To those concerned about paying increased rents because of ever-higher municipal taxes: With consolidation, a less expensive and more effective local government would reduce the pressure for rent increases. Who needs to pay for two administrators, police chiefs, town halls, public works departments, etc.?
To those who relocate voting residence, one year in the Borough and the next in the Township, and lose their franchise because they are confused about the status of their registration or the location of their polling booth: With consolidation, it wouldn’t matter on which side of the present municipal line they vote.
To those wary of police activity in and around campus: The smaller, more professional police force envisioned with consolidation might be welcome.
To those who experience delay and frustration in coordinating two municipal governments and numerous shared agencies, each with its own agenda: One government would be cheaper and easier to deal with.
To those who would like greater University contribution to the annual operating budget of local government: One Princeton would have more negotiating power with the University — and with other towns, the county and state.
To those who would like to entirely reorganize local government to make it more responsive: Consolidation offers that opportunity.
The foregoing spells out why voters should exercise enlightened self-interest by voting YES to consolidation on Nov. 8.
In making the case against consolidation, some argue that the Borough is “special” because it is different from the Township, because Borough denizens are more protective of the town center and because two governing bodies in our combined population of about 30,000 offer more opportunities to exercise democracy than one.
There are straightforward answers to those concerns. First, more than 60 percent of the residents of any consolidated Princeton will live within one half-mile of the present Borough border. Thus, there is no real difference — only differences based on inaccurate, emotional stereotyping — between the majority of those who now live in the present Borough and Township and those who would make up the majority of the consolidated municipality.
The second point springs from the first: Based on the homogeneity of interest of the majority of the residents in a consolidated municipality who presently reside within one-half mile of the current Borough border, is it reasonable to assume that that majority would forsake the town center to which they live in such proximity? Very unlikely!
Third, can anyone reasonably argue that the present five and seven members of the respective Township and Borough governing bodies, a total of 12, would better serve the 30,000 residents of the Princetons simply because 12 is a larger number than seven? Nothing in my 22 years as a Borough Council member supports that conclusion. With fewer governing body members, there wouldn’t be such difficulty finding candidates to serve as there is now, and those chosen would tend to be better qualified, delivering better democracy to the consolidated community.
Those who argue against consolidation are motivated by an admirable identification with “our historic Borough.” But their appeal is, fundamentally, to a fear of change. Yes, change is challenging, but it is also natural to social evolution. Spurning change will lead to severe dysfunction. Refusing consolidation on Nov. 8 will condemn us to the absurdities of life described in such works as: “The Sneetches and Other Stories,” in which a group of cats without stars on their bellies envy cats with stars, setting off a lunatic, expensive competition for cat “star” status; “The Phantom Tollbooth,” in which the dysfunctional kings of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis cannot cope except through the aid of the boy, Milo, who fights for the return of the two exiled princesses, Rhyme and Reason; and “Gulliver’s Travels,” by Jonathan Swift, in which the Lilliputians suffer generations of strife between those who open boiled eggs on the big end and those who do so at the small end.
In a consolidated municipality, we can preserve the best of the present Borough because demographically we are essentially at one with our Township neighbors, the new town can choose to have regulations that pertain only to the areas described by the boundaries of the former Borough and Township and the new town can have neighborhood advisory boards to advance purely their own interests (something we don’t have now).
But on Nov. 8 it’s appropriate that we acknowledge that one community deserves one, not divided, government.
Let us Borough residents not assume ourselves to be “special” simply because we could choose to stand apart from our Township family, friends and colleagues, divided by an arbitrary municipal boundary.
That boundary is both useless and expensive.
Let’s recognize ourselves for who we are, as we are: one community.
We live consolidated. Let’s vote consolidated.
Roger Martindell is a member of the Borough Council. He can be reached at martindell.law@gmail.com.
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