Volume LXX, Number 12
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No Endorsement Made By Local Democrats For Council Seats
Previewing Bryn MawrWellesley Book Sale with the Other Donald, Coleridge, Chekhov . . 11 Experience Music Up Close at the Late Night Chamber Jam . . . . . . 18 Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project Presents Unique Concert . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Wrestler Harner Earns All-American Status . . 27 PHS Junior Hamit Primed for Experience of a Lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . 33
U .S . Senator Cory Booker Is Coming to Labyrinth March 28 to Talk About His New Book . . . . . 14 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 23 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads . . . . . . . 42 Music/Theater . . . . . . 18 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 10 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 26 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 36 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Service Directory . . . . 39 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 42 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
At a gathering of the Princeton Community Democratic Club on Sunday evening, members voted on which candidates to endorse for two open seats on Princeton Council. But none of the four hopefuls — Anne Neumann, Leticia Fraga, Tim Quinn, or incumbent Jenny Crumiller — were able to win the 60 percent of the votes needed for an official endorsement, even after a runoff vote. Ms. Crumiller, Mr. Quinn, and Ms. Neumann were able to secure the support of the PCDO, but not a full endorsement. Ms. Fraga did not win the 40 percent needed for that designation. The local Democratic municipal committee was scheduled to vote on the candidates at a meeting Tuesday night, March 22. A total of 166 members of the PCDO cast votes at the March 20 meeting, which was held at the Jewish Center of Princeton. In the first ballot, Ms. Crumiller received 80 votes, Mr. Quinn 79, Ms. Neumann 54, and Ms. Fraga 52. The runoff results showed 93 for Ms. Crumiller, 88 for Mr. Quinn, and 68 for Ms. Neumann. The forum began with a brief statement by Mayor Liz Lempert, who is running unopposed for re-election. Ms. Lempert cited two guiding principles that have steered her through her first four years in office: doing more with less, and a responsibility to “lift all boats” and work on policies that keep a commitment to future generations. Moderated by Nicole Plett of the League of Women Voters, the program continued with statements by each of the four candidates. High on the list of priorities was the issue of affordability. Ms. Crumiller said one of her goals is to enhance Princeton’s small town character and finish the work she has been doing to help merge the ordinances of the former Borough and Township. She also stressed that Princeton’s zoning needs re-examination. “We have a teardown epidemic,” she said, adding that keeping the tax rate low and continuing to provide non-market affordable housing will make it possible for residents to remain rather than moving away. Ms. Fraga cited her experience leading a movement to establish an independent civil rights commission in Princeton, and mentioned food insecurity, the Continued on Page 8
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Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Old Post Office New Home for Triumph?
Triumph Brewery is looking to relocate from the Nassau Street location it has occupied for two decades to the Palmer Square building that was home to the Princeton post office until a few months ago. Last week, 20 Palmer Square East, the entity that bought the historic post office building in 2013, filed a preliminary site plan with the town to install a 297-seat restaurant and brew pub at that location. David Eichler of the California-based company, and Adam Rechnitz, owner of Triumph Brewery, confirmed Tuesday that Triumph is the operator targeted for the building. “It’s such a great, prominent building,” said Mr. Eichler. “It presents such an opportunity for this incredible space. Just think about how it can enliven Palmer Sauare.” Mr. Rechnitz added, “The business [Triumph] has been at 138 Nassau Street for 21 years, and it’s getting a little long in the tooth. It’s time to give it a major facelift. The opportunities are fantastic to think about.” The building contains about 200 seats, he added. The former post office, built in 1937
and the oldest structure on the square, contains a mural done in 1939 entitled America Under the Palms by Karl Free. The mural, which became controversial because of the way it depicts Native Americans, will remain. The building includes space not only in the reception area patrons know well, but in the basement and the former mail sorting area. “Most of the public only saw the mail hall area,” Mr. Eichler said. “Behind that the sorting area had ceilings 20 feet high. All of that gets opened up and is part of the
layout the architect has worked on.” The Princeton firms Mills and Schnoering Architects and Richardson Smith Architects have been working on the plan. Mills and Schnoering has been responsible for the exterior, while Richardson Smith has been involved in design for the interior. The plans call for the former loading dock on Palmer Square East to be turned into the main entrance. “The loading dock has been really pedestrian-unfriendly,” said Mr. Eichler. Continued on Page 7
Princeton’s Andrew Wiles Wins Abel Prize For “Stunning Proof” of Fermat’s Theorem Andrew Wiles, Oxford University mathematics professor and professor emeritus at Princeton, has received the 2016 Abel Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for “opening a new era in number theory” in 1994 with his “stunning proof” of Fermat’s Last Theorem. The most famous long-running unsolved problem in mathematics, Fermat’s Last Theorem was a problem that
had stumped the brightest mathematicians in the world since it was first conjectured by French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1637. The theorem states that there cannot be any whole number solutions to the equation xn+yn=zn if n is greater than 2. The 62-year-old Mr. Wiles was a professor in Princeton’s mathematics department from 1982 until 2011, before Continued on Page 10
EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE: The chocolate bunny at Thomas Sweet is the star of this week’s Town Talk about favorite Easter basket items . Shown here are Thomas Sweet’s Kate Snyderman (L) and general manager Lily Canaday . (Photo by Charles R . Plohn)