To the Editor:
Goldin Says WW
Missed Its Chance
West Windsor has missed a tremendous opportunity. After spending nearly $1 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, the West Windsor Council has ignored the unanimous advice of its own planning, traffic and legal experts.
The Council instead endorsed a redevelopment plan that has no economic viability and will never be built, giving residents more of the same “politics as usual.”
The absence of leadership to create a better West Windsor does not reflect the will of the majority of the residents who want a real Main Street, improved traffic flow, and parking for 1,”000 residents at current monthly rates.##M:[more]##
Steve Goldin
Let’s Compromise
What I see is a real lack of leadership on the part of the West Windsor Township Council. To their credit, the members have invested much time and energy in this process and they must be highly frustrated, but the time has come to either move one with a compromise plan — or let’s just drop it.
There have been years of “public input” on the issue. It is time for the elected officials to step up to the plate and present THE plan to the public. There are too many individuals in this township who, for some reason, believe they have the “divine insight” into what is “correct” for everyone and therefore their idea is the “best idea” for the township.
Here’s an idea: How about we take a look at some surrounding communities’ efforts at building a town center. We can start with Robbinsville and Plainsboro, pick the best attributes from each, add a parking garage, some housing, and call it a day. Granted, it will not appease everyone, but no plan will. So let’s all compromise and move on. How’s that for a plan?
Jack P. Honore III
West Windsor
A Common Sense Review Of WW Government
With today’s critics not worth a dime a dozen, three West Windsor Councilmen were elected two years ago on a platform of “NO TO 1000” dwelling units at the Princeton Junction Train Station. Voters fell for the party line that neither 953 units nor 1800 units are actually 1000. Omissions of existing approvals were conveniently masked from the public purview.
Rather than relying on community-voter-taxpayer input, the entire Council conspired this past summer to preclude West Windsor taxpayers and voters from weighing in either to support or reject the actions in a November, 2008, referendum. No signatures were necessary for Council to place a multi-question referendum on the ballot. Fear was voiced that Council “would look foolish after spending all this money” on redevelopment plans.
As usual, West Windsor’s sitting Council and mayor have put themselves first with a complete lack of transparency. Requests were made during videotaped West Windsor Council public comments to provide a full accounting of taxpayer expenditures to accompany the qualitative summary made by the WW Administration. On two occasions, I personally requested Council and its Mayor-Administration start with the initial $330,”000 appropriation and document its tortuous spending.
The lack of common sense from our West Windsor politicians is astonishing. Despite unenforceable threats from the State of New Jersey, its liberal courts, and an absurd Governor Corzine’s fiscal nightmare statewide to provide 104,”000 “affordable housing” units over the next 10 years, West Windsor’s lawyer-heavy and pro-developer Council wants to encourage MORE housing when we already have a glut of state-wide and local housing.
On December 1 the Star-Ledger reported that “the (NJ) League of Municipalities is representing 250 towns in state court attempting to overturn court-ordered regulations created by the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) in the past year. The League argues the methodology that decided the number of affordable units each town should provide is flawed and property taxpayers will end up footing the bill for housing.
“… The state Office of Legislative Services insists it will cost $28 billion to provide the housing over the next 10 years, most or all of which could fall on the backs of taxpayers.”
Question: What will preclude yet another vote-seeking demagogue from issuing NEW housing requirements on communities that have acted responsibly to address their affordable housing? We have too many residents in NJ who pay no housing, no medical, no education, and no food expenses. When does it ever end? Where is this provided in the U.S. Constitution?
As shared with West Windsor Council and the Mayor on previous occasions:
There is a glut of housing in New Jersey with tens of thousands of foreclosures. Shouldn’t the state’s ‘affordable housing’ start with reducing the universe of foreclosed properties? Why are we digging a deeper financial hole for responsible taxpayers?
There is a glut of commercial office space in New Jersey (which hasn’t yet fully hit the media). The proposed office space near the Princeton Junction Station is more than TWICE the size of the still-vacant RexCorp property at Alexander Road and Route 1 North. Wait for the mall foreclosures!
There is a glut of retail space in New Jersey. Many retailers are in bankruptcy protection or liquidation because buyers are realizing we don’t need their foreign-produced junk! In the recent past, “supply created its own demand.” Congratulations to those who are breaking the cycle of conspicuous consumption.
Housing. Commercial Office Space. Retail. These three areas are the critical components of where West Windsor politicians have been operating in complete denial with a lack of fiscal accountability for the past couple of years.
Since we have effected “change” on the national political landscape, supporting a change in our local failed managerial autocrats cannot come too soon.
Miraculously WW Council “found” $150,”000 for additional dredging of the Grover’s Mill Pond, yet despite a $200,”000 grant couldn’t complete the sidewalk link and straighten the sharp, sloping curve on North Post Road to the Municipal Complex/Post Office/County Library. This should have been completed while the road was shut down for five months during the Alexander Road rotary construction, requiring no police presence, and while the necessary construction equipment/personnel was two football fields near.
The old Princeton Junction Firehouse is being repaired at taxpayer expense for an underperforming Arts Council. Ask the WW Arts Council to share its “books,” showing its income and fundraising prior to expecting a taxpayer bailout.
Expecting any of the many township senior citizens clubhouses to play host to Township seniors in lieu of the multi-year, creative accounting for the expansion of the Township seniors facility just escapes common sense.
How can anyone expect municipal politicians to provide real cost-savings within the $154 million WWP School District when it can’t even handle its own $35 million municipal budget? Two months ago I requested Council/Administration find 5 percent savings in the current budget and another 10 percent in next year’s budget. Good luck.
I invite correction or as Council would say, “re-education.” I am obviously too aloof to understand how this entire financial model works without dire consequences to current and future taxpayers. Is there anyone else out there who is tired of the taxation without representation? I am not worried, however. We can always get Washington to bail us out . . . right? Pete Weale
Fisher Place
Thanks from a Democrat
Thank you to everyone who provided support — as a donor, volunteer, advocate or voter — for my reelection campaign this fall. It is a tremendous honor to have been elected to serve a sixth term as the representative for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. I am proud to have won a majority in almost all of the towns across the five counties and to have achieved a greater margin of victory than almost any Democrat, including Barack Obama, within those towns. Furthermore, with your support, we have been able to help deliver a new Democratic majority to Washington — in the House, in the Senate, and the Presidency — and I am optimistic about the changes that lie ahead.
Without question, this year’s election was one of the most important of our time. The stakes were high, particularly when you consider that our nation is engaged in two wars and that our economy is reeling from the strongest blows it has received since the 1930s. You may rest assured that I — with my colleagues in Washington — will work cooperatively with President Obama to make the changes necessary to get our country back on the right track as quickly as possible.
As Representative over the past decade I have advocated a forward-looking economic strategy that creates jobs by investing in research and development; develops sustainable alternative energy sources; strengthens math, science and foreign language education; makes college more affordable and accessible; and operates with a can-do spirit. I created the new $1,”000 federal deduction for property tax that will help hundreds of thousands of New Jersey families who do not itemize deductions on their IRS tax forms. I have pushed to free middle class families from the unfair Alternative Minimum Tax. And I have called for a $1,”000 energy rebate for families, paid for by a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
I know you support these goals, and I appreciate the contributions — of time, money and/or votes — that you provided to help me achieve them.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent you. I look forward to advancing our shared values in Washington and to making central New Jersey a better place to live, work, and raise a family.
Rush Holt
Member of Congress
Concerns From
A Republican
With so many pro Obama columns and editorials (The News, November 21) I felt some folks might be interested in a thought or two from one of the other 55 million, one of the folks who isn’t quite ready to anoint him as the next messiah, as the press has already done.
Why did the other 55 million simply not fall in line? After all, we had every reason to. With the exception of Fox News, the New York Post and the Washington Times, I can say without recalcitrance that almost every other news outlet was in the tank for Obama. And they didn’t just dip a toe in the water. They dove in head first and never bothered to come up for air. It would have been so easy. We wouldn’t have had to explain that we weren’t racist just because we favored McCain. We wouldn’t have had to answer for George Bush, even though his approval ratings are better than Congress’ and he wasn’t running. We wouldn’t have had to contest the absolute vile things said about Sarah Palin. We could have fallen in line, lockstep with our 62 million bothers and sisters and really enjoyed the party.
But we didn’t. Why is that?
First, too many questions about Obama went answered. Let’s be honest, too many questions were never offered in the first place and when they were, they were positioned by the media as negative campaigning. I believe that had the media provided a level playing field, the McCain camp would not have had to take the low road. Did any of the major news outlets ever seriously investigate his link to Rezko? I don’t pretend to know the man’s financial portfolio but how does a $165,”000 per year Senator afford a $1.6 million house? It’s a legitimate question.
He was a member of Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years. Wright presided over Obama’s wedding and baptized both of his daughters. He waited 20 years to distance himself from Wright’s remarks, 20 years! Were Wrights rants a recent phenomena? I don’t know the answer for certain but I doubt it.
What about Bill Ayers? At first Ayers was just a guy from his neighborhood. No problem there, right? You can’t blame a guy for his neighbors. But then we found out that he served on two boards with him. We also found out that Obama wrote a blurb for an Ayers book. Ayers is an unrepentant America basher and arguably a terrorist, and I’m being kind. He has said and done worse. Obama’s circle of friends, his pastor, and his business associates concerned me greatly. The company someone keeps is, by and large, a reflection of who they are.
Second, I don’t believe that Obama’s presidency will be a bi- partisan one. Why do I not believe that? Three reasons:
A.) He hasn’t done it to date. His track record has no history of bi partisanship. With the exception of working with Lugar and McCain on two bills, he voted along the Democrat line 96 percent of the time, when he wasn’t absent all together. That is hardly a ringing endorsement of bi partisanship.
B.) He doesn’t have to. The Senate and the House are now firmly in Democrats’ hands and they are nearly filibuster proof. In other words, the Republicans do not have the numbers or the tools (filibustering) to achieve any items on their agenda.
C.) He won’t be able to. He made many, many promises in this campaign. He took more campaign contributions then any candidate in our political history. Promises must be kept and contributions must be remembered. Democrats who abandoned Hilllary to endorse Obama will expect and demand their quarter. People like Pete Stark, Chuck Schumer, John Conyers, and David Obey are going to expect their loyalty and risk to be rewarded. Perhaps Rahm Emanuel, a Clinton White House veteran, was selected as his chief of staff, in part, to start managing those varied and disparate expectations.
Third, we have no counterweight, no balance. I have sincere doubts about a Republican voice being heard at all. The people chartered with running the single most important democracy in the world are now Harry Reid, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Barrack Obama. Forgive me please, but based on their track records, I am concerned for my country.
Fourth, it is possible that some folks viewed this election as a cathartic exercise, that by voting for Obama they’d be exorcising some perceived demons from their past? That might be a reason to volunteer in a soup kitchen but it hardly serves as justification for voting of the next leader of the free world.
It is amazing, but in the last two weeks he’s already been ordained as the next JFK and the next FDR. He hasn’t even taken office yet! We really don’t know that much about him! He’s been running for President almost longer than he’s served in the Senate.
So what does one of the 55 million do now? We support him because we are Americans. That’s the American way. This is the process we signed up for it. But we will also do what I do not believe the media will do; we will hold him accountable. That too is the American way. We will cheer his accomplishments, we will wish him success. But we will remind him of his promises and his responsibilities to all Americans. He has been placed on an extremely high pedestal before even swearing in. I will keep both the faith and the score card.
Gil Rodriguez
Plainsboro
