Alice Artzt, Princeton
To the editor:
PCDO members concerned about the revaluation and what needs to be doneabout it may want to revisit online (courtesy of Princeton Community Television) last year’s Aug. 24 Borough Council meeting before endorsing a mayoral candidate on Sunday.
My strongest impression of David Goldfarb, who is running for Borough mayor, dates from that meeting, which I attended. Numerous Princetonians, from many neighborhoods, gave well-documented and heart-felt testimony about how arbitrary the recent revaluations were.
They told how severely they had been impacted, including having to leave Princeton. After all this upsetting testimony from so many people, some of whom were visibly and understandably distraught at their predicament, Mr. Goldfarb spoke at some length, in an astonishingly dismissive way. He said that he found the revaluations perfectly accurate overall. He said that, even had ASI just thrown all the property cards up in the air, and sorted them as they fell on the floor, he thought their numbers were right.
Upon hearing this, most of the incredulous audience began complaining and shouting arguments toward him, and one man went to the microphone and started to rebut him, but was not allowed to speak. At this point, there was a general uproar and more than half the audience (including myself) walked out of the meeting in disgust.
You can see the whole meeting online at: http://www.vimeo.com/14488557. The public comments on the revaluation start at 47:32, and Mr. Goldfarb’s response to them starts at 2:18:56. The uproar starts at 2:22:28. I strongly feel that Mr. Goldfarb is NOT the sort of mayor we need. We need someone much more responsive and understanding, who will listen and work for us not against us.
Alice Artzt
Princeton

