Volume LXXIII, Number 46
Princeton Triangle Club Presents ONCE UPONZI TIME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Panel Discussion Tackles Hunger and Homelessness . . . . . . . 12 Forum Explores “Journalism in a Time of Doubt and Disinformation" . . . . . . . 7 Westminster Choir Begins 100th Anniversary Celebration . . . . . . . . . 21 PU Women’s Hoops Starts Berube Era 2-0 as Littlefield Stars . . . . . . . 32 Girls’ Soccer Legend Sarnak Entering PHS Hall of Fame . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Celebrating Harold Bloom (1930-2019), Shakespeare, and a Falstaffian Mystery Guest . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .22, 23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 27 Classified Ads . . . . . . 40 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Music/Theater . . . . . . 24 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 30 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 39 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 40 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Princeton is Prominent In First Central Jersey Restaurant Week A few decades ago, Princeton might have been considered a culinary wasteland. That description could hardly apply today. Food has become a key attraction in the downtown and surrounding area, so much so that Princeton Restaurant Week was launched last March. An expanded version, Central Jersey Restaurant Week, is currently underway through Sunday, offering special fixed price menus at several local eateries and others in locations including New Brunswick, Hamilton, Pennington, and Lawrenceville. Lunches are $20; dinners $35. “The restaurants that took part in the first Princeton Restaurant Week were really happy with it, and some said they had their best week ever,” said Michelle Pirone Lambros, whose Princeton Promotions company is behind the effort. “Peter Crowley [president and CEO of the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce] asked me to do something broader than just Princeton, which is how the Central Jersey week came to be.” The Chamber and the MacLean Agency are partnering with Princeton Promotions on Central Jersey Restaurant Week. Lambros, who was recently elected to Princeton Council, said plans are for the local event to continue each March, while the Central Jersey week will be an annual event each November. “We didn’t want them to conflict with each other,” she said. “Right now is a little bit of a lull before the holidays, which we thought would work well for the Central Jersey week.” Local restaurants participating in the current promotion include The Alchemist & Barrister, Blue Point Grill, Despana, Elite 5 Sushi & Grill, Iron & Ivy, La Mezzaluna, Lan Ramen, Local Greek, Metro North, PJ’s Pancakes (Kingston), Salt Creek Grille, Springdale Golf Club, Yankee Doodle Tap Room, Tortuga’s Mexican Village, Trattoria Procaccini, Winberie’s, and Witherspoon Grill. Recent restaurant openings in Princeton include Kristine’s, a French bistro on Hinds Plaza; Elite 5 Sushi & Grill, next to Avalon Princeton on Witherspoon Street; Spice Grill, an Indian restaurant at 182 Nassau Street; KBG Korean Barbecue & Grill next door at 180 Nassau Street; Thai Pin, which shares the 180 Nassau Street address; Roots Ocean Prime, in Continued on Page 10
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
BOE Election Results Offer Mixed Messages Four highly qualified candidates competed in last week’s election for three seats on the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE), as the PPS faces the challenges of education in the 21st century, along with overcrowding, rising enrollments, and budget shortfalls that last year necessitated laying off teachers. Princeton residents were asked to vote for three of the four, and they divided their 11,627 votes closely among the candidates, with all four finishing within four percentage points: Susan Kanter at 27.15 percent (3,157 votes), Dafna Kendal at 25.35 percent (2,948 votes), Debbie Bronfeld at 24.04 percent (2,795 votes), and Greg Stankiewicz at 23.07 percent (2,682 votes). These results are still unofficial, with provisional ballots remaining to be counted, but the Mercer County Clerk’s Office is expected to certify the final votes today. As in last year’s election, when two newcomers won seats and Kendal lost her post after her first term on the BOE, the outsiders fared better than the incumbents, with new candidate Kanter and former BOE member Kendal out-polling incumbents Bronfeld, who held onto her post with the third-most votes, and incum-
bent BOE Vice President Stankiewicz, who finished fourth and will be stepping down when his term ends at the end of the year. Is there a message here for the Princeton schools, or for the planning firm recently hired to help address challenges of growing student populations and aging schools? Do BOE members and school officials have a mandate of some sort from the people of Princeton? Three of the candidates and the president of the BOE shared their thoughts on those questions in response to email requests for comment.
Emphasizing the importance of transparency and community involvement in decision-making, Stankiewicz nonetheless doubted that a particular message had emerged from the elections. “I think it is impossible to draw conclusions about an election where three of the four candidates are incumbents or former incumbents,” he said. “It is also hard to do so when turnout is low, and where four percentage points separate the highest and lowest vote recipients.” Stankiewicz went on to note, “Throughout the campaign, I heard strong community support for the current Board’s Continued on Page 8
Forum Seeks End to Gerrymandering, “To Make Democracy Work Better” in NJ
With gerrymandering threatening to undermine the goal of fair elections in New Jersey and throughout the country, the League of Women Voters (LWV) of New Jersey, along with the Fair Districts New Jersey Coalition and the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, will be hosting a town hall, “Ending Gerrymandering with People-Powered Reforms,” on Thursday, November 14 at 4 p.m. in Princeton University’s McCosh Hall, Room 28.
Three members — one a Republican, one a Democrat, one unaffiliated — of California’s first independent, citizen-led Redistricting Commission will be featured speakers, with Princeton University Neuroscience Professor and Princeton Gerrymandering Project (PGP) Director Sam Wang moderating. “One person, one vote is essential to our democracy,” said PGP National Continued on Page 11
CELEBRATING 150 YEARS: Princeton faced Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium as part of the 150th anniversary of the first college football game, played between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869 . Attendees share their favorite Princeton football memories in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . For more on the game, see page 31 . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)