LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, June 23
Taste of the Nation draws a big crowd
To the editor:
Thanks to the exceptional cooperation of the corporate, culinary and civic communities, Taste of the Nation-Princeton raised over $60,000 at its 15th annual event on June 12 to benefit anti-hunger projects. Taste of the Nation donates 100 percent of ticket sales to anti-hunger and antipoverty efforts on a local, national and international basis. Money raised at the Princeton event primarily benefits HomeFront, Isles, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and Mercer Street Friends Food Bank.
This year’s culinary gala drew over 600 people individual and corporate ticket-holders, participating restaurants and beverage vendors, and volunteers, who enjoyed the best cuisine from the area’s leading restaurants and food and beverage purveyors, along with live and silent auctions.
We deeply appreciate our host sponsor, The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village, which provided the perfect setting for this event and incredible hospitality. Our sincere thanks to American Express and Jenn-Air, national presenting sponsors, to national sponsors Sysco Corp., and Brown-Forman, who along with local corporations helped us to surpass fundraising goals for this year’s event. They include Novo Nordisk Inc., PSE&G, Nation’s Restaurant News, Ameriprise, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Wells Fargo and Palmer Square Management.
More than 30 restaurants and beverage vendors participated, all food and labor donated, with several having done so since the event’s inception in 1992. Together, they showcased the innovative and delicious dishes that make central New Jersey a growing hub of fine dining. They were joined by David Burke, visiting guest chef and proud new owner of La Fromagerie in Rumson.
Our media sponsors have contributed to Taste of the Nation-Princeton for many years by advertising and publicizing the event. Our deep appreciation goes to Nassau Broadcasting, The Princeton Packet, The Times of Trenton and New Jersey Monthly magazine. Glenn McClelland provided perfect music. We also thank Brandesign, Allegra Printing and Triangle Repro for excellent design and printing services, and Lois Feller, who came all the way from Brooklyn to take photos.
Finally, thanks to our fabulous committee and the scores of volunteers whose enthusiasm, dedication and imagination made this year’s Taste of the Nation one of the most successful yet.
Jeanne McNulty
Pam Parseghian
Co-chairs
Taste of the Nation
Princeton
Ghoulish provisions show law’s true intent
To the editor:
Reading Margaret Tuchman’s letter (The Packet, June 13) in favor of stem-cell research, one may wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, does anyone seriously oppose the advancement of life-saving cures involving human stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow? Was there ever any question of the legality or morality of such treatments? Why the politics, why the opinion polls?
There is a word missing in Ms. Tuchman’s letter: embryonic. It’s the same word that is often conspicuously absent in opinion polls. Setting aside for a moment the big price tag on the proposed research facilities, New Jerseyans need to make an informed decision about the human cost of pursuing embryonic stem-cell research. No one doubts the sincerity and compassion of Ms. Tuchman and others who have placed their hopes in embryonic stem cells. But we cannot fool ourselves about where this "research" might lead.
We may find it difficult as laypersons to wade through the medical terminology. We might even be inclined to trust the scientists and conclude that such research involves mere "blastocysts," or "pluripotent cells," not tiny human beings, after all.
Well, in case you missed the fine print, the same 2003 state law that purports to ban fetal trafficking simultaneously allows "reasonable payment" for the "removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transplantation, or implantation of embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue." The fetal stage of human life does not begin until 10 weeks and only ends at birth. Ask yourself: Why in the world would such ghoulish provisions have to be made, if researchers "charging ahead" with "groundbreaking science" really plan on limiting themselves to blobs in a petri dish?
Marjule Anne Hartmann
Nassau Drive
Lawrence
Housing plan threatens Rocky Hill’s character
To the editor:
At next Thursday’s meeting of the Rocky Hill Planning Board, residents should finally have a chance to express their thoughts on the proposal to construct 17 large duplex buildings in the so-called Schafer Tract, a small parcel of land within the borough’s Historic District and adjacent to Van Horne Park. The meeting promises to be a watershed moment in Rocky Hill’s ongoing efforts to preserve its unique character and fight off over-development. Princeton and Montgomery residents would also find the meeting especially interesting, as a foretaste of their own land-use battles to come.
The situation should be well-known to area residents. A local landowner teamed up with Pulte Homes, a giant in the construction industry, to develop one of the last pieces of open land in the borough. After much wrangling, the Borough Council in 2004 negotiated an ordinance to change the existing zoning on the tract. Pulte submitted its proposal and, owing to the persistent controversy surrounding the plans, the borough Planning Board has been holding special public meetings every month since January. All along, the issue facing the Planning Board members has been simple: Do Pulte’s designs conform to the borough’s ordinances?
Pulte wants to build 17 buildings housing 34 units, ranging between 7,000 and 8,000 square feet each (including garages). The rezoning ordinance requires that the development must be "compatible with the Historic Preservation District," that the buildings be "sensitive to massing and scale," and that "(all) massing, building and roof forms respect the general scale and proportions of the historic homes of Rocky Hill." These criteria seem clear enough. It is also clear that there is not even one residential building in Rocky Hill let alone 17 massed together matching the size of these proposed duplexes. The vast majority of the "historic homes of Rocky Hill" are half that size or less. Yet the Pulte representatives continue to insist that their massive structures are "compatible with" and "sensitive to" the historic scale of Rocky Hill.
It is up to the Planning Board, not Pulte Homes, to decide whether the proposal genuinely respects the architectural character of the borough. That is why borough residents must make their voices heard now. Historic preservation ordinances are important tools in the age of rampant sprawl; such regulations are often the only way towns and villages can block the threat of careless tear-downs and McMansion-scale overbuilding.
The ordinance permitting construction on the Schafer Tract in- cludes both quantitative and qualitative criteria; Pulte has pushed the quantitative allowances to the maximum while ignoring the key qualitative criteria altogether. Moreover, the Pulte proposal cannot be treated in isolation it has to be judged by the same standards as any other project here, explicitly including the longstanding Historic Preservation District ordinance. After showing incredible patience throughout the process so far, the Planning Board should now exercise its good judgment and its courage to scale back the Pulte proposal. It’s not too late to get this right.
The meeting will take place June 29 at 7:30, at the Reformed Church on Washington Street.
Richard Dienst
Washington Street
Rocky Hill
Elections tainted by corporations
To the editor:
De-regulation and merger-mania created huge corporations that control many areas of our lives, including television and radio who spin the truth to fit their agenda.
By making lavish campaign contributions, Sequoia got away selling some states voting machines that leave no paper trail, including New Jersey, where 19 counties are affected (Mercer among them).
These machines are not likely to ever be up to a retrofit to provide a voter-verified paper ballot.
The vote is the only legal power citizens have to get rid of a corrupt and incompetent administration.
Time to face facts: Our democracy has become a corporatocracy. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
The surest way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Susi Silber
Monroe