PACKET EDITORIAL, June 23
By:
With Princeton Community Village getting ready to celebrate its 25th anniversary this weekend, this may be a proper occasion for all of us to pause and pay tribute to the remarkably rich diversity that has come to characterize the Princeton community. From PCV to the Western Section, from Riverside to the Ridge, from Jugtown to John-Witherspoon, the ethnic, cultural, racial, religious and socio-economic mix that blends together through the streets and neighborhoods of Princeton is truly worthy of celebration.
It was not always thus. In fact, more than a few Princetonians can remember the days — and they weren’t that long ago — when some restaurants in town served whites only, when Caucasian children went to the Nassau Street School and Negro children went to the Witherspoon School for Colored Children on Quarry Street, when Princeton University was widely known as the northernmost Southern school in America and the surrounding community bore a similar reputation.
As the walls of segregation came tumbling down, as the university systematically removed the barriers to admission — first by race and religion, then by gender — Princeton became a different place. A better place. A place where the Italian families who had come across the Atlantic to cut the stone that built the university’s dormitories, where the African-American families who had come north to work in the rubber factories and textile mills of Trenton, could settle down and raise their own children and send them to universities. A place where, today, Guatemalan and Chinese and Croatian and Vietnamese and Indian and Mexican families come to pursue the American dream.
PCV symbolizes the proposition that Princeton — for all its landed-gentry wealth and snob appeal — is open to everyone. Built to provide housing for people of moderate incomes, PCV has allowed families who would otherwise not have been able to afford to live in Princeton an opportunity to do so. More than 50 of the current residents have lived there since the doors opened in 1975-76. And, as much as they have benefited from this experience, their presence and participation in the civic life of Princeton has enriched the community even more.
By providing housing for people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and economic needs, PCV has made it possible for Princeton teachers, police officers, hospital workers, university employees, laborers and others to live in the community in which they work. This, in turn, has given residents a stake in their community. Together with Elm Court and Griggs Farm, also run by Princeton Community Housing, PCV has helped define Princeton as a community that is eclectic rather than homogeneous, inclusive rather than exclusionary, embracing rather than insular.
PCV also stands as a model of the kind of cooperative spirit that can be generated when government, nonprofits and faith-based organizations set their minds on working together toward a common goal. The state and federal governments provided major funding for PCV, through several of the Great Society social programs that have since fallen out of political favor. No fewer than 19 nonprofit and faith-based organizations in the community have chipped in with financial and volunteer support.
All will join together this weekend in celebration of PCV’s 25 years of operation. It is, indeed, an occasion to celebrate, not just for those who live there but for the whole community.