If voters are just unhappy with an elected official, they should follow the normal election process. The SF DA is up for a routine election in November of 2023.
Turning recalls into a routine part of politics, where billionaire-backed activists can try to dump a bunch of money into advertising and redo every election they didn’t like the outcome of, in low-turnout primaries or special elections, ends up costing the city a fortune and distorting the ordinary political process.
The incumbents are generally properly larger but largely apathetic/too busy trying to afford SF rent - unless things go too far in the wrong direction.
I think the recent attempts by the newly installed progressives at renaming schools (while the schools were closed for covid), changing the admissions to the magnet school to be non-test based, etc. - led to some infrastructure being built among the moderate, middle class family democratic voting base - particularly on the western side (Richmond/Sunset) which is mostly Asian.
The fact that the media reported a lot of Anti-Asian crime in SF that Chesa didn't seem to do much about - probably fit well with this newly organized group.
I'm genuinely gobsmacked that a) people are surprised he behaved the way he did as DA and b) that some actually thought it was a good idea to elect a communist as chief law enforcement officer. Maybe don't do that? In any case, this is a rare but good story about democracy's fail safe mechanisms kicking in.
Blame the "tough on crime" crowd for that. They thought he'd be putting everyone in gulags, like any proper communist would.