Langley gets things done

Joy Langley knows it takes more than slogans to solve our problems. Her professional history, from academics at Ithaca College and Cornell University, through her career in business and government, demonstrates she knows how to make government work and get things done.

Working as a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Joy worked with others to reach across the aisle and craft legislation to ban asbestos in the U.S. After Hurricane Katrina she worked with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to secure funding for devastated colleges and universities. As executive director for Cultural Access Washington she took Proposition I, intended to bring access to the arts to all citizens of Washington, across the legislative finish line to be put up for public ballot.

On Mercer Island, in her role as chair of the Arts Council, Joy helped to save a unique work of Art (Primavera I) in Sculpture Park from demolition by Sound Transit. Joy also worked with CMIPS in 2016 to pass our school levy, taking on a role in voter education to make sure voters knew what they were getting for their money. Joy is about more than “checking the boxes” and just showing up at meetings. Joy gets results. That’s why she has my support for City Council.

Toby Suhm

Mercer Island

Town Center is a top priority for Langley

Building a vibrant, pedestrian friendly Town Center that supports our local small businesses and attracts new businesses while building an inclusive community for residents is a top priority for Joy Langley. The Town Center visioning process brought us part of the way there, but there is much yet to be done.

We need someone who has a vision for what our Town Center could be and who has the skills and determination to move that vision forward by working collaboratively with citizens and partners in our business community. The Mercer Island Center for the Arts is a prime example. Bureaucratic foot dragging by the City Council has gone on for too long. MICA is at the center of creating a visual environment, which enriches our community and provides an esthetic for citizens of all ages along with visitors to our community to enjoy.

In addition, Joy understands that we need a comprehensive parking plan that addresses the needs of our residents, commuters and employees in all sectors of businesses located on the Island. Joy is a strong advocate for community-centered development that will attract Islanders to the Town Center and provide easy access and parking to assure restaurants and other small businesses thrive and grow. She also believes permitting for small local businesses must be streamlined. She knows what needs to be done and has the tenacity to get it done.

We need Joy Langley’s voice on our City Council.

June Silverberg

Mercer Island

Joy’s values align with ours

I was fortunate enough to meet Joy at the Jewish Community Center in November 2014. In addition to our shared enthusiasm for the core philosophies of the JCC Early Childhood School, I was also struck by Joy’s commitment and passion to the world outside the JCC, the world where our children would one day be leading their lives.

At the time I met Joy, I was deeply immersed in the gun responsibility movement, my world having been upended by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012. Joy was similarly involved in the movement, her world having been similarly affected. However, this was my first venture into grassroots movements and politics. Joy, meanwhile, had been at it for decades; having worked as a legislative assistant helping one of my long-time heroes, Patty Murray, successfully win her inaugural Senate campaign back in 1992.

So I was beyond delighted when I learned Joy was turning her community activism towards our local council. Like so many of us, the well-being of our children and community is of paramount importance to Joy. Joy worked relentlessly on the Committee for Mercer Island Public Schools to pass the recent school levy, which resulted in safety and security improvements in our elementary schools. Joy is also a strong advocate for retaining the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services licensed mental health counselors in our schools. These counselors are partially funded through the city budget, and their funding is currently at risk. As an ARNP primary care provider at the Seattle Veterans Hospital, I am all too aware of the unique importance these professionals provide. Furthermore, Joy is a self-declared unabashed supporter of the Mercer Island Center for the Arts. As the mother of a ballerina as well as a soccer player, the arts cannot fall second to sports; every child deserves a platform in which they can meet their full potential.

In short, Joy cares about the things I care about. She is honest, straightforward and trustworthy. I have no doubt she will work tirelessly to make Mercer Island a place I will continue to proudly call home. She has my vote for Mercer Island City Council. I hope she has yours too.

Eileen Bennhoff

Mercer Island

Langley will help businesses

Joy Langley is the right candidate for our business community.

All Town Center businesses are unique. For many, customer parking is the main challenge. For others, walkability and transit are most important. Some rely on regular programmed events to encourage walk-by traffic. Others need a wayfinding system so residents and visitors know how to find them.

This highlights the fact that each local retailer has different requirements for his business. It means our business owners need council members with good listening skills to understand their needs, not council members with a generic list of solutions that may be good elsewhere but not here. It means we need council members willing to put in the time to hear our local retail owners and to collaborate with them to solve their individual challenges.

These are the same skills required for other parts of our community. Listening to residents to understand desires in transportation, schools, residential zoning, parks and utilities. Working with residents to derive best solutions.

Joy loves her community. She is a sincere and attentive listener. She doesn’t come with a list of generic community solutions. She comes to us to understand our desires to fight for what we want. She is inquisitive and always learning, staying up on new ideas, not to tell us what we should do but to collaborate with us to derive solutions best for us. She is positive. She is friendly. She makes us enjoy our community just a little bit better.

Join me in voting for Joy Langley for Mercer Island City Council. She will help our Town Center businesses thrive and become the tax base our community needs to make it the sustainable community we all want.

Jim Eanes

Mercer Island