LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, March 25
Parameters suggested for hospital site
To the editor:
The Witherspoon Street Corridor Study, facilitated by Princeton Future, has conducted numerous meetings and public working sessions attended by a broad spectrum of the Princeton community. From this process, principles have been outlined to guide the future of a very important corridor and adjacent land uses, with particular attention to the pending changes involving the hospital.
A smaller group volunteered to consolidate ideas and put them into the form of a set of parameters. The WSCS Advisory Committee held additional meetings to analyze details of the street, hospital site, zoning, design and development options. With the concurrence of the community, we hope that these "Parameters for the Redevelopment of Hospital Properties" will be considered seriously by all parties who hold authority and by those who have an interest in the future of our community.
The community meetings revealed concerns about the social, environmental and economic fragility of the street and adjacent neighborhoods. Our preliminary work suggests that it is appropriate to present guiding principles for the future of Witherspoon Street, in the presence of and absence of the hospital.
The full draft text of the parameters may be viewed on the Princeton Future Web site. The third paragraph suggests in part:
"All uses should be primarily residential. Planning must focus on the following considerations:
A. Provision for a variety of residential types, unit sizes and resident populations.
B. Any commercial or public accommodations are to be in service to and supported by the surrounding neighborhoods and local community. A small convenience store, a day-care center, service-based nonprofit and teen or community center are some examples.
C. Mixed-use concepts should not result solely from a calculation or percentage formula, should not be applied site-wide and must not undermine the residential quality of the street. For example, a 60/40 residential/commercial zone along Witherspoon Street, where all first-floor spaces are commercial, is undesirable."
The Witherspoon Street Corridor Study makes these considerations available to the citizens of the borough and township in draft for review by all through the Princeton Future Web site, www.princetonfuture.org. Please submit your suggestions via the "Contact Us" e-mail link on the Web site, or by mail to Princeton Future, Box 493, Princeton, NJ 08542.
The WSCS Advisory Committee encourages continued citizen participation and input in the upcoming meetings facilitated by Princeton Future on the mornings of April 16 and May 14 at the Princeton Public Library. Please come.
Witherspoon Street Corridor Study Advisory Committee
Chuck Alden, Charlotte Bialek, Ricardo Bruce, Hendricks Davis, Heidi Fichtenbaum, Michael Floyd, Jeff Furey, Alan Goodheart, Pam Hersh, Susan Jefferies, Joanna Kendig, Raoul Momo, Andrés Reinero, Suzanne Staggs, Dennis Stark,
Michael Suber, Karen Wolfgang
Princeton
Borough reporter will be missed
To the editor:
Too often at newspapers, reporters leave their beats and readers never find out why. When reporters switch beats, move to bigger papers or, to the consternation of some of their fellow reporters, become editors, there’s simply a new byline in the paper and the news goes on.
I didn’t want this to be the case for Jennifer Potash, who today ends her tenure as Princeton Borough beat reporter for The Packet to become managing editor of her hometown paper, The Lawrence Ledger.
As a borough resident and former newspaper editor who, in a public relations capacity, has had regular dealings with Jennifer, I’ve long admired her reporting and writing skills and her even-handed coverage. Given the challenge to report on our town during what will be remembered as one of its most crucial periods, she proved to be an objective, accurate and comprehensive chronicler of Princeton.
Jennifer brought care and attention to detail to every story and it was always clear that she served one master: the Packet’s readership. I will miss her coverage of the borough; Lawrence’s gain is surely Princeton’s loss.
Tim Quinn
Public Information Director
Princeton Public Library
Witherspoon Street
Princeton
Einstein defined true ‘genius’
To the editor:
A simple story about Albert Einstein was related to me by my brother, Bayard Kraemer. Bayard served in the U.S. Army Infantry during World War II. He was stationed in Europe and on one occasion he was sent to a rest camp in Heerlen, in the Netherlands. There he met Gottfried (Dutch) Gutbrodt, the corps electrician, from Princeton. They became friends and remained friends for many years.
Bayard told the following story:
"After the war, Dutch went back to his job of electrician in Princeton. In the late ’40s, Albert Einstein lived in Princeton. The lights went out in several rooms in Einstein’s house and Dutch got the repair call. He checked the fuse box and replaced a burned out fuse. The lights went on! When Mr. Einstein let him out at the front door, he shook his hand and said ‘Mr. Gutbrodt you are a genius.’ One of the smartest men in the world did not know how to change a fuse. Dutch never forgot that night."
In a phone conversation with Bayard, I learned that Mary, Dutch’s wife, was at that time secretary to the dean of admissions at Princeton University.
Hope you enjoy this sweet tidbit.
Audrey Johnson
Sayre Drive
Plainsboro
Bush’s performance tops Kennan’s legacy
To the editor:
Regarding your editorial, "Kennan legacy dishonored by Bush policies" (The Packet, March 22) that criticized the Bush administration’s foreign policy, one must recognize that George Kennan’s policy of containment came at a significant cost. Millions of Eastern Europeans and Asians over many generations were forced to live in poverty under the tyrannical thumb of communism. In roughly two years, George Bush has freed 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan that has directly led to demands for democracy being made by other downtrodden subjects of other Middle Eastern countries.
President Bush sure has dishonored Professor Kennan’s legacy.
Neal Phenes
Chandler Court
Plainsboro
Board’s action is unacceptable
To the editor:
I do not know how many of you were aware that the Montgomery Board of Education, under the cover of darkness and icy roads, voted unanimously March 8 to drastically change Orchard Hill Elementary School’s starting time.
Kindergarten through second grade, which presently start at 9:05 a.m., will start at 8:15 a.m., putting our youngest ones out at the bus stops in the dark in the dead of winter. This is appalling. It makes more sense for Village School (third and fourth grades) to start earlier, and dismiss earlier, in order to complete homework and get to after-school activities.
Additionally, there will be a 45-minute lapse when picking up siblings at the two schools. Morning traffic at Orchard Hill will be unbearable. Village access has been cut off. And there may be four buses traveling through our neighborhoods morning and afternoon. The board chose a plan of significant cost and outrageous inconvenience to hundreds of families.
Our dedicated Montgomery bus drivers will see a 20 percent decrease in wages due to the double-tiering of buses. This new configuration increases the use of expensive contracted drivers. The backgrounds of these drivers are unknown to us. In addition, substitute contractors may not know the routes, lineups or drop-off procedures. Humorously, the transportation supervisor now needs an "assistant" to manage the contractors, with a budgeted salary of $64,000 more than many teachers.
Our new $70 million high school was supposed to open in 2004. Why did the board wait until the eve of the budget deadline in 2005 to make a decision like this, with no parental input? It would appear that by waiting until the 11th hour, the board members had their own minds made up.
The Montgomery Township Newsletter came out Friday, March 4, publishing the "new" start times for all schools. The decision had been tabled at that point; it was not a done deal. If you did not attend the March 8 meeting because you thought there was nothing left to do, you were misled. There were no attempts to notify parents of the agendas and impending changes in March’s Orchard Hill Newsletter, not a word; in the 2005-2006 calendar, nothing; when we registered for kindergarten, no mention.
How could the board make such a decision that would impact family schedules and wallets without asking us? In the Township Newsletter, it states that the "PTA Executive Board met to set priorities and make recommendations." But the Orchard Hill PTA president said, "I was not consulted, I was told that this was the plan."
We need to show our elected officials this is unacceptable. We can make a difference if we all come together. Look for a plan April 12.
School board elections and the budget vote are April 19. Uproot those members who are not looking out for our children’s best interests. Get a copy of the budget, take a look, and vote accordingly. E-mail me with your support at [email protected].
Kim Galatro
Spring Hill Road
Montgomery
Condition of NPDC shockingly decrepit
To the editor:
As parents of children in the Montgomery Township public schools, we have watched with great interest the progress or lack thereof in turning the former North Princeton Developmental Center into the kind of place where you might expect to find a school. When we enrolled our son and daughter in the Village Elementary School as kindergartners, we were shocked by the horrendous condition of what we keep hearing could be a beautiful place.
While the Village School itself is in good condition, and much of it is new, the same cannot be said of the NPDC as a whole. The roads are rutted; potholes are deep and plentiful. We’ve never been able to count all the abandoned buildings, most of which show signs of being broken into and, at the least, are easily accessible to vagrants and curious kids. The grassy areas are overgrown with weeds; playground equipment is rusted and broken. This is hardly the type of place anyone would want to send children yet we do, every day.
Governor Codey, have you seen this place? You seem, from all we have read about you, to be a sensitive man who cares about children. How, then, can you condone keeping this site in such decrepit condition? The state clearly doesn’t spend enough to keep the NPDC in good shape and, with the current budget crisis, surely the state doesn’t have any more money to spend here.
Why not sell the NPDC to Montgomery Township for a fair price and let us clean it up for our school and for our children?
Hayley and Stephen Budd
Tanglewood Court
Montgomery
WW mayor has built record of accomplishment
To the editor:
I would like to bring to the attention of the West Windsor community some of the lesser-known attributes of West Windsor’s current mayor, Shing-Fu Hsueh.
Shortly after being elected mayor of West Windsor in 2001, Mayor Hsueh retired from a 28-year career as both an engineer and manager with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the state Office of Smart Growth to devote a full-time approach to a part-time position that of mayor of this 27-square-mile, 22,000-person township. He has used his experience and familiarity with the various governmental funding processes at the county, state and federal levels to obtain over $9 million of grants and commitments to the township at zero cost to the West Windsor taxpayer.
These grants are being used to develop and produce analytical and quantitative reports on a variety of issues affecting West Windsor Township, such as the Route 571 corridor through Princeton Junction, the Vaughn Dive connector linking Washington Road with Alexander Road and the Grover’s Mill Pond dam improvement and reclamation, to name but a few, that have evolved over the years as this township has seen such rapid growth. These are the first steps in an orderly and constructive vision to establish West Windsor as a fully developed community.
Mayor Hsueh deserves more than just simple admiration and recognition. He deserves to be re-elected to another term to lead the township through to the completion of these goals. Please vote for Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and his Community Vision Team on May 10.
Richard Eland
Courtney Drive
West Windsor
Rattling and rolling on Princeton streets
To the editor:
Now, drive on over baby, a whole lot of shakin’ going on.
I say, drive on over baby, baby you can’t go wrong.
On Mercer Street, a whole lot of shakin’ going on.
On Harrison Street, we ain’t fakin’.
On Witherspoon, Birch and Leigh, a whole lot of shakin’ going on.
Easy now, no reason to pave the roads,
On Princeton Township Committee, that’s not one of our goals.
We ain’t fakin’, whole lot of shakin’ going on.
Shake it, Great Road, shake it.
Shake it, Snowden, shake it.
Drive on over baby, whole lot of shakin’ going on.
Drive on over baby, we got other things to do.
On Princeton Township Committee, we got deer to kill,
New buildings: what a thrill.
For the rest of you: here’s the bill.
Let’s go. A whole lot of shakin’ going on.
Easy now.
Shake it, Lake Drive, shake it.
Shake it, Alexander, shake it.
Lake, Battle and Olds.
Shake it baby, shake it.
Wooo.
Whole lot of shakin’ going on.
Not much pavin’ going on.
Carl J. Mayer
Battle Road
Princeton
Easter egg hunts or battlefields?
To the editor:
The time is almost upon us when many of our children will be into the field, running and dashing and scrambling for brightly colored and well-hidden Easter eggs. A lucky few may manage to grab some of the treasures while the majority of children in an Easter egg hunt will go home with empty baskets.
Easter egg hunts, like many other endeavors in American life, are grounded on the idea that competition is good and also fun. It’s hard for me to think of anything that is fun that requires my winning to be of someone else’s loss. That is the heart of competition. It is a zero-sum game. In order for a child to be successful in an egg hunt, they have to get more eggs than another child. Invariably, more children will feel bad as a result of an egg hunt than those who will feel good. It is similar to costume parties, as I can think of no other way to spoil a costume party for 5-year-olds than to give one child a present for best costume.
I know there are many who will disagree with me but we have all been raised on the myth that competition is inevitable and is part of human nature. Contrary to what we have been taught, psychological research shows that competition is not natural and that cooperation, not competition, motivates us to do our best. In fact, schools and work sites often produce inferior products because they value competition rather than excellence. Competition has also been shown to lead to violence and there are no psychological studies showing that losing is good for you.
Instead of turning an egg hunt into a battlefield where there are winners and losers, how about a system where everybody wins. Competition creates artificial scarcity. It gives the idea that somehow there is not enough of something, such as not enough eggs in an egg hunt. In reality there are plenty of eggs, enough eggs for all the children in America. However, competition creates the idea that there aren’t enough and we have to scramble for the few that exist.
So much more is possible in our schools and work settings if instead of competition we value and foster cooperation. We have to shift the drive and struggle to be No. 1 to efforts to work cooperatively. Our schools and institutions need a restructuring as any win/lose arrangement is undesirable.
I guess with Easter egg hunts being something we have always done, and because it’s eggs and because it’s children, it may seem like it’s natural or OK to have them compete. However, I maintain that structurally, an egg hunt, with its goal to get more eggs than somebody else, with the result that many children will walk away with empty baskets and feel like they are the loser, makes egg hunts similar to the battlefield, where in order for someone to win, someone has to lose.
Ronald J. Coughlin
President
New Jersey Violence Prevention Institute
Quakerbridge Road
Hamilton
Repeal urged for ‘fast-track’ law
To the editor:
We support the repeal of the so-called "fast-track" permitting act (S-1368).
As one of the nation’s smallest states with the nation’s densest population, we need to be among the most thoughtful about how we use our land. In addition to providing opportunities for active and passive recreation and habitat for wildlife, open space provides critical protection for our water supply.
We are very concerned that growth in our state going forward is not being managed in the best way. This past June, S-1368 was passed in only three days with no opportunity for the public or environmental groups to review the legislation.
Presented as smart-growth legislation that would implement the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, S-1368 expedites state agency permits for development in designated "smart growth" areas without proper safeguards. The "smart growth" areas are drawn very broadly and encompass approximately 43 percent of the remaining land in the state.
Three federal agencies (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) have raised concerns that this legislation violates federal law and puts in jeopardy some of the $2 billion in federal funding of state environmental and infrastructure programs.
Thankfully, former Gov. McGreevey put a seven-month moratorium on the implementation of this law before he left office. However, unless we act now, this legislation will stand.
This important issue has not been receiving much media coverage after the initial outrage that met passage of the act. We must act now to prevent this law from taking effect. Legislation (S-2157/A-3650) has been introduced to repeal S-1368. Forty-six legislators have signed on to support the repeal. Please contact acting Gov. Codey to urge him to support this repeal. Call him at (609) 777-2500 or e-mail him by visiting www.state.nj.us/governor.
We thank Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman and Sen. Shirley Turner for supporting this repeal legislation, which is vital to ensuring that our remaining undeveloped land is used in the way that will benefit New Jersey in the years to come.
Sophie Glovier
Drakes Corner Road
Princeton
This letter was submitted on behalf of the Garden Club of Princeton, Stony Brook Garden Club, the Contemporary Garden Club and the Dogwood Garden Club.