Letter to the editor: Supporting Will Chen for vacant Edmonds City Council position

Dear Editor:

I highly recommend Will Chen for the vacant position on the Edmonds City Council. Will Chen is a resident of Edmonds for 10 years and knows the city very much. He is also operating a small business, a CPA firm in Edmonds, for five years. And now he is ready to move forward to the next step and ready to serve the resident of Edmonds.

Edmonds is becoming a diverse community. According to the census, Edmonds has 8% Asian residents. As a minority resident and small business owner in Edmonds, I have witnessed so many difficult situations such as limited access to city services, police services, and so much more due to language barriers. As we all know, the population of the Greater Seattle Area is skyrocketing, more and more people are moving into Edmonds, and we are facing housing issues. HWY 99 is ideal for higher density of commercial and residential, but somehow it is like a forgotten part in the city. This is an excellent opportunity for city development.

I truly believe Will Chen would be an excellent candidate to the Edmonds City Council because he understand the issues we are facing, and he lives and operates a business in HWY 99 area. He is well connected to many other resident like us who have the same experience for the issues above. During the conversations with Will Chen, I feel we are connected, he is a reliable and responsible person.

I heartily endorse Will Chen for Edmonds City Council and wish you would appoint him to the open position.

Sincerely

Zhantu Yao (Zack)
6 years resident of Edmonds

  1. Dear Zhantu Yau, I am certain Will Chen appreciates your support. A CPA certainly is well qualified to apply for Edmonds City Council seat. I only take issue with the following. Being a resident of Edmonds for 10 years is not that long of a time. If someone has limited access to services they can only blame themselves. In the Asian community it is best to make contact with people that are bilingual, and use them for assistance. Also no matter what age, there are classes to learn English. Any imigrant from a non English speaking country needs to speak Enlish to become successful in this country. We have seen growth in this area that now is more than most people want. Making the Aurora area even more populated is not what most Americans would consider livable. Only government sees growth as a way to get more tax revenue at the expense of of our city.

    1. Dear Carl,

      I sincerely hope you will reconsider your comments written here. Whether someone is an immigrant, non-native English speaker, or only lived in a city for X-number of years does not have any bearing on their ability to be a qualified and successful public servant. I do not know Will Chen but I am happy he has put his name forward and that people who know him are publicly supporting his application. As City Council passed in 2017: https://dpa730eaqha29.cloudfront.net/myedmondsnews/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SafeCityRes.pdf

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