To the Editor:

I write to urge my fellow Princetonians to support Liz Lempert for mayor in the coming election. As the president of Friends of Princeton Open Space, I have attended many Township Committee meetings during the time Liz has served on Committee, and have also worked with her on a number of important land preservation projects and conservation issues. I have been consistently impressed by Liz’s openness, thoughtfulness, quickness to grasp an issue, and ability to see things through. She is responsive to citizen concerns, and concerned about our most vulnerable citizens.

Liz has been a leader in working to protect the eastern Princeton Ridge and create a Princeton Ridge Preserve. This benefits our town in many ways, not just because we have more passive-recreation open space and preserved critical habitat, but because the protected lands provide “environmental services” such as flood protection, carbon sequestration, counteracting the urban heat effect and reducing the public costs of too-intense development. Liz is knowledgeable about environmental issues, but she is not a one-issue person, and to my observation she contributes in all of the areas that Committee takes up.

My husband knows Liz through his work for the Friends of the Princeton Public Library, where she is an active volunteer and supporter. Liz obviously appreciates the important connections between libraries and the welfare of children, and makes time in her very busy schedule to support this critical institution.

We are blessed in Princeton to have many capable and intelligent individuals who are willing to run for and serve in our government. I believe that Liz is a standout even in this outstanding field.

Wendy Mager

Cherry Hill Road