We now have a new District 4 supervisor taking the place of Joel Engardio, as Mayor Lurie has named former pet shop owner, music and arts teacher, and lifelong Sunset resident Isabella ‘Beya’ Alcaraz to the seat.

It is obviously going to be overshadowed by the blockbuster political news that Nancy Pelosi announced she’s retiring from Congress this morning. But it’s big news in the Sunset, where Supervisor Joel Engardio was just recalled largely because of anger over the car-free Great Highway, that Mayor Daniel Lurie has announced Engardio’s replacement. And the Chronicle reports that replacement appointment is 29-year-old Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz, a former Sunset District pet shop owner who has zero background in politics or public service.

The publishing of that Chronicle report coincides with the same news being published at 4 am Thursday morning on KQED, on Mission Local, and in the Examiner. Many of those reports already had completed interviews with Alcaraz. So this was clearly a tightly coordinated rollout by Lurie’s office, with the news embargoed until 4 am today, and everyone publishing it at the exact same time.  

“The people of the Sunset deserve to have a say on the issues that impact our lives today and will for years to come. Too many decisions have been made without us, and that changes now,” Alcaraz said in a prepared statement. “I am proud to serve this neighborhood and look forward to working with each and every member of our community.”

According to a press release from Lurie’s office, Alcaraz was to be sworn in today at 11 am, with the ceremony livestreamed by SFGovTV, if you want to hear her speech and get to know her. She then heads six blocks south to serve meals at Self-Help for the Elderly (with Lurie) for her first photo op.

So who is new District 4 Supervisor Beya Alcaraz? She went to Holy Name School and St Ignatius College Preparatory, so that checks some boxes for Sunset voters who’ve been skeptical of politicians they see as "displacing the people that live here." She spent a few years as owner of the Sunset pet shop The Animal Connection, and famously tried to give the business away earlier this year. Alcaraz is currently an arts, music, and children’s yoga teacher with something called Jamabaroo Kids.

KQED points out that at 29 years old, she’s the youngest supervisor since former D4 supervisors ​​Carmen Chu and Katy Tang both took that job at the same age. (Chris Daly was 28 when he was elected.) She becomes SF’s first Filipina American supervisor, though has some Chinese heritage. And as Mission Local points out, she’s never held office, never served on a commission or as anyone's political staffer, and she's not even a member of any local Democratic clubs.

And she apparently got the job because she approached Lurie at a late September Sunset Night Market, gave him her phone number, and asked to be considered.

“Obviously, it worked,” Alcaraz told the Chronicle.

But so far, she’s playing it very close to the vest on the two most dominant hot-button political issues in the Sunset: whether she would bring cars back to the Great Highway, and how she feels on Mayor Lurie’s ambitious upzoning plan that would bring much taller buildings to the single-family home Sunset.

Notably, Alcaraz will not even say how she voted on the Prop K Great Highway measure.

“I’m not going to make decisions on behalf of the community without consultation,” she told the Chronicle. “What is going on right now is not working, and I am dedicated to finding a solution that works for us. That probably means reopening the Great Highway to cars in some capacity.”

That sounds like she might support Supervisor Connie Chan’s push for another vote on the Great Highway, which seems unlikely to yield a different result from the overwhelming Prop K victory. But at least she and Chan could be able to tell their constituents that they tried.

On the upzoning thing, she told the Chronicle that she would “propose amendments” to Lurie’s plan (though not mentioning what these would do), and that’s exactly what a number of supervisors are currently doing, seemingly with Lurie’s blessing.

This may be the quality that Lurie admires in Beya Alcaraz, a “play it safe” strategy that won’t offend anyone, and avoids taking any concrete positions. But that may not play well in District 4, where voters are still pretty furious over the Great Highway and the upzoning push.

And Alcaraz will have to run for reelection not once, but twice over the next year if she wants to stay in office. (Same goes for District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherill, because he was appointed and not elected.)  So Alcaraz would have to run in the June 2, 2026 primary to hold the D4 seat for what would have been the remainder of Joel Engardio’s term, and then again in the main November 3, 2026 election to keep the seat for the next four years.

And there is already competition. 48 Hills reported last week that Shamann Walton aide Natalie Gee intends to run for the seat. And it is no secret that recall leader and Great Wall Hardware owner Albert Chow is also interested in running.

So “play it safe” may work for the early honeymoon period for new District 4 Supervisor Beya Alcaraz. But there are already firebrand opponents lined up hoping to make sure that playing it safe does not keep her in office for long.

Related: Supervisor Joel Engardio Ousted In First Ever Recall of Its Kind [SFist]

Image: Mayor Daniel Lurie's Office