Letters to the Editor, Nov. 22

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Nov. 22

Independent-minded voters merit thanks
To the editor:
   
I would like to thank the 750 other independent-minded voters who cast ballots for me in the election last Tuesday.
   There are about 1,700 registered Democrats in Princeton Borough. Jon Corzine got 1,789 votes. Mildred Trotman received 1,747 votes. David Goldfarb got 1,697. I recevied 751. Alan Hegedus and Miriam Yevick each received two votes. Mark Alexandridis, Mark Freda, Jim Firestone, Sergio Suarez, Nicki Dalton, Mary Blohm, Gerald Odening and Michael Carnevale each received one vote.
   Unlike my opponents, I like to know how people actually voted — the absentees, the military, the provisionals, as well as the machine vote — before expressing my thanks. Every voter counts, maybe not in terms of who wins and who loses, but in understanding the governmental implications of an election.
   This election was a disaster. At 46 percent, it had the lowest turnout of any gubernatorial contest in modern times (since women got the vote in 1920). Even in politically active Princeton, the turnout was about 54 percent. Some 2,563 people cast ballots this year, compared to 4,763 in the hotly contested 2004 presidential race.
   This low turnout was no accident. The Democrats and Republicans combined do not command the allegiance of a majority of the voters, even in Princeton. So the negative campaigning on the gubernatorial level is designed deliberately to tun off the independent voters and keep them at home. It is a virtually ironclad rule of politics that the top of the ticket dictates turnout. People who are not willing to vote for governor are not going to pay attention to a council race. That is because governor is a far more important office than Borough Council.
   At the local level, the Democrats kept interest in the Borough Council race low by refusing to campaign actively. They declined to defend their record. They bought few newspaper ads. Their strategy was to ignore my candidacy and hope that the almost certain Corzine landslide in Princeton would sweep them into office.
   Negative campaigning is keeping most of New Jersey’s 2.8 million unaffiliated voters disgusted and at home. Just as the poll tax and literacy tests in the 1950s were designed to disenfranchise poor voters in the South, negative campaigning is designed to disenfranchise unaffiliated voters everywhere. It is the way the Democrats and Republicans can maintain a monopoly on political power. If the Republican and Democratic parties were private, profit-making corporations, they could be indicted for illegal collusion in restraint of trade.
   Negative campaigning is a good strategy for winning the elections, but a poor one for governing. That is why the same officeholders win election after election, but the policies never change and the problems grow worse. Voters’ help is needed to make major changes in policies and programs.
   Messrs. Corzine and Forrester spent $72 million to smear each other and talk about cutting real-estate taxes. Less than two weeks after the election, there is suddenly a $5 billion hole in the state budget. The major issues should have been how to keep the state government and taxpayers financially solvent. During the recent campaign, the only candidate I can remember hearing say, "Public finances are in a catastrophic condition," was me.
   I am proud of the fact that my campaign proposed positive, specific ways to cut spending and provide people with choices that could make their lives more affordable. Thank you, again, for helping me in that effort.
Joshua Leinsdorf
Forester Drive
Princeton
School calendar ‘experiment’ failed
To the editor:
   
I write in support of the letter from Jeanine Hearne-Barsamian and Ernest Barsamian (The Packet, Nov. 15), expressing dissatisfaction with a recent revision to the Princeton Regional Schools’ calendar. This change, which moved three days of teacher training from the summer to the week of the longstanding two-day NJEA convention in November, resulted in an entire week without school, 12 days before Thanksgiving.
   This undesirable alteration of the familiar calendar was imposed on families with little justification. Along with other district parents, I attended several meetings of the school board last winter to express our doubts. Accepting the proposition that these training days should be moved, we made concrete suggestions for preferable dates (for example: just before Thanksgiving, when many have to travel to visit family anyway; or as an early spring break during the long, unrelieved stretch in March). The only response was that this particular change had already been implemented for the 2005-2006 calendar, and we were advised to just live through it and see how it goes.
   So this is how it went — pretty much as predicted. Our few options included keeping our daughter in her after-school program for a 45-hour week (an option we were fortunate to have) or perhaps trying to take a trip. November, however, is not a great time for a vacation, and our summer travels still seem quite recent. Other families with whom we have spoken were in similar quandaries about this odd new gap.
   The fall schedule for the Princeton Regional Schools was infamously fragmented even before this year. The recent weeklong interruption of the "back-to-school" momentum is a problem not only for families in which both parents are employed, but for anyone concerned with the continuity of our children’s education. Let’s ask the school board to end this experiment, and find a better time of year for this apparently necessary new three-day hiatus from school.
Caroline Hancock
Laurel Road
Princeton
Garage remediation may not be adequate
To the editor:
   
The structural and environmental engineers have evaluated the water problems with the new municipal parking garage. I have read the whole report, which seems to be accurate and on target. The conclusions are several: 1) The ground floors were not designed for the water pressure encountered on the site, leading to upward buckling; and 2) The waterproofing material was likely not applied according to instructions (there was existing water on the site during application and it must be applied during a dry spell).
   What led to the first problem seems to have been a miscommunication of the site parameters between whoever was on-site and the (evidently out-of-town) structural engineer who designed the floor. It was designed for average dry conditions with occasional moisture intrusion. Surely, she did not see the handsome gravel-beached lake or the Mallard duck that patrolled its waters. Besides the whimsical fact that Princeton lost the possibility to enjoy lakefront property downtown, we have a real problem in that a number of spaces are unusable in the new garage.
   The original recommendation for remediation involved placing mid-floor anchors to the underlying rock and application of an additional 6 inches of concrete on top of the floor to weight it down. The downside of this scheme is that it would produce a vertical clearance too low for standards and inconsistent with the rest of the garage. The current recommendation is to use the anchors in conjunction with an additional sealant.
   Both of these remedies are minimally expensive but, seeing the innovative properties of water under pressure, may not be adequate. An alternative is to remove the existing floor and some of the loose fill below it and install large gravel for drainage in conjunction with a deep sump and additional pumps. The drawback is that much of the work would have to be done in a labor-intensive way, since heavy equipment cannot come into the low clearance. However, with the underground river that goes through the site and produces up to 5 feet of water head pressure, lesser attempts may not succeed. I understand, also, that the garage placement has worsened water intrusions in neighboring buildings.
   My original recommendation before the garage was designed was for gravity drains. This was the (successful) design that the late George Griffing put into the basement of Firestone Library and had recommended to me many years ago with regard to buildings downtown. Perhaps it is too late to do this; sump pumps are now the resort.
   Whatever remediation is finally performed, the borough should give it at least a year to prove itself out before signing off that it works. I am also concerned about the water intrusion in the electrical closet and in one of the stairwells that cannot be attributed to mid-floor buckling. Worse still, perhaps, are the rust stains on the structural walls at about the 4-foot level above floor. What effect is this having on the steel reinforcing?
Arch Davis
Vandeventer Avenue
Princeton
Participation urged in Route 206 study
To the editor:
   
Last week’s paper (The Packet, Nov. 15) contained a story about the planning study on Route 206 recently awarded to Princeton Township and Princeton Borough by the state.
   We are bombarded with information each day so we want to underline one part of that story: There will be a town meeting on Monday, Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m., at Princeton Township Hall with the consultants hired to conduct this study.
   Why bother coming? Well, your input is needed to make the process work and we want you to know what’s going on. The objective is to develop a unified vision for State Road and Bayard Lane based on input from and consensus among citizens.
   What can we do to give drivers approaching our town from the north — especially out-of-town drivers who are taking what they think of as Route 206 from one interstate to another — visual cues that they are entering our town and should begin to drive appropriately? What can we do to make the road safer for all users, including local drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists? What can we do to make the road serve our town rather than watching the town increasingly serve the road?
   Please understand this study is not just about bike lanes or crosswalks. There are as many concerns as there are perspectives on the problem and the more the consultants can hear now the better their evaluation of the road can be. Their method is to look "outside the box" for design ideas.
   All we know is that, like any old state road going through the center of a historic town, this road is serving many different purposes — not all of them consistent with the safety of residents, the livability of our town and the coherence of our neighborhoods. Please join us on the Monday after Thanksgiving to help rethink one of our main roads.
Sandy Solomon
Bayard Lane
Don Greenberg
State Road
Citizens for a Safer Route 206
Princeton
Legislature should pass ‘Clean Indoor Air Act’
To the editor:
   
It has been five years since the Princeton Regional Health Commission passed a comprehensive ordinance to make workplaces and public places smoke-free in Princeton, only to have it struck down by a Mercer County Superior Court judge who ruled that state tobacco-control laws pre-empt local environmental tobacco smoke legislation.
   Why can’t Princeton’s restaurants and other indoor public facilities have smoke-free air when other New Jersey municipalities — including Glassboro, Highland Park, Lawrence, Marlboro and Secaucus — can? Indeed, why does New Jersey have to be plagued by environmental tobacco smoke when other states as well as other nations, including all of Ireland and its pubs, enjoy clean indoor air?
   The data on the harm caused by environmental tobacco smoke is incontrovertible. The National Institutes of Health officially identified it as a "known human carcinogen" in a report released on May 15, 2000. That report is what prompted the health commission to pass its ordinance in June 2000. Environmental tobacco smoke (also known as "secondhand smoke") causes many diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, nasal sinus cancer, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma in children. It is estimated that 40,000 to 68,000 Americans die each from diseases caused by environmental tobacco smoke.
   Why are we writing this letter now? The "Clean Indoor Air Act" (Senate bill S-264 and Assembly bill A-315) is currently under consideration in the New Jersey Legislature. This legislation would prohibit smoking in common areas of indoor public and work places. Acting Gov. Codey strongly supports the bill. There appears to be strong support for the bill in the Senate but less so in the Assembly.
   The majority of New Jerseyans want smoke-free workplaces and restaurants. A statewide poll done by the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University found that 83 percent of New Jerseyans want workplaces to be smoke-free. Sixty-seven percent want restaurants to be smoke-free, and 64 percent are bothered by smoking in restaurants. Over 40 percent of non-smokers avoid restaurants that have polluted indoor air.
   This is not a trivial issue. A 2005 air monitoring study done by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that the level of indoor air pollution in smoke-free restaurants was 88 percent lower than in restaurants that allowed smoking and 96 percent lower than bars. The air pollution measured was the tiny particles that go deep in the lungs and are associated with lung and heart disease and death. These tiny particles are released in abundance from burning cigarettes. Indeed, places that allowed indoor smoking were significantly more polluted than places that didn’t allow smoking, and the levels of pollution were in excess of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.
   The clock is ticking. We have an opportunity to have clean indoor air in New Jersey during this legislative session. We urge everyone who cares about their health, their families’ health and the health of the citizens of New Jersey to contact their state assemblymen/women and state senators and strongly urge them to pass the "Clean Indoor Air Act" now.
Laura H. Kahn, M.D.
Member, Princeton Regional Health Commission
Journey’s End Lane
Princeton
Volunteers and voters need to work together
To the editor:
   
The election is over. Rocky Hill filled two Borough Council positions from three candidates. The independent candidate secured the most votes. Perhaps this is an indicator that there is a new spirit of bipartisanship.
   William D. Novelli, CEO of the AARP, wrote an excellent essay in the June 2005 AARP Newsletter titled, "Where Are Our Leaders?" His closing words were: "Our political parties must work to achieve common goals. And, it’s up to all of us to see that they do."
   Rocky Hill is blessed with many volunteers — including elected officials. This small village faces the challenge of refocusing these volunteers and the voters on working together to reach viable solutions to local issues. Partisanship, cliques, segments, factions or team players are labels, which distinguish one group from another and may have a negative connotation in a small community. These terms have been heard too often in recent months. Uncivil extremes currently divide us.
   We need a new sensitivity to the problems of ordinary people. There should be more open procedures in public decision-making and time for public scrutiny. The word "transparency" in decision-making often appears in the press these days. All voters need a clearer view to understand the issues and to make sound judgments. We need to promote, as Brian Calame of The New York Times wrote, "the spirit of ostentatious openness."
   It’s time for Rocky Hill to pull together and rediscover bipartisanship. This doesn’t mean that all people should or will agree on every issue. But we can and we must insist that our volunteer elected and appointed officials and our community leaders work together to find solutions to the problems that affect our town and to find a way to keep residents informed. Perhaps an old-fashioned town meeting early in 2006 would be an effective beginning.
Jeanette K. Muser
Montgomery Avenue
Rocky Hill
Community responds with generous support
To the editor:
   
The entire staff and board of directors at Family and Children’s Services of Central New Jersey wish to express our overwhelming gratitude and thanks to the residents of the greater Princeton community. You are to be commended for your neighborliness and outpouring of goodwill for your most generous donations during our first-ever winter clothing and coat drive.
   In addition, both Landau’s and Hulit’s should receive special recognition for coming up with a brilliant idea, developing our partnership and managing the constant flow of donations. We hope to have this become an annual community-wide event.
   This year, our drive was inspired by those families affected by Hurricane Katrina and relocated to New Jersey. As a member of the New Jersey coalition assembled to work with these families, hosting this drive was a natural fit for Family and Children’s Services, yet it would not have been possible without the amazing response from the Princeton community.
   We could not believe the sheer volume of donations received. We were able to distribute your donations to those families we are working with from the Gulf region and to help many families a little closer to home. Family and Children’s Services’ programs deal with fragile families, underprivileged children, at-risk youth, employee/employer work-related problems, substance abuse, domestic violence and the special needs of the elderly. Our goals include building strong families and communities and empowering individuals to take responsible charge of their own lives. With the generous support of the Princeton community, we will be able to help many of these families and individuals meet essential daily needs, and to work toward a brighter future.
   For more information on how Family and Children’s Services is helping to make a difference in the lives of the families and individuals we serve, we invite you to visit our Web site at www.nj-counseling.org. Thank you again, and we look forward to your continued support.
Pam Senatore
Family and Children’s Services of Central New Jersey
John Street
Princeton
New Orleans represents best of the human spirit
To the editor:
   
This week, I picture and plan the Thanksgiving feast for my dear ones, visualizing Norman Rockwell-like scenes unfolding all across America. But my heart is abruptly bruised by memories of the recent drowning of New Orleans. I am haunted by thoughts of all whose very homes were ruined, even destroyed in recent savage storms. These people, by no means limited to Louisiana, have lost even the table they set for Thanksgiving one brief year ago.
   Part of our Thanksgiving rituals this year, therefore, should include renewed reaching out to sustain those who have lost so much, so suddenly and irrevocably. As we give thanks, we need to send the gift of spirit, of certainty, of cheering on to individuals and municipalities that must build anew.
   Beyond that, I am concerned over doubts variously expressed over whether New Orleans can or even should rise again. Personal memories of a 1950s trip to that vital city are as crystalline today as they were during that third year of college. Those people, scenes, music, foods, history, conversations and the like remain electrifyingly alive in great detail over all these decades. This demonstrates New Orleans’ uniqueness, a constellation of the best of the human spirit.
   Of course, that vibrant town will rise, must rise — emerge like Lazarus from its grave-cloths.
   I attempted to dissect the aura of New Orleans, since it cannot be explained: It is partly a distillation of American can-do energy, as propelled us through D-Day to the Rhine. It’s partly New Orleans blacks forever turning tragedy to music. Of course, it’s vaunted Cajun and Creole magic with humble foods and handy spices. Part hurly burly of good old New Orleans politics. Part Mark Twain and all that the Mississippi bears to her quais — the good, the bad. A soupcon of France, of course. The elegance and forbearance of Longfellow’s Acadian heroine, Evangeline, forever questing for her beloved Gabriel. (My favorite book from the age of 8 onward, perhaps the cause of my becoming a poet.) Even evocations of John James Audubon, hunting and painting the most exquisite birds the world has seen. All of this lives on, like those winged creatures, in the very air above the drowned city.
   New Orleans is the essence of America, at the same time that she is our most foreign city. She will emerge in some ways new, in some ways her palpitating familiar self. The new New Orleans will be forged of all those blended centuries, with dazzling highlights from the 21st. She will remain alight with courage and persistence, great bursts of laughter in the face of horror, like a blast from Satchmo’s horn.
   In the process, New Orleans will inspire the world. As she rises, New Orleans might even bring new luster to the way America is held around the world.
Carolyn Foote Edelmann
Salem Court
West Windsor
School construction needs remain unmet
To the editor:
   
As New Jersey enters the post-election period, an important piece of business remains unfinished — fulfilling unmet school construction needs.
   This summer, the state stopped work on more than 200 necessary projects in our 31 poorest school districts. There is still no completion date in sight. Meanwhile, in other communities, voters this year approved the vast majority of projects. They went to the polls with the expectation that state funds would offset the property taxes needed for construction. Today, many of these school districts await word on how the state will support their construction programs.
   New Jersey was at the cutting edge nationwide when it established an $8.6 billion program for new schools in 2000. Now, those funds are nearly gone. Newspaper investigations and government reports cite numerous reasons why the money declined so rapidly under the state’s stewardship. Although the state funding has diminished, the need for modern, safe school facilities has not shrunk.
   As early as 1990, the need for school construction and renovation was placed at $10 billion, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association, an advocacy organization for the state’s local school districts. Going forward, school construction needs will grow, rather than recede. The U.S. Department of Education predicts increased enrollment through 2013. As our school buildings age, upgrading of classrooms, libraries and science laboratories — needed for New Jersey to keep pace with neighboring states — will remain critical.
   State government must learn from the past and ensure accountability and efficiency in its school construction funding program. But it must also move forward — and move forward quickly. "Bridge funding" is an essential first step. It would ensure completion of projects now on hold in poor communities and provide grant funding to lessen the property-tax burden of voter-approved school construction elsewhere. Clearly, bridge funding needs to be a top priority for the administration and Legislature during the post-election period.
   On behalf of all local school districts, I urge our state’s leaders to address the need for school construction and renovation as quickly as possible.
Edwina M. Lee
Executive Director
New Jersey School Boards Association
West State Street
Trenton
Political will is needed to stop Darfur genocide
To the editor:
   
In the time it takes to read this newspaper, an innocent person will die in Darfur, Sudan. It’s estimated that the genocide there is claiming 500 people a day, day after day, week after week. Since 2003, the Sudanese government has conducted a scorched-earth offensive in Darfur, dispatching its proxy militia, the Janjaweed, to displace or kill virtually any civilian inhabitant of the impoverished region. The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs has called the humanitarian crisis there the worst in the world.
   Efforts to stop the violence and to protect civilians from future attacks have been ineffective, due to the limited number of African Union troops on the ground and their narrow mandate, severe budget constraints and the inaccessibility of many of Darfur’s villages. The single biggest reason for the inaction, however, is the lack of political will.
   We must raise awareness and educate others about this needless tragedy. What can the international community — specifically the United States — do to stop the genocide? Call on your elected officials to support:
   • An expanded mandate for the African Union mission;
   • Increased logistical airlift support from NATO;
   • Enforcing "no-fly zones" and sanctions already specified in Security Council resolutions;
   • Deploying experts on protecting civilians in armed conflicts to train and work with African Union commanders;
   • Assisting refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes in safety;
   • Assigning protection teams to camps for displaced persons;
   • Establishing all possible measures to prevent sexual violence and to provide aid to those victimized by it;
   • Increasing the number of international human rights monitors in Darfur; and
   • Establishing a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
   There is a clear legal and moral imperative to halt the killings and displacement in Darfur. As Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel said, "What is at stake is our own humanity. We must tell the Sudanese victims that they are no longer alone, that we know what is happening to them, that we care, that we wish to save lives: theirs."
Kathy Ales
President
American Jewish Committee
Central New Jersey Chapter
Mason Drive
Princeton