PACKET EDITORIALS, March 15
By: Packet Editorial
Borough does more than just talk the talk
Princeton has long had a reputation for taking action on matters of concern only after talking about them interminably. The Borough Council, the Township Committee, the Regional Board of Education and their multitudinous advisory groups and subcommittees are widely viewed as truly deliberative bodies, allowing anyone and everyone with an opinion to chime in on the issues of the day before reaching a decision.
And in Princeton, it seems, anyone and everyone has an opinion on just about every issue of the day.
So it is that decisions like where to put the public library, how and where to build senior housing, what to do about the Valley Road building and The Arts Council, and how to address the problem of downtown parking seem to take eons to resolve. Only after we have talked them to death do we actually get around to doing something about them.
That, at least, is the perception which is why the steady pace of progress lately toward resolution of the downtown parking issue is a source of considerable satisfaction.
Just a year ago, the Borough Council seemed hopelessly deadlocked on the question of whether a new parking garage was even needed in the central business district. Today, not only has the need been acknowledged, but the council has approved a redevelopment plan for the area presently occupied by the Park & Shop and Tulane Street surface parking lots that would include a garage, a public square, shops, apartments and a possible food market.
This week, after reviewing preliminary plans submitted by five developers, the council asked two finalists to prepare more detailed proposals by mid-April. Sensibly, the council issued some general guidelines but encouraged the developers to use their own best judgment and creativity in drawing up their redevelopment schemes. By June, the council hopes to make the final choice of a developer, draw up final plans and proceed with the project.
Critics would say it’s been a long time coming. But the realists among us applaud the Borough Council for making genuine progress on one of the most pressing issues facing Princeton an issue that, until recently, seemed destined, like so many others, for perpetual discussion and no action at all.
Putting an end to an ugly rumor
In the past week, we’ve received a number of letters to the editor making reference to allegations that Princeton Animal Control Officer Mark Johnson’s pets may have been victimized by opponents of Princeton Township’s deer-management program.
We have not run these letters because The Packet never reported these allegations. We did not report them because we were not able to confirm that Mr. Johnson’s pets were the victims of foul play, nor did any public official suggest to us either on or off the record that opponents of the deer-management program had anything at all to do with Mr. Johnson’s animals.
It turns out, as best we can tell, that Mr. Johnson’s dog, erroneously reported elsewhere to have died, ingested some sort of harmful substance, perhaps antifreeze, that caused her to fall ill. We are happy to report she is now on the mend. Earlier, Mr. Johnson’s cat, erroneously reported elsewhere to have been two cats, both of them reportedly crushed to death, was apparently run over by a car, whose driver was concerned enough to stop and inform one of Mr. Johnson’s neighbors of the incident.
We bring this up because, as the letters keep coming in, we feel like a kid engaged in a game of "Telephone" being asked to pass along information we know to be untrue. We’d rather not play this game. We’re not sure where this ugly rumor started, but we feel obliged to put an end to it. Right now.