To the Editor:
Pedestrian Safety Issues In Plainsboro
The revitalization of Plainsboro with the town center plan is very exciting and enjoyable to watch it come together. Making use of what is already completed has been a great addition to a new lifestyle of walking to town for shopping, dining, visiting the library and going to church. With the high cost of gas more people are doing just that — walking.##M:[more]##
However, there are a couple of areas where it is very dangerous to walk and if there are not plans for sidewalks — why not? It’s just an accident waiting to happen, especially during the warmer spring and summer evenings when more people will be out. Both areas are along Dey Road. If you visit the Municipal Building complex and then want to walk to the sidewalks newly installed in town, you have to be very observant of the cars rapidly approaching you on the street before you can reach the safety of the sidewalks — believe me, they don’t slow down! The same is true when walking to Queenship of Mary Church for services. Also, coming from the opposite direction on Dey Road by the newly installed light at the intersection with Plainsboro Road, there is a short, but dangerous distance where you have to walk in the street to get to the sidewalks.
The cars come around that corner fast and you’re in the street because there are shrubs and plants on both sides. The crosswalk that was installed has you crossing the street to no sidewalk along Dey Road. As someone who enjoys walking into town often, I find I have to be very careful in these two areas where sidewalks should definitely be part of the plan.
Chris Buchner
The Highlands@Cranbury Brook
Station Parking:
A Reality Check
I was one of the masses surveyed about parking at the Princeton Junction train station. I’m not surprised by the survey results discussed in the May 2 issue (“Parking Study Shows Price Resistance”).
The survey ignores a number of basic facts. First, given that a monthly NJ Transit ticket to New York’s Penn Station is currently $331, there is a limit to how much anyone will pay as a percentage of the actual transit fare.
If memory serves, a figure of $210 for monthly parking was being bandied about; that would represent over 63 percent of the train fare. If one goes to Newark, the fare is $239; even including a $52 PATH card, the parking cost ends up as over 72 percent of the fare.
Secondly, you can’t charge for the new spots in a vacuum. If you want $210 for a covered spot, the cost for daily parking needs to be higher than that. That means, given a 22 business-day month, the daily spots would need to more than double in cost to at least $10 per day (and realistically a bit higher). Similarly, the existing lots would have to increase in cost to be competitive; people will live with existing lots when the cost differential is so large. When you consider how other lots will need to rise in costs in order to make the new spots attractive, the break-even monthly cost of parking spots would be significantly less than $210, although likely a good deal higher than current rates.
Lastly, the proposed parking fare is completely divorced from the reality in other locations. Metropark’s covered monthly parking spots owned by NJ Transit cost $65, less than 1/3 of the proposed fare. Even spots at Hamilton’s relatively new parking deck, at $95/month, costs less than half of the proposed fare.
As a matter of full disclosure, I’ve been on the waiting list for a bit under three years and am, according to the parking authority, No. 1 on the Vaughn waiting list.
Eric Sohn
West Windsor
Editor’s note: In the May 2 article developer Steven Goldin, the sponsor of the survey, noted that resistance was evident at prices above $90 a month.
No to Pay Raise
By voting themselves a salary increase of 50 percent, four West Windsor Township Council members (Morgan, Anklowitz, Borek, and Kleinman) have indicated that they have total disregard for the taxpayers they have committed to serve.
We taxpayers can defeat this in November if we bear the costs of a referendum. Even more costly to us taxpayers have been the thousands of dollars we have spent already for long, drawn-out, often irrelevant, discussions at Township Council meetings during which salaries for attorneys and others have kept piling up unnecessarily.
Add to that cost the time taken with the nickel-and-diming nature of any discussion involving the proposed redevelopment plan for West Windsor.
Contrary to the statement made by these council members that the reimbursement system “causes excessive and undue costs to the taxpayer,” reimbursement systems have been the norm in governmental, educational, corporate, and non-profit entities. Why isn’t it good enough for these council members?
Allen and Ina Marx
West Windsor
Editor’s note: Letters expressing a similar opinion were received from Nick Schiera of Benjamin Court and Mike Donnelly of Benford Drive.
Sign the Petition
Attention registered voters of West Windsor — we need your signatures. Recently the Town Council of West Windsor voted to introduce an ordinance for a 50 percent pay increase for themselves. There will be a public hearing on this increase Monday, May 19.
In order to include a challenge to the ordinance on the November ballot, we need to gather a little over 700 signatures of registered West Windsor voters.
This is where you can help. If you are willing to assist in gathering signatures, please E-mail either Pete Weale or Michael Ranallo and we can provide you with the petition form as well as the signature sheets. The voters of the Township deserve a say in whether their elected public servants deserve a 50 percent salary increase. Including this on the November ballot will ensure voters have their say.
If this issue is not on the November ballot, the increase will go into effect automatically. Please get involved. Council’s ignorance of the existing Township policy on expense reporting is no excuse for enacting a 50 percent salary increase without first consulting the people who are paying those salaries. You can obtain petition and signature sheets by contacting us.
Pete Weale
bricksco@aol.com
Michael Ranallo
michaeljohnr@comcast.net
Like, Oh My God!
It’s an Assault
On the Language
We have a serious linguistic problem on our hands. It started out with teenage girls and has since spread to the general population. The problem is the misuse and overuse of the word “like” and the phrase “oh my god.” It’s like “oh my god,” like people can’t seem, to like, carry on, like, a conversation without, like, using, like, the word “like” in like every, like, single, like, sentence “like, like, like,” ad nauseum.
There are many intelligent teenagers in our schools. But when they use the word “like” or the phrase “oh my god” once (or sometimes more than once) in a sentence they give the impression that they aren’t very bright. It doesn’t make a good impression when interviewing for college admission or a job.
The habit is so ingrained that they don’t even realize they do it. Parents get so used to hearing their teenagers say “like” and “oh my god” so often, now they are even doing it and setting a bad example. If children hear their parents talk like this, they are going to think that this is the way they are supposed to talk. We are going to end up with a whole new generation of what I call “likeaholics.”
I called the language arts supervisor at the West Windsor-Plainsboro schools and asked her to have the language arts teachers address this problem to their students. Maybe they could have a contest in the school to see which student can go the longest without saying “like” or “oh my god.”
My teenage daughter used to have blonde hair. She recently had it dyed brown. She said she wanted to be taken seriously. I told her that if she really wanted to be taken seriously, she should stop saying “like” and “oh my god” in every sentence. We have to stop this problem before it gets any worse.
Catherine Winant
North Post Road
Mission What?
Five years ago Bush proclaimed an accomplished mission. A deplorable war with no immediate ending finds our soldiers exhausted and disillusioned as they suffer many causalities. The cost is prohibitive, robbing our surplus with a deficit. Gasoline prices are near $4 a gallon. Jobs are scarce, and a record number of homes are in foreclosure. I fail to witness a positive accomplishment.
Despite these problems, I believe the American people have the grit and determination to solve them. I pray our next president will have leadership qualities and Congress will cooperate in a bi-partisan fashion. Victor Opalski
West Windsor
Opalski’s grandson has served several tours of duty in Iraq (The News, August 26 2005).
