September 16, 2015

Is Our Local Government Discouraging Or Ignoring Input from Its Constituents?

To the Editor:

Early this year, the Princeton government began work on a Bicycle Master Plan. That is commendable, given our future of declining fossil fuel supplies. On the Princeton website, there is even a questionnaire for Princeton residents to print out and complete. But the questionnaire has no instructions for where and when to submit it! I have not found any other related web pages with such instructions.  Indeed, the work done on the Master Plan appears to have had no public input.  Is this another example of our local government discouraging or ignoring input from its constituents?

Furthermore, there is a timeline graphic web page with a meeting scheduled for this month, but the date is not given. With this month almost half over, is the meeting announcement going to be on such short notice so that when nobody shows up, our leaders can claim a lack of public interest in developing a bicycle plan?

There is now a NJDOT grant to Princeton of which a portion was allocated to bicycle planning. If the government can claim there is no interest, can the grant funds be shifted from bicycle plans to other items the government deems more important?

I think it is important for local government to affirmatively act to stay within the trust horizon of their constituents, especially at a time when larger governments and other institutions are losing popular confidence.

Of course, my concerns might be unfounded, in which case the Town Council and whoever prepared the questionnaire just did not give it the forethought it deserved.

Ronald C. Nielsen

Humbert Street