In the race for Princeton Council, Democrat Adam Bierman is running as a native son of a community where he has spent most of his life.
“The town’s at another what I say is a benchmark in its existence,” he said in an interview. “It’s becoming a major metro destination area and it’s the cultural capital of New Jersey.”
Bierman is one of five Democrats running in the primary June 5. The two winners of that contest will advance to the general election in the fall for the two council seats up this year.
He described himself as an “independent thinker” who has a “quiet tenacity to carry through with policy.” He said he supports getting municipal taxes as low as possible.
Bierman, 58, is from Princeton. He graduated from Princeton High School and attended Rutgers University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international affairs and public policy. Married with one daughter, he works as a teacher at a school for teenage mothers.
He has never run for political office before, although he has been active in local Democratic politics and with organized labor at his job.
“One thing I do know, politics is the art of the possible, not the perfect,” he said.
During the interview, Bierman lauded the job being done by the Princeton Police Department.
“I find the relationship with the community has improved in terms of outreach,” he said of the police.
Bierman said he favors continuing the town’s policy of limited cooperation between the police and federal immigration authorities.
To address traffic, he suggested extending the time the municipal bus service runs, so it is more frequent during the day. He would also like to see the service have an express route and what he called a “slower route.”
As part of his policy positions, he favors having bike lanes, getting more financial contributions from local nonprofit organizations, and building more parking decks.
On meeting the town’s affordable housing requirement, he said Princeton University holds a big key. At the university-owned Butler tract, a now vacant tract of land Nassau Hall eventually will develop, Bierman suggested giving the university “higher density” and “they give us more affordable housing.”
“Then, ideally, it would be really nice if they would also dedicate some of that housing, besides graduate students and professors … to people who work there,” he said.
Asked his view of relations between the town and Nassau Hall, Bierman described himself as a “townie who bleeds orange” and said, “I love the university.”
“There are many positives with town/gown relations,” he said in pointing to how the university is the largest employer in Mercer County.
The university and the municipality are nearing the end of a seven-year agreement that began in 2014 and through which the university makes voluntary financial contributions to the town. The agreement runs through 2020, with the university providing a little more than $3.2 million this year.
When asked his view of how much he thought the university should contribute in future years, Bierman declined to give a dollar amount. Nor would he say whether he thought Nassau Hall should be contributing more money.
“When I’m running for this office, I have to listen to all sides before I make a definitive statement,” he said. “I can’t do that yet. When I’m on the board, I definitely will.”
On the struggles of retail businesses in town, Bierman said he does not know enough yet to say whether rents are too high or not high enough. He raised the prospect of working with businesses and landlords about having a rent “ceiling” during the initial years a business is open. He also cannot say for certain whether retail stores will disappear entirely from town.
“To me, the (Princeton) Shopping Center is my downtown anyway, for a lot of us locals,” he said.
Council members Lance Liverman and Heather H. Howard are not seeking re-election. All six council seats are held by Democrats.