A small item in the September 24 issue of the News — concerning the awarding of $354,000 in federal money to the WW-P school district — turned out to be a lightning rod for online comments. This apparent piece of good news turned into a forum for bad news from the online visitors.
Several predicted that the grant would not benefit taxpayers in any way. “If it’s up to [Larry] Shanok [the assistant superintendent for finance] it’ll go into some reserve fund like the $20 million property tax relief fund which never actually creates any property tax relief.”
Another poster used the story as an opportunity to criticize the 2010 North graduates accused of cyber-bullying at Rutgers: “You go to college to OPEN your mind, not to CLOSE IT. These two clearly didn’t learn that in the first few weeks of school. Pathetic, really. Ravi and Wei should be ashamed of themselves and so should their families. What were they teaching them at home? Pack up and leave the country, please.”
One visitor pleaded for some tolerance. “From the comments, one would think we live in the deep south pre-civil rights. The xenophobic racism is embarrassing.”
The new Arts Council building continued to be a whipping boy for the online crowd: “It didn’t take much time for this bunch to kick out the last fire truck and take over the whole building. West Windsor covers a large area and every second counts in an emergency. One day someone’s house will go aflame or people will die because the firemen couldn’t get there in time.”
(In fact, as the Princeton Junction fire fighters note in the story beginning on page 16 of this issue, the fire company actively sought to move from the old location, and response times are faster from the new building on Clarksville Road. In addition the old structure continues to house fire equipment, as well as the new arts facility.)
One post took the side of the Arts Council:
“Thank goodness that we have a forward-thinking government that can follow through on this amazing vision, especially during tough economic times. Perhaps they noticed how the arts have been used to transform so many communities across the country. Just look at Philadelphia, New Brunswick, Norristown, Long Branch. The arts come to town and the community begins to turn around. People want to live in communities where people are connected, conscientious, culturally aware. These are the qualities that study and appreciation of the arts promote. The arts teach us how to be more human, and allow us to understand our feelings and deal with our experiences.
“Why keep sending our community-members and our money to Princeton for classes in the arts? Plus, think of what we’ll save in gas money and time if we don’t have to travel as far and sit in traffic to cross Route 1. Instead, we can invest in our own community and our own businesses. With performances and films in the evenings, people are encouraged to go out to dinner locally and spend even more in our town.
“As our government officials realize, the arts bring more prosperity to communities, both economically and in quality of life. The arts are for everyone. If you sing in your car, read fiction, go to the movies, listen to your iPod, or dance in your room, you know how important the arts are. This new building is not about creating some elitist organization that’s going to take money away from our citizens. This is the arts for everyone.
“And it’s obvious that this wasn’t a frivolous decision. It took 10 years of hard work to get to this point. The hard work continues as the many volunteers continue to invest in their arts center to make sure that it continues to flourish. The arts council, as a non-profit, will have to continue raising money to sustain operations over time. But all of that is worth it to bring something of such value to our community.”
