To the Editor:
Defend Historic Princeton? Princeton for All? Both sides in this latest battle of Princeton have launched letters, signs, and the occasional accusation of bad faith or at least misguided ideals with the rest of us locals spectating as noncombatants and even occasionally caught in conversational crossfire. The warfare (so far metaphorical) has damaged the amity and comity of a place my family has appreciated calling home for almost a quarter century. That’s undesirable, and we should work to make a peace that all can accept in this matter.
Why not hold a vote on the issue? To forestall immediate responses to this missive about such a move violating the protocol of local governance, let me assure readers that I know how our town regulations work. But this is a big deal worth engineering an exception. Suspending the standard operating procedure for such a decision would allow clarification of the situation and a chance for a democratic solution.
Is the scale of the proposed development similar to the houses to be razed as one correspondent stated? Would the alternative proposed by the Defend folks be more beneficial to our town? How does the PILOT compare with what regular property taxes would yield in revenues? Such questions would get a better airing in a referendum on this matter. We trust voters to make the right decisions about School Board budgets, so why not allow them to have a say on this contentious matter?
As part of the No Kings protest this past Saturday, I was happy to see many signs touting democracy. With a vote on this local matter we could put our ballots where our posters are. A failure to do so in a town that has long been ruled by a one party machine suggests a troubling lack of trust in its citizens.