Volume LXXIII, Number 16
Marquand Park Opens Children’s Arboretum . . . .5 Princeton Fire Department to Hire Six Career Firefighters . . . . . . . . . . .11 Conference on Westminster Sale Encourages Those Opposed . . . . . . . . . . . .11 PU Teacher Prep Program Marks 50 Years . . . . . . .12 A Black Hole Voyage, from Zarathustra to Dr. Who . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 PU Men’s Volleyball Reaching New Heights, Hosting EIVA . . . . . . . 29 Junior Star Schofield Helps PDS Girls’ Lax Get in Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Ben Quinones Helps PHS Boys’ Lax Get on Winning Track . . . . . . 33 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .22, 23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classified Ads . . . . . . 39 Dining & Entertainment . . . 24 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Music/Theater . . . . . . 16 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 28 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 37 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 39 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 38 School Matters . . . . . . 10 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Local Groups Support Neighbors in Need; LALDEF is “Swamped”
The Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) and other local groups that work with recent immigrants are seeking support in the form of volunteers and financial contributions to help neighbors in need and at risk. “We’re looking after people who don’t have a voice,” said LALDEF Board Chair and Princeton University Sociology Professor Patricia Fernandez-Kelly to a group of more than 30 supporters last week. “We’re part of a national movement. We’re in an aspirational country, and we represent those aspirations.” Praising the efforts and commitment of the group of concerned citizens seeking to help, Fernandez-Kelly emphasized the necessity of overcoming barriers of generation, class, nationality, and language in order to make connections. “This speaks to basic American values of religion, solidarity, and hospitality,” she said. “It is important to join forces with recent immigrants.” With an eye to current conflicts in Washington over immigration policy, Fernandez-Kelly warned, “We will see matters get worse before they get better.” At Princeton High School (PHS) there are a number of unaccompanied students, mostly from Guatemala, who have few connections to the Princeton community, Fernandez-Kelly pointed out. “These youngsters must work to support themselves, and many are at risk of dropping out of school because they need jobs and must pay back debts incurred by their move to the United States,” she said. “They need advocates to speak for them.” PHS ESL teacher Karen Gates and Bilingual Parent Liaison and FUTURO Program Coordinator Liliana Morenilla spoke about new efforts in advocacy on behalf of students. Gates is also looking for volunteers in her classroom, where she has 18 students, many unable to speak English. “We could use one-onone for all of them,” she said. “There is also a mental health issue here. These kids are traumatized. This is a group that has no one advocating for them.” Norbert Wetzel, psychologist and founder of Princeton Family Institute, spoke about the urgent need for medical and mental health services in the local immigrant community. He emphasized how immigrants face dislocation, Continued on Page 8
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Council Considers Some Parking Revisions At a special work session Monday evening devoted to the new parking plan, Princeton Council focused on recommendations made by the Princeton Merchants Association (PMA) and discussed making some revisions to the controversial system recently put in place at downtown meters and kiosks. No formal action was taken. Mayor Liz Lempert opened the meeting by thanking merchants for their suggestions. “We know this has not been the smoothest of rollouts,” she said. “We all care about our downtown. We want our merchants to be successful.” Retail has suffered since the new meters and new rates were put into effect a few months ago, merchants have told the Council. The results of a PMA survey posted on its website show that the plan has had a “chillingly negative impact on the businesses in town through the holiday season and the first months of 2019,” members of the organization wrote in a letter to the editor of local news outlets. Taking several of the PMA’s suggestions for changes into account, Lempert said the Council is considering extending
the time limit in the central business zone from two to three hours. A ten-minute grace period will likely be added. Rates may be lowered slightly in the central zone, but increased in all-day parking spaces to offset that decrease, a move she called “really challenging. It’s important that we monitor usage and come back and take another review.” Fees for using the app associated with the new system could be lower, and meters could be put back into loading zones,
such as the one in front of Brooks Brothers on Palmer Square, to allow for afterhours parking. The PMA’s proposal for progressive parking rates is not feasible because of the expense of installing additional sensors, Municipal Administrator Marc Dashield said. Dorothea Von Moltke of Labyrinth Books asked if the rate for parking at meters in the central district could be lowered from $2 an hour to $1.85. Lempert pointed Continued on Page 7
YWCA Collaborates with Kidsbridge On Anti-Bullying for Preschoolers
At the YWCA Princeton’s annual Stand Against Racism event last year, CEO Judy Hutton made a disturbing discovery. “I was talking to Lynne Azarchi, the executive director of Kidsbridge, and she told me that bullying and racism actually can manifest itself at age 3,” Hutton said this week. “That blew me away.” Hutton started to pay attention at the YWCA’s preschool classes, at which some 40 3-year-olds are enrolled. There
are 84 children in the entire program, from infants to 5-year-olds. “I saw that the teachers were working on this,” she said. “It’s real. So I told Lynne, we need to do a workshop on this for kids and for parents.” The resulting collaboration with the Ewing-based Kidsbridge Tolerance Center will introduce an anti-bullying program to the YWCA’s preschool next month, for Continued on Page 10
WORTH THE WAIT: Music lovers lined up at Princeton Record Exchange on South Tulane Street on Saturday, the 12th annual National Record Store Day . The all-day celebration featured the release of hundreds of limited-edition vinyl titles . Participants share what they were hoping to find in this week’s Town Talk on page 6 . (Photo by Emily Reeves)
WE BUY VINYL RECORDS & CDS OVER 100,000 NEW & USED TITLES IN STOCK
KOPP’S CYCLE 38 Spring St. · 609-924-1052 “Oldest Bicycle Shop in America” est 1891
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