Permit parking plan is not fair to Princeton residents

Dear Editor:

At present, the general perception is that the Princeton Council is all about just getting more money for Princeton, and monetary benefits for businesses, by hook or by crook, by placing even greater financial burdens on residents, as well as making their lives a misery of complications and inconvenience – and doing so in very problematical ways that also promise yet more problems and complications in the future.  The Princeton Council’s lack of planning in the past, as well as not at all planning for the future, does not bode well for our town. 

The council needs to completely re-think this whole mess. They need to make sure that there is available commercial parking for all past business projects, and also for all future projects, before they are built. Just continuously expanding the town’s need for parking while doing nothing to prepare for that and then expecting already overtaxed residents to suffer the consequences, both monetarily (by new fees and financial demands) and by having to survive in, and cope with deteriorating neighborhoods is not fair or equitable in any way. Enough!

The Parking Permit Task Force, as well as the Council, needed to listen carefully to the many voices of Princeton residents. Residents have felt increasingly vulnerable and attacked during the past year by the secretive decrees, fees, complications, and proposals that have been suddenly sprung on them, with a very evident lack of transparency, and in many cases with hardly any effort to even inform residents about what was being proposed. Last year, when passing around flyers, we were shocked at how few people had any idea any of this was even happening and we saw how upset people were when they found out about it. This has generated a total lack of faith and trust in the Council’s goodwill towards anyone but rich business people. That trust must be rebuilt.

If David Cohen and the other council members want to do something productive, let them start working on finding good commercial business parking possibilities for both employees and customers, for past projects, and for any future projects that may be planned and approved by the town. 

Alice Artzt
Hawthorne Avenue