Volume LXXIV, Number 23
Young Princetonians Pages 9-15 Rider Requests to Repurpose Bond for Westminster Move . . . . 5 New JWMS Assistant Principals Bring StudentCentered Focus . . . . . . 7 With Curve Flattened for Now, Opening Safely is Top Priority . . . . . . . . 7 Dancing to the Music of Time on Ginsberg's Birthday . . . . . . . . . . 18 McCarter Presents “In Conversation with Cynthia Nixon” . . . . . 21 Tiger Women’s Hockey Goalie Neatby Joining Swedish Pro Team . . . 23 PDS Boys’ Lax Had Sights on Another MCT Title Before Season Canceled . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ben Quinones Still Leading for PHS Boys’ Lax in Lost Season . . . 25 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .16, 17 Classified Ads . . . . . . 29 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 27 Performing Arts . . . . . 22 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 29 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Primary Care Clinic To Open in January At Former Packet Site Capital Health Systems will open a primary care facility early next year at 300 Witherspoon Street, the former headquarters of The Princeton Packet newspaper. The new clinic, which will have four to six family and internal medicine doctors available five days a week, was announced Monday evening at a meeting of Princeton Council. Primary Care at Princeton will also offer evening hours twice weekly, and sameday appointments, said Councilwoman Michelle Pirone Lambros, who has been involved in the negotiations with Capital Health and the property owner, Helena May. The Packet moved out of the building three years ago. “They expressed to us that, in the past seven or eight years, they were looking for a place in a central location in Princeton, with good parking,” Lambros said of Capital Health. “Ironically, we’ve been looking for them as a solution to [not having] a walkable clinic since Princeton Hospital closed and moved to Plainsboro.” Lambros said the town is working with Capital Health to offer pre-natal care, wellbaby care, and wellness care for adults who are uninsured or under-insured. The arrangement also connects clients with physicians at Capital Health’s main facility in Hopewell, and will offer transport there if needed. Having family practice physicians so accessible to residents is “fantastic,” said Princeton Health Officer Jeffrey Grosser on Tuesday. “Family medicine physicians are, in our mind, vital to the community,” he said. “You can’t argue with the ability to walk to the doctor. There was a bus line and there is taxi service to the hospital in Plainsboro, but being able to get seen quickly is sometimes important for families. What we’re hoping is that they’ll be able to serve our population in a way that is more effective, because people won’t have to leave town.” Lambros said Tuesday that she had reached out to different landlords in the Witherspoon-Jackson area to see if there was space available for a clinic. “We were calling it urgent care at the time,” she said. “Then, this just kind of came together. I was introduced through the [real estate] agent Rich Gittleman to Helena May, and we met about six months ago. She was talking at that time about how she was Continued on Page 4
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Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Eisgruber Urges Graduates: “Chart a New Course” Princeton University’s 273rd graduation ceremony on Sunday was celebratory and mostly upbeat, but, as University President Christopher L. Eisgruber said in a taped virtual welcome to the 1,250 undergraduates receiving bachelor’s degrees and 492 graduate students receiving Ph.D. or final master’s degrees, it was “not the ceremony anyone would have wished for.” Standing fully robed in academic regalia at the podium with the façade of Nassau Hall and its two sculpted tigers behind him, Eisgruber looked out on an empty lawn, though thousands were present virtually for the event on Sunday at 1 p.m. Dean of the College Jill Dolan, who joined Eisgruber to formally present the candidates for degrees, called on the online audience to join her in imagining a more normal scenario. “I hope you too can see this imagined community who are cheering you today,” she told the graduates. In his speech to the graduates, Eisgruber acknowledged the enormous challenges for this generation, which has been “touched by tragedy” and which graduates
in “much harder times” than their parents’ generation faced. “You have seen how fragile our world is,” he said, noting the losses that all had recently suffered. He went on, however, to emphasize that the most important question is “what will you do with this hardship? You have the opportunity to chart a new course. I hope you seize that opportunity.” And he closed by referring to a planned, in-person graduation for the class of 2020 in May 2021. “I look forward to congratulating
you in person next spring,” he said. In a statement, also issued on Sunday, Eisgruber commented on the killing of George Floyd and the importance of confronting racism. “We have witnessed yet again how this nation’s long legacy of racism continues to damage and destroy the lives of black people,” he wrote. “The COVID-19 pandemic itself has killed black and brown Americans at higher rates than other groups, magnifying disparities in Continued on Page 19
Princeton Police Increase Presence In Response to Nearby Violence As a result of outbreaks of violence in cities across the nation and, especially, in Trenton, the Princeton Police Department has increased its visibility and presence, especially in the Central Business District and at Princeton Shopping Center, where looting could take place. “First, we want to ensure that those who peacefully protest are safe and protected from harm,” the department stated in a bulletin that was posted by the Princeton
Merchants Association this week. “Second, we hope that our presence will deter others from vandalizing our small businesses. Although we do not expect any problems to occur, we need to remain vigilant and be prepared in the event that things don’t go as planned.” The May 25 killing in Minneapolis of African American George Floyd by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt Continued on Page 19
ALL QUIET AT NASSAU HALL: On what would have been Princeton Reunions P-rade Day last Saturday, the Nassau Hall lawn remained mostly empty . A virtual P-rade was held instead . Princeton University’s 273rd commencement was also held virtually this year, with an in-person event planned for the Class of 2020 on campus next May . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)