To the Editor:

The fact that some find our kiosks too exuberantly democratic is no excuse for Council to accept the ‘partnership” proposed by the Chamber of Commerce and recently promoted by some of its corporate members. In this deal, which deprives the Community of a long standing forum open freely to all, the Chamber sells access to business directories that replace the kiosks. Local taxpaying merchants then buy advertising for inclusion, while Chamber members, some of whom pay no Princeton taxes, are included automatically. Merchants unable to afford the rates set at the Chamber’s discretion would be unrepresented in the directory.

Were the new directories on private property with the Chamber as owner or concessionaire, this economic discrimination would represent business as usual: one must pay to play. But they are not on private property; they are on the town’s major public thoroughfare at the busiest corners. There, they would inevitably be perceived by visitors, for whom they are primarily designed, as “official.” And those businesses, only, who had the means to buy their way in would be perceived as endorsed by local government, thus violating the strict neutrality government should observe in the marketplace.

Council needs to reexamine this issue. If the time has come to tame the kiosks somewhat, there are surely ways to do it that preserve their accessibility. The Chamber of Commerce ought still to have a way to advertise itself and its members. All it should need is a pushpin.

Leo Arons

Chambers Street