To the Editor:

When I recently visited the grave of my deceased daughter, I discovered something that would leave any family heartbroken and disturbed: the owners of the Princeton Cemetery had torn down the twin miniature pine trees that flagged her headstone. My wife and I planted these trees 18 years ago when our daughter passed away. Seeing them uprooted and destroyed left us reliving this very painful period in time. In telling my family what happened, they were moved to tears. more

To the Editor:

We are writing in reference to the article [“Neighbors Stress Traffic Concerns At Meetings on Seminary Project,” Town Topics, December 12, p. 5] that covered a recent meeting sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee on the proposed redevelopment of Princeton Theological Seminary. The article indicated that residents of streets that border the PTS campus “seemed especially concerned about traffic issues that already exist.” more

To the Editor:

Three thoughts about the metergate issue roiling our little town, summarized as: 1. Thank you; 2. Please explain; 3. Watch out.

Thank you: I am grateful to our friends and neighbors who serve on our municipal boards and commissions and committees. While they are spending their evenings on folding chairs in brightly lighted meeting rooms to grapple with civic matters great and small, I am enjoying a book and glass of wine in my favorite chair in front of the fire. Theirs is largely thankless work, and so I thank them now. more

To the Editor:

Clients of mine have all negatively commented on the new meters, with the exception of the three-hour limit.

I believe they said meters in town are inactive until 9 a.m. so we locals can run errands. Great! Besides coffee shops and bakeries, what’s open?

I am sad to see the parking card has been run out of town; many people who supported the card are now stuck with credits they can’t use.

“Change” needs to happen.

Elaine Staats

EYStaats

Moore Street

To the Editor:

The new parking meters are a catastrophe! Not only have the fees and enforced hours become much more expensive (for explanation see Park Princeton ad, Town Topics, December 12, p. 9: “the new rate structure  . . .  factored in the cost of the new equipment”), these parking meters are also unusable. One cannot read the instructions on the new pay stations in the dark, and as it is getting dark now at 4:30 p.m., but performances start only at 8 p.m., when one has to pay now, one is totally helpless. Looking for meters that could be fed individually, as proudly advertised, either with coins or credit cards, when I recently had tickets for the Richardson Auditorium University concert, I was confronted with every single parking meter up and down University Place and its cross streets covered with a plastic bag saying “Parking by Permit only.” So forget about coins and credit cards, there is zero use for them. more

To the Editor:

I just read Library Director Brett Bonfield’s celebration of walking over driving in the weekly message from the Princeton Public Library. But some of us don’t enjoy the luxury/privilege of walking to where we have to be. Although I have a Princeton zip code, I actually live in Lawrence Township, a little too far to walk to enjoy the attractions of Princeton. I appreciate the library’s Spring Street garage accommodation, but at times it’s full, or not convenient to where I need to go. more

To the Editor:

Being a merchant is difficult. Being a merchant in Princeton is extra difficult. Town Council and the mayor’s office can’t possibly spend any time in town. The new parking debacle is an affront to our merchants and citizens. It’s frightening that our leadership made significant investments in parking studies, focus groups and questionnaires and then proceeded with the poorest implementation that I could imagine. We have a different parking system, not a state-of-the-art parking system. Let me count the ways:

• We lost the grace period.
• Rates increased significantly, now a cup of coffee is a dollar more — 30 minute meters — 27 minutes for a dollar — no grace period, so you put more in.
• You can’t get unused time back like you could with the old parking card.
• There is a 35-cent courtesy charge to use the app and it doesn’t work for less that $1.
• We lost two parking spaces at every crosswalk.
• We lost about 25 parking spaces to new loading zones.
• Trucks still block a traffic lane or park in metered spots, exacerbating the loss of paid parking spaces.
• The parking app is different than the one at the Dinky and almost everywhere else from here to Philadelphia.

Wake up, it’s not a success, it’s a failure. Talk to us please.

 Lou Valente

Hunter Road

To the Editor:

A critical wetland structure on the Princeton Ridge is under imminent threat. These wetlands — which support a tributary to Mountain Lakes and habitat for a wide variety of wildlife — stretch across several acres near the corner of Ridgeview Road and the Great Road.

Last year, a developer built a 5,000-square-foot home on the corner property at 410 Ridgeview directly abutting wetland areas delineated by New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Now the same developer is asking Princeton for permission to build another large home on the adjoining 3-acre lot at 394 Ridgeview Road. The property is zoned for 4-acre construction, so a variance from the town’s Zoning Board of Adjustment is needed before the project can proceed.

These wetlands should be preserved as an integral part of Princeton’s municipal sustainability plan. The property is covered in springs, which are the headwaters to Mountain Brook, a C-1 stream that flows past Stuart School and Tenacre into Mountain Lakes, Princeton’s reservoir. The area is covered by obligate wetland species such as skunk cabbage, rush, vestiges of cattail, sensitive fern, and phragmites.

These wetlands also provide important habitat for a plethora of salamanders, frogs, turtles, migratory songbirds, raptors, and wild turkeys. Neighbors have even reported seeing a bobcat, which is endangered in New Jersey. In addition, the property is a major corridor for deer that move daily between the forests on the north side of the Ridge into the Preserve and Mountain Lakes. If the wetlands are blocked with a fence, it can be anticipated deer will wander onto the Great Road in a school zone near the crest of the Ridge, creating a traffic hazard.

We urge members of the Zoning Board to uphold Princeton’s 4-acre zoning ordinance for this property. And we invite all who are concerned with the preservation of the Princeton Ridge to attend the Zoning Board meeting this Wednesday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. Please join us in protecting these critical wetlands on the Ridge and the remarkable creatures they sustain.

Christopher Barr

Ridgeview Road

To the Editor:

Concerning the December 11, 2018, $27 million Board of Education referendum, some possibly “overzealous” persons, not prodded by curiosity, have said that people like myself, who were against the original bloated, ill-conceived $137 million referendum were “against our kids,” “against public education,” or even “terrorists.”

Normally, I would not defend myself against kneejerk rhetoric; however, this time I will. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a proud graduate of PHS.  My mom taught in the then-PRS for over 30 years. My dad served as president of the School Board. Myself and others were just against a financially catastrophic $137 million referendum, which  was proposed on the heels of the poorly executed and disastrous 2002 school referendum. more

To the Editor:

I read with interest about the Princeton Council’s approval of the Zoning Board’s ordinance establishing residential zoning standards regarding demolishing existing houses and rebuilding structures that ignore the ecology, character, and scope of Princeton’s neighborhoods.

In 2014, our small publishing house, Wild River Books, published a novel, The Megabuilders of Queenston Park, by poet, translator, novelist, and Princeton University Professor Emeritus Edmund “Mike” Keeley, that chronicles what happens to a family when the house next door is torn down and a McMansion built in its place. more