To The Editor:
We are supporting Marina Rubina for a seat on Princeton Council for four reasons.
The most pressing issues facing Princeton all derive from land use and housing. None of the other candidates running for Council have Marina’s depth of experience in these areas. Marina has designed over 30 single family homes and over 100 condos and affordable apartments along with restaurants and offices in Princeton in the past 15 years. She brought the lawsuit which allowed for the building of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which provide housing for people of more modest means to live in our community. She not only talked the talk; she walked the walk to make Princeton more affordable for those who had neither the wealth nor the income to purchase a million-dollar home nor could qualify for subsidized housing. She saw that there were additional avenues to house the missing middle, and she acted.
Marina is an independent voice. She speaks her mind and adds a point of view that isn’t always heard. Rather than go along with the prevailing views among the members of Council, she will openly ask the hard questions — which always result in better policies and ordinances. Views not challenged in public too often lead to mistakes that can be avoided if addressed before, rather than after, a policy is adopted.
Marina represents fresh blood with new ideas, and will be a welcome addition to Council. As an architect and designer of affordable housing in Princeton, she knows enough to help redesign codes and regulations to make it easier for homeowners to build modest additions and enable small businesses to open in town without the lengthy and expensive delays that make things so challenging for these small operators. As a small business owner herself, she has the financial and budgeting expertise to examine Princeton’s budget and help guide the Council to thoughtful and sustainable decisions.
Finally, no one has personally committed so much to making a success of her tenure on Council as has Marina. She will give up her architecture practice in Princeton in order to avoid any conflicts of interest. This personal financial sacrifice in order to serve our town free of any conflicts assures us that she is seriously committed to the time-consuming job of sitting on Council.
Marina is ready to step up to the big leagues and continue to more forcefully work to make Princeton a better and better-managed municipality for all of the taxpayers.