decisions by hearing from candidates in their own words.

About this series:
This is a non-endorsement candidate interview series. All participating candidates were asked the same questions in the same format to give District 4 residents direct access to how candidates think, not to persuade or advocate for any outcome. Any personal political views or activities of the host are separate from the podcast and do not affect participation or coverage. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why District 4 In 2026 Matters
• 0:24 Candidate Series And Format
• 1:22 Introducing Albert Chow
• 2:35 Why Run And Community Roots
• 4:19 Experience From Small Business To Planning
• 6:04 First-Year Goals And Cutting Red Tape
• 7:17 Balancing Conflicts And Great Highway
• 10:12 Demographic Change And Shared Future
• 11:24 Leadership Style And Fiscal Pragmatism
• 12:07 Scenario: Parking And SFMTA Strategy
• 14:05 Measuring Success And Plan B On Parking
• 15:17 Two-Minute Platform Priorities
• 17:24 Closing And How To Support

Transcript

Jessica J. Ho: 0:02

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Sunset Connection. If you live in the Sunset or you just care about how San Francisco actually gets governed, 2026 matters a lot. This year, District 4 is choosing its next supervisor. And while only Sunset residents get to vote in this race, the decisions made here ripple far beyond the district and shape the city as a whole. In my last episode, I sat down with Alan Wong, who was appointed by the mayor and is now officially running for the seat. This episode is different. It's the start of a candidate series where I'll be talking with everyone running for District 4 who agreed to come on the podcast and asking the same questions in the same format every time. That's intentional. Local races aren't always fair. Some candidates have more money, more name recognition, or more media attention. This series is about leveling the playing field and letting voters hear how each person actually thinks. I care about that deeply. I ran for this seat myself in 2018, and I know firsthand how much transparency and fairness matters in a process like this. These candidates aren't just running for a title. They're offering different visions of the future of the sunset. What changes, what stays, and how decisions get made when people disagree. My job here is simple: to bring those perspectives directly to the people who care most, to Shukfor residents, directly from the candidates themselves. So with that, let's get into the first conversation in the series featuring Albert Chow. Albert Chow is a San Francisco native and has spent nearly 50 years living in the Sunset District. His family owns Great Wall Hardware, a small business that has been operating for 43 years. Unfortunately, it recently burned down due to an arsonist, but they are rebuilding. He has been a member of the people of Parkside Sunset or Pops for 18 years and has served as president for 15 of those years. And as president of Pops, he has helped create events in our district, such as Movies in McCoffin, the terrible Christmas tree lighting in Night Market, and the Outer Sunset Farmers Market. Some of those things we've talked about on this podcast before. Notably, he was one of the original members to fight against Pop K and supported the recall of Joel Lombardial. And with that, I would love to reintroduce you to Albert Chow.

Albert Chow: 2:13

Hi Jessica. Happy New Year. Thanks for having me back. So glad to be here.

Jessica J. Ho: 2:17

This year marks almost a year since you first came on to the podcast.

Albert Chow: 2:21

Oh, I think the sunset has just been going through a lot of changes. There's turmoil, there's joy, so it's a little bit of everything. There's also excitement. So I hear that we're gonna bring back uh four new night markets this year. So that's really great news. And I heard they're gonna be distributed from Irving to Terravel.

Jessica J. Ho: 2:39

All right. So I know you've been on the podcast uh two times now, so listeners can go back and hear more about your personal connection with District 4. So I think we're gonna skip right to question number two, which is what specifically made you decide that this was the moment to run?

Albert Chow: 2:55

So for me, I decided to run because I felt like there was no other candidate out there that was filling or checking off those boxes that I thought the sunset needs, someone that's been here a long time, someone that's really intimately knows the community in the neighborhood, uh, someone that's, you know, been involved with community service, someone that's owned a small business here, that's been in the trenches with the challenges of the sunset and offered to be part of the solution, offered to be part of the help. And I think that's really me. And so, you know, lots of my customers, lots of my friends have asked me to do this, not from just one side of the sunset, but from all around. And I feel like um I have the support as well as I feel like I have the experience of knowing what the sunset is, what they need. And uh, so that's why I'm running.

Jessica J. Ho: 3:50

Great. So that leads me into my third question, which is how do you think your previous experiences have prepared you to serve as supervisor?

Albert Chow: 3:59

First, I don't think there's a whole lot of small business owners that become supervisor. I can't think well, I think Gavin Newsom had a wine shop. So and he look at where he is. He's just just steps away from maybe being president, who knows? But um, I have no such aspirations. I just want to take care of my neighborhood. And so my experience, 43 years as a small business person. I started with my parents, Great Wall Hardware, when I was uh a sophomore in high school at Lincoln High. So, you know, I I really started working then. I've always been someone that's worked, I had a paper out, you know, I I worked at a gas station. I've got a lot of practical experience. Um, but then also I went to UC Berkeley and I majored in architecture. So I have a sense of how things are built, respecting the built-in environment, which is very critical for San Francisco. This is an iconic city, and I feel like uh that needs to be respected, especially with some of the upzoning issues that are coming up today. I I do want to build for the sake of housing, and you know, and I want to see it built, you know, in a right-sized sort of way, and not just for the sake of building buildings um to just meet a target goal. Um, I also have done a lot of work in the community as president of people at Parkside Sunset for, like you said, 15 years, having been a member for almost 18 years, creating events for the sit for our for our neighborhood, as well as you know, bringing community together. I think I've done that. And so uh I've never been a supervisor, I've never been a politician, so I'm kind of coming from the outside, but everybody starts somewhere and every and you know they all they all choose to do this because there is an aspiration to want to serve the community.

Jessica J. Ho: 5:53

Great. If elected, what does a win look like for you in your first year as supervisor?

Albert Chow: 5:59

I would really like to streamline small business and building permit type of needs. I I think there's a lot of bureaucracy downtown, and sometimes there are rules that are arcane. There are expenses and fees that are just way too burdensome. And I sure would like to see some of those things go away so that people can uh just live easier in this city. Um Mayor Lurie today just put out a there's a there's a preschool uh funding that's coming from some remaining money from I think proposition C, uh rental tax. And now he's using that to help parents to uh partially uh take care of their costs for childcare. I think those those type of programs, things like that, right sizing, creative thinking are what we need in government to help us live easier in San Francisco. It's an expensive place to live, but it's also a wonderful place to live. And we we choose to be here for all sorts of reasons. But to have someone, you know, having politicians lighten the load for the common citizen, I think is a great thing, and I would like to do that. That would be my success.

Jessica J. Ho: 7:17

So when community voices conflict, and they often do, how do you decide who to prioritize?

Albert Chow: 7:25

Let's take Great Highway, the forbidden place to talk about. Um I thought the compromise, uh, you know, and I I fought no on K because not because I wanted to reopen the Great Highway and make it 100% seven days a week only for cars. That was not my intention. My intention all along was to bring it back to the compromise because again, it's a compromise, conflicting interests. Both sides have conflicting interests, but both sides' um uh goals were valid. You know, you do want cars, they need to flow. The city needs to flow, right? And cars have to be able to get to where they need to go. And this is a very car-driven part of the city. However, at the same time, I do not deny the beauty of having parks. We in the sunset are blessed with so many wonderful parks. And having one, another one on the with oceanside view is great. The thing I would do is go back to the compromise, but then I would love to see should bur budgets permit in the future, and I think it will because we're a city that will always boom. There are the side promenades. You know, I would like to have the roadway cleared out for roadway traffic and then closed on the weekends for people to run and walk and ride their bikes. But the side promenades, we could fix those up. They're in horrible shape. And you know, they're 30, 35 feet wide. It's enough to put bike lanes, jogging lanes, uh, benches, you know, the piano, the phone booth, the giraffe, you know, so you know, like maybe even the skateboard park there. There's room that you can have that seven days a week. And I'm not hearing anybody talk about that. But this is what I've seen because I've been here a while.

Jessica J. Ho: 9:11

Thank you, Albert. The sunset is changing demographically, economically, and politically. What changes do you welcome and which ones concern you?

Albert Chow: 9:19

I think that we need to get back to thinking of our city as a as a whole instead of being factionalized. That makes it hard because, you know, we should understand each other's situations. Uh, what's happening on the federal, national level is making that abundantly clear. I feel like we're not moving two steps back. We're moving ten steps back. We're setting ourselves back a couple decades now. And I recognize everyone's right to be who they want to be. I recognize there are people that are struggling, uh, you know, people that have drug issues, people that have housing and, you know, income issues. I'd like to find ways to raise all boats, set an example, San Francisco as the place, this is the place that can be where you can have um harmony and everybody can sort, you know, live together, respect each other, and you know, set an example for the nation as to how, you know, a working society can be beneficial not only just to ourselves, but to the rest of the country and the world at large.

Jessica J. Ho: 10:27

What would you want residents to say about your leadership if and when your term ends, even if they didn't vote for you?

Albert Chow: 10:34

I hope they see me as a pragmatic person. I think that is what I am at at the heart of it. I I tend to less listen to arguments. I tend to listen to people when they have an issue. And I try to stay calm and find a solution, not get too heated in it. Just try try to find the most logical, um re you know, like realistic path forward. I think that's where I come from. As a small business owner, this is these are things like I see I see that lens into government. Like I would look at it and see like how can I make my dollar stretch? Not just say, let's tax somebody to cover a bill, but let's find efficiencies inside before we start making uh more sacrifices from the general public.

Jessica: 11:26

Thank you.

Jessica J. Ho: 11:27

So the next section is the scenario. I will be asking every candidate the same scenario so listens can better understand how they approach problem solving. So if you were a supervisor and a small business owner came to you for help with a parking issue, but SFMTA was unwilling to make the requested changes, how would you advise the business owner?

Albert Chow: 11:50

That's that's one that happens more often than not. I've actually recently had a c uh one of my fellow merchants on Cherriville uh, you know, ask the same question out of frustration because his his trucks were being ticketed far too much. And I would maybe talk to, you know, SFMTA and see if they can have things like easing of parking control officers' aggressiveness to issue tickets all the time. I mean, that's kind of a gray area, but that's a way to get things done without having to make a you know an ordinance or a new rule. Another thing would be perhaps maybe certain places you can modify the parking parking code, such as uh one hour, maybe extend it to two hours or four hours, uh, possibly using a yellow zone. Whichever works for a business, I think that there would be a way to discuss this with SFMTA. The worst thing to do is come screaming at an agency or department head and demand changes. I think it's if you can show that you're reasonable and you can work with them, because at the end of the day, we're all people and we all have understand we all understand we have needs. Uh I think there can be solutions. I've done it before.

Jessica J. Ho: 13:03

What would success look like in your view, six months down the road?

Albert Chow: 13:08

Going back to the, you know, so I think six months is not a whole lot of time. So, you know, small things first. One of the things I was really thinking would be nice to do that, you know, uh, we're in a budget crisis.

Jessica J. Ho: 13:21

So we're Oh, I meant for this particular scenario.

Albert Chow: 13:25

This particular scenario, I think that one of the things that I would like to do is like take yellow zones and reduce the time that yellow zones are in effect. Most deliveries are done in the mornings, the rest of the day there are no delivery trucks. So why not have yellow zones you know valid until 12 o'clock? And after 12, they become regular parking spaces. That to me would work out, you know, to recover some parking and help help merchants out. Because that's really a big problem because it's just south of us is Westlake, just south of us is Saramani, and they're full of parking lots and and Stonestown. And so when you don't have parking, I mean, realistically, you lose a lot of customers.

Jessica J. Ho: 14:08

And if that outcome is not achieved, what would you do next?

Albert Chow: 14:13

Oh. If that's not achieved, I would definitely talk to SFMTA to find solutions as maybe perhaps uh off-street parking, parking on the uh arterial avenues, um, and possibly parking on the uh more residential streets, such as like like us, if we can't find parking on Teravel or Norega or Irving, why don't we find parking on you know Yaloa, Santiago, uh Moraga or or uh you know uh Ortega and possibly the avenues, the numbered avenues, to just find some relief because uh I I have to stress that you know as much as people would like to have mass transit and bicycles, it's not the mode of transportation for everybody. And people have different needs, such as driving kids to one or two schools, taking mom or dad to the to the doctor, uh going to work yourself. We we need those cars and we need to have people, you know, solicit our businesses.

Jessica J. Ho: 15:17

Okay, so now I'm gonna give you two minutes.

Albert Chow: 15:20

Two minutes.

Jessica J. Ho: 15:21

Two minutes to say whatever you want.

Albert Chow: 15:24

Okay. Well, I'm Albert Chow. I'm running for supervisor. I think some of the things that I think are priorities for me for San for San Francisco and for the Sunset District are public safety. So that means a fully funded SFPD and a fully f fully staffed Terravel station. I think that we need you know to streamline and and lift burdens off of small businesses. I think we need to restore parking because that is a real issue here. And also for housing, you know, with the family zoning plan, I think that we need right-sized projects for our neighborhood. And that's meaning like not one stud, you know, like one room studios or one bedroom. We need three, two, three bedroom homes or apartments. We need parking in those garages. Where are they gonna park? Because that's a reality. So if you're gonna have a 20-unit building, don't tell me you're gonna have 20 bicycle slots. That is not that's not reality. That's utopian, okay? As far as you know, the other thing is the city needs to flow. So I definitely want to get the Great Highway open with 19th Avenue, the repaving project here, we're showing how bad it is that we need those north-south roads. 19th, sunset, and also Great Highway. When the city gets choked down with bicycle lanes, red lanes, and so forth where you cannot move, that locks you up. And it's like a body. If the flood doesn't flow, the body dies. If people can't get around, the city dies. People move away, and we will not be successful here. And uh, those are my main priorities for being supervisor. And also love to fix the playgrounds because I think they're getting a little run down and you know, fix the potholes and the everyday needs that everyone needs to make Sunset livable.

Jessica J. Ho: 17:17

Time.

Jessica: 17:18

Okay.

Jessica J. Ho: 17:23

All right. Well, that wraps up today's conversation. If you found this episode useful, please consider sharing it with someone who lives in the district. Local elections in San Francisco use ranked choice voting and are often decided by very small margins. Having clear, accurate information really matters. My hope is that conversations like these help voters make thoughtful decisions by hearing directly from the candidates themselves. You can follow the Sunset Connection for upcoming interviews in this candidate series and for more conversations about life and change in the Sunset District. And if you'd like to support the podcast, liking, subscribing, and leaving a review truly helps more people find it. Thanks for listening and take care of yourselves and each other. I'll see you out in the neighborhood.