Nat Bottigheimer | Letter to Town Topics Princeton | May 15th, 2019
I’m writing to express my strong support for Mia Sacks, in the June 4 Democratic primary for Princeton Council. Mia’s experience working in civil liberties, public health and international human rights gives her a valuable perspective and unique set of skills to address the challenges Princeton faces. Her roles as a policy advocate for Human Rights Watch, as a Program Officer at the Soros Foundation, and as part of the senior communications team at the ACLU, have all trained her to think strategically about how to communicate issues and coalesce allies to support common goals. Most importantly: for Mia, human rights begin at home. This means that people, especially those most vulnerable among us, will be her priority – not any one sector of the community.
In the last decade, Mia has demonstrated leadership throughout the community and worked capably with our elected leaders in both the municipality and our schools. She and I serve on the steering committee of the Princeton Progressive Action Group, a group of local residents committed to economically equitable and sustainable municipal planning. We’ve advocated for preserving middle class housing options; and early on we called for parking policies that address the issue of employee parking first -- and include local merchants in the planning. Mia has the ear and support of many of Princeton’s most respected planning professionals. They have observed her commitment to smart growth and to sensible, sustainable planning on the Environmental Commission, the Planning Board, and the Board of Sustainable Princeton.
Mia has deployed the skills she developed as a policy advocate to bring people together around issues of local importance. She has advocated for building resiliency into our municipal infrastructure, for the adoption of energy conservation measures in our schools that save taxpayer money, and for safe and sustainable transportation practices within our town. Mia is often the first to identify potential conflicts among community stakeholders or structural obstacles to progress. She excels in working to ensure that impacted groups are informed and that the process is collaborative.
Local issues are frequently more challenging to understand and address than most would expect. In a small town, strong personalities add an additional layer of complexity. We need Council members who are quick synthesizers of vast quantities of information and committed to open communication and respectful dialogue. Mia has long proven her ability to comprehend and communicate information across the full spectrum of issues the town faces – from budgets to operations to vision for the future. Even more importantly, Mia has demonstrated her willingness to patiently listen without judgment, and to make sure she understands all sides of an issue before reaching a conclusion.
At this critical moment for Princeton, we need Mia working for us. Please join me in voting on June 4 for Mia for Princeton Council.
Nat Bottigheimer
White Pine Lane, Princeton.
The writer is State Programs and New Jersey Director at the Regional Plan Association
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