Arts Council is victimized by town’s history

PACKET EDITORIAL, May 6

By: Packet Editorial
   Let’s stop pussyfooting around the real reason neighbors in the John-Witherspoon section of town oppose The Arts Council of Princeton’s expansion project.
   When The Arts Council went to the Planning Board in 2000 with an ambitious proposal to upgrade and modernize its facility at the corner of Witherspoon Street and Paul Robeson Place, neighbors came out in force to complain about the size and scope of the project, about noise and traffic and parking problems. And the board turned the project down.
   Now, The Arts Council is back with a different plan, one that responds to many of the concerns raised by neighbors and Planning Board members. And, at last week’s Planning Board meeting, neighbors came out in force to complain about the size and scope of the revised project, along with the noise, the traffic and the parking problems.
   But scratch the surface of this opposition and it becomes apparent the dispute between The Arts Council and its neighbors is not about size or scope or noise or traffic or parking. This is about one thing and one thing only.
   This is about race.
   We don’t like to talk about race in Princeton. We like to think this is a town where white, black, Hispanic, Asian and myriad other races and cultures blend together in perfect harmony. We point with pride to the John-Witherspoon neighborhood as a robust enclave of racial and ethnic diversity, a neighborhood where several generations of African Americans, from the Robesons to the Satterfields to the Pannells, have put down their roots, raised their families and made enormous civic, economic and spiritual contributions to the community.
   What we forget, conveniently, is the old Witherspoon School for Colored Children on Quarry Street, where Princeton’s black children were educated all the way up until 1948. We forget the segregated YWCA. We forget the stores and restaurants on Nassau Street that served whites only. We forget the demise of Griggs Imperial Restaurant, a popular eatery owned by a prominent black family, which was replaced first by a gas station, then by a municipal parking lot. And we forget the well-intentioned but astonishingly insensitive urban renewal of the 1950s — in particular the project that turned leafy, residential Jackson Street into Paul Robeson Place, an eyesore of a thoroughfare that enabled Palmer Square to expand, allowed traffic to bypass Nassau Street and displaced many of Princeton’s established black families from their homes.
   The John-Witherspoon neighborhood does not forget. It does not turn a deaf ear to the complaints of longtime residents that "progress" in Princeton has too often come at considerable cost to its minority citizens. Nor does it turn a blind eye to the gentrification that is taking place in the town’s historic black neighborhood. It’s no accident that as housing prices in the John-Witherspoon neighborhood have skyrocketed, the black population of Princeton (borough and township combined) has steadily declined, from 2,088 in 1980 to 1,898 in 1990 to 1,719 in 2000. The descendants of some of Princeton’s eminent minority families are cashing in — and moving out.
   None of this, of course, is the fault of The Arts Council of Princeton. But The Arts Council happens to occupy that strategic intersection where the residential John-Witherspoon neighborhood meets the central business district — making it, if nothing else, the visual representation of the Princeton Establishment. It is thus the most convenient and timely target for years of accumulated anger and resentment. It bears, to be blunt, the white man’s burden.
   Is this fair? Not in our judgment. Is it understandable? Absolutely. In the coming weeks and months, the more compelling question is this: Is it possible for the Planning Board to separate the legitimate and longstanding grievances of many John-Witherspoon residents from The Arts Council’s obvious and immediate need to upgrade and expand its facilities? We sincerely hope so.