TOP STORY: University ad signers say people frustrated by the politics

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   Princeton residents who support Princeton University’s proposed arts and transit project are making their voices heard with full page ads in local newspapers.
   Princeton Township restaurateur Raoul Momo said there is a majority of working people who don’t have time for the politics involved in the project.
   ”The silent majority doesn’t have time to come out and do the politics the town plays with the university. That’s why you see some 300 names (on the ads); it’s the town being frustrated,” he said. “Here we are loosing a beautiful project because of politics.”
   The ad appears in this newspaper today and also ran on Friday.
   ”I’ve always been in favor of the project,” said Mr. Momo. “And I’m in favor of it because of the redevelopment, which would be a new face on the entrance from Route 1 on Alexander; right now it’s not the greatest way to come into town.”
   ”Right now the Dinky services the university, it doesn’t come into the downtown, so I don’t know why it’s such a big fight. I thought it was irrelevant, the Dinky does not service the town. My wife commutes to New York and she takes the train from Princeton Junction.”
   He does not agree with the way the university handled the last joint meeting about the project in January, issuing an ultimatum to local officials.
   ”That’s not the way to handle town-gown differences with ultimatums,” he said.
   The arts and transit plan has been the subject of much turmoil this winter after a January joint municipal and planning board meeting that ended with the university pulling the plug on the plan because municipal officials did not give any indication of plans for advancing zoning changes and were not fond of the transit portion of the plan.
   ”I don’t see moving the Dinky that big a deal for what they’re getting in return,” said Barry Weisfeld, owner of the Princeton Record Exchange, who heard about the petition from another business owner. “(There would be) less vacancies, there will be more people to support (the businesses). The positives outweigh the negatives. The negative is some people have to walk a few extra feet.”
   ”The key is getting people into town,” said Mr. Weisfeld. “If someone is taking the time to come to Princeton for a cultural event they will get hungry and thirsty, they shop and wander around.”
   The project would create a new Lewis Center for the Arts, add instructional and rehearsal spaces, and build a new train station that would move the existing train station and train, known as the Dinky, 460 feet to the south.
   The first phase of construction would yield about 130,000 gross square feet and include a black box theater that would accommodate 150 and a dance theater with a similar capacity. An instrumental space would hold about 100, and a flex space could accommodate 75 to 100 people.
   ”I thought there was some merit to what the university is trying to do,” said Henry Opatut, a township resident who signed the petition to see the project move along. “It seems that 400 feet isn’t that critical. I personally haven’t seen why there is such great concern and what has people so upset as significant; that’s just me.”
   He is looking forward to the additional arts offerings and a better functioning, more efficient Dinky with improved parking.
   The arts and transit project is on the agenda for a joint Borough Council and Township Committee meeting this Wednesday.