Media Borough has a new mayor for the first time in 3 decades. Meet Joi Washington

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For the first time in more than three decades, “Everybody’s Hometown” in Delaware County will have a new mayor.

Media Borough Mayor Bob McMahon, a Democrat, will leave office on Jan. 1 as one of the longest-serving mayors in Pennsylvania, if not the entire U.S., having first assumed the office in 1992.

Replacing McMahon is a candidate slightly older than his mayoralty: Joi Washington. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primaries and defeated Republican Kevin Kellogg in the general election. Washington, 39, will become Media’s first Black mayor and its first woman mayor.

Washington is a familiar face for Media residents. She has served as a member of the Borough Council since 2022. During the day, she is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.

She said she is passionate about pedestrian safety. She spends some of her free time casually gaming. Her Street Fighter 6 “main,” meaning the character she plays the most, is Chun-Li — and she said she envisions a Media where everyday people can afford a home again. Washington will be sworn in in January. Here’s what she has in store for Media:

The transcript of the full interview has been shortened and edited for brevity.

Kenny Cooper: You’re listening to WYYY. I’m Kenny Cooper and I report on the Philly suburbs for WHYY News. 

Media, Pennsylvania — is a small Delaware County town where it feels like everyone knows your name. For the last 33 years, the town has had the same mayor. Mayor Bob McMahon has finally decided to step away from politics, making way for Democrat Joi Washington. 

Joi is 39 years old, but she’s not new to local politics. She has served on Media Borough Council since 2022 — and she’ll enter the new year with a new title. Joi, welcome to WHYY. How are you? 

Joi Washington: I’m great. Thank you so much for having me.

Kenny: Media hasn’t had a woman mayor before. Media hasn’t had a black mayor before. Now the borough will have both. How have you digested the historic nature of your campaign?

Joi: After Election Day, I think I cried a little bit because when you’re campaigning and knocking doors … my thing was like, “All right, I got to talk to everybody, ask them what they need, ask them about what they need, and I think I just it just didn’t hit me until after the election.

So, I think what I’m looking forward to is continuing the the legacy of Bob McMahon and just be visible, be helpful in any ways that I can and I just know that people are going to be watching me a little bit more with like out of curiosity, so I do have to be like, “All right, you know, I’m out here.”

I just have to make sure that I’m out there meeting people where they are. That’s basically I just kind of am looking forward to just continuing to be a good neighbor throughout town.

Kenny: Now, Joi, tell us about yourself. Who are you and where are you from? 

Joi: I’m Joi Washington, a current resident of Media Borough. I am a Philadelphia girl. I’m a Philly girl. I was born and raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. I moved to Media around 12 years ago for an old job that I used to have in town and I was really attracted to the town because of how close-knit everything was and the ample public transportation access. I didn’t have a car back then, so it was really attractive for me to move there.

Kenny: What drew you to local politics?

Joi: I think the issues that I cared about and listening to my neighbors talk about pedestrian safety and road safety that was one of the reasons I got into politics, well to local politics, because that’s a local issue, which is great. I am really thankful for the neighbors and voters who chose me as a councilwoman and now as mayor-elect to continue working on those issues.

Kenny: You were on Media Borough council from 2022 to now. When you look back at your tenure as a council member, what do you see as some of your proudest moments or achievements?

Joi: I think some of the proudest achievements was the traffic calming circle on Jefferson Street. I think residents have had concerns for years about speeding and how people who either work in town or through town kind of using the residential road as a cut-through for Baltimore Avenue. So we got the traffic calming circle. It’s not really a roundabout but I think the feedback has been really good on that. I’m really looking forward to making more progress on that as well and continuing on supporting reporting local events like shutting down State Street for Fall Festival and the Halloween parade and other events like those just to bring more connection, more business to our local businesses and it’s just overall that the events bring a lot of connection into town with the residents and visitors alike.

Kenny: Why did you decide to run for mayor? Was this an easy decision — especially coming off of a previous mayor who had just served 30-plus years?

Joi: Yeah, I mean I had thought about it, but sometimes I talk myself out of things. So I think it was really helpful when former council members and other elected officials I’ve become close with just encouraged me like “You should run,” you know, “Just step up.” If you’re thinking about it, just go ahead and run. And then they said that I would be a really good transition from Bob to to me because I really do love where I live. I think that’s something that if anyone is thinking about running for office, you have to have a love for where you are just to have that courage to run too.

Kenny: You’ve been in Media for a while now. But obviously, you’ve decided to stick around at least for the next four years. Why Media? What made you fall in love with Media? 

Joi: I think the walkability and like I mentioned earlier, how things were pretty close-knit, a lot of different unique shops were very close by — like the Trader Joe’s is there. I think Trader Joe’s is kind of high on that list [laughter]. But no, I mean, I really like the walkability and the friendliness of people and neighbors. I think a little bit of a mix of everything that really made me want to stay in Media.

Kenny: Even though I gave Media the flowery introduction, like any small town in the U.S.A., it has its problems. What do you see as the biggest issues facing Media Borough?

Joi: The biggest issues, I think right now, it’s a little bit of a couple of issues. People do talk to me about housing affordability since Media, honestly, has changed from like 40 years to now. It’s completely unrecognizable, like meaning that Media is a really great place for people to live and visit, like, we have our events, our local shops and Dining Under the Stars, those types of events that makes it a very attractive place to move to and to visit. And with that, the demand to move into Media is very high.

And that’s completely different from 40 years ago where it was very crime-ridden and it was just a really difficult place to even imagine what you see now, which is just prosperity. I think that the housing affordability issue is just because of the demand and then you see a lot of like for sale signs from private equity or really someone trying to build their portfolio so they’ll buy the house and then it’s just like they rent it out.

So the competition is just really hard for regular homeowners who want to start in Media. They’re just kind of beat out by people who just look at housing as just an investment rather than just a place to live. So I think housing is an issue.

I think we’re going to keep working on reforming our zoning codes and maybe take a look at our hybrid form-based code zoning to see if we can fine-tune anything. But yeah, I think housing affordability is definitely one of the issues there. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s road safety. I think that also rolls into public safety as well.

I think people have been very satisfied with the public safety that we do have, like we’ve invested in our police department and it’s fully staffed, which is great. And we have a good relationship with the Media Police Department and I think we just have to work on other measures like more traffic calming and daylighting and more visibility for drivers and pedestrians.

I think those are some of the top issues that people have talked to me about. I think another one is making sure that we’re still a tree city. We’re still part of Tree City. We’re part of Bee City, USA, Bird Town USA and Tree City. So, we want to make sure that we also have a good community and good environment for planting more trees and protecting our trees as well.

Kenny: Who are you outside of politics? What’s your day job?

Joi: I’m currently freelancing as a day job. I was just recently working on some branding and graphics for a coffee shop and a bubble tea shop [that] a friend of mine is opening up soon. So, I’m hoping that I get more updates on this. Outside of politics, I am an artist. I have buttons and stickers that I designed myself for the campaign. I’m an artist. I went to Moore College of Art and Design. So that’s my background: in illustrations. So I do some portrait illustrations on the side as well, but my professional background is mainly graphic design, creative design as well.

Kenny: I wanted to know, what have you learned in your past few years of working in local politics? Have you learned anything?

Joi: Patience. That’s what I’ve learned throughout my first term. It’s patience because at first I would get a little frustrated with some things, but then it’s like, wait, we have to take the time to go through a budget and to make sure things are budgeted properly and it really takes a lot of work to balance the budget. We passed a balanced budget for a couple years. Patience and listening is much easier than blurting out whatever comes to mind. I feel like listening and patience are two of the things — two of the most important things — that I’ve learned throughout my tenure.

Kenny: I’ve noticed on your campaign website that you’ve referred to yourself as a “casual gamer.” I wanted to know, before we go — I’ve got to know — do you stream on Twitch and what games are you playing these days? 

Joi: Oh, I used to. I might do it again as a mayoral Twitch stream in the future. But I was playing Palia on Steam. I bought it from Steam. It’s on my PC. Palia is a great game. I just kind of chill out with that one and the premise of that game is just you go into a town, you meet people, you get points for making friends and conversation with the residents there. And I think it promotes you to being a good neighbor in the game and I think it’s really interesting how I play that and then I think about how I interact with people in Media.

I’m like, “Were the game makers like in Media and then made this game?” That’s one of the games I’m playing. Another one — I buy games that are on sale and I haven’t played them yet, but Street Fighter 6 is one of my favorites. I just kind of chill out with that, too. Chun-Li is my main. So that’s what I have on my casual gamer side.

Kenny: Media Borough Mayor-elect Joi Washington, thanks for joining us.

Joi: Thank you so much for having me. I had so much fun. My inner child, who used to watch Carmen Sandiego and Ghostwriter and Arthur is just screaming right now for being interviewed at WHYY. So thank you so much for the opportunity.

Kenny: Thank you. I’m Kenny Cooper. You’re listening to WHYY.