By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
After a session with a psychologist on Saturday, members of the Joint Shared Services Commission hope they have a better understanding of how Princeton residents relate to their sense of home and can help explain any changes that might happen as a result of their commission’s work.
”Even though I say ‘tell me about your environment,’ people say things that don’t have to do with the physical environment, many things have to do with the emotional aspect of design,” said Dr. Toby Israel, a design psychologist who uses psychology to design ideal places.
There is a hierarchy of needs and those form a self-actualized sense of place, said Dr. Israel, a township resident. With an interactive exercise, she illustrated that a great place is built in a pyramid form with shelter as the base, then psychological, social, aesthetic needs with the capstone being growth.
During the exercise, commission members were asked to list all the places they had ever lived, pick their favorite and then come up with words that described why they chose that particular place. It was then revealed that most of the people chose Princeton and when asked if those words described the borough or the township, they said the words described both.
”The reason I do this exercise is to get people on a common denominator,” said Dr. Israel. “Even though we say there are these differences between the borough and the township and everyone is holding their ground, when we do this kind of exercise what we find very often is that there is some common denominator that both groups can tap into.”
This common denominator is what will be needed for residents to support whatever the JSSCC decides to recommend, whether it be full consolidation or shared services. These common denominators can then be used to create a united vision for people.
Psychological needs and social needs cause great uproars, such as the Dinky, she said, and a greater understanding and sensitivity to those issues will help the JSSCC explain whatever recommendations they make to residents.
To get around obstacles, the commission was encouraged to set goals.
”You’re being proactive and get ahead of the criticism,” said Dr. Israel. “What you do come up with, regardless of consolidate or no consolidate, you have a comprehensive plan based on community feedback about what is important for them to feel the attachment.”
The group spent considerable time discussing the perceived differences between the borough and the township and discovered the differences are real and they are values for people who live in each municipality.
”I just discovered something for me, at least that is when I hear people talk about … ‘boroughness’ one of the things I want to do is try to wash it away. It exists in your mind and it isn’t real,” said Anton Lahnston, chair of the JSSCC. “That’s not the way to go. The way to go is you’re right, there are some differences and we’re concerned about those and we want to preserve those actually because they’re values.”
Working with these values will be key for the commission, no matter what happens.
”If I were you, I would try to come up with a creative way to honor people’s territoriality and sense of neighborhood because I think that is basic human nature and has a lot of positive things about it,” said Dr. Israel. “And I’d find a way once you have the vision to create a legislative body that allows people to have communal representation as well.”
The group has already recommended the borough form of government after getting the eight forms of government allowed under New Jersey laws, said Bernie Miller, commission member.

