Construction in Princeton is not limited to the University: While students grapple with blocked walkways and debate the merits of modern architecture, community members of the town are dealing with renovations along Nassau Street.
For an hour of Tuesday’s hour-and-a-half long Town Council meeting, members of the Council debated granite paver discoloration, the perfect balance of backed to non-backed benches, and if bicycle racks were the cause of incivility among residents, as part of a project to improve the town-facing side of Nassau Street. The Daily Princetonian paved its way through deliberations over various shades of gray sidewalks to present the highlights of this meeting.
The council discussed a number of topics about the Nassau Streetscape Improvement Project, which has been under development since 2016. The point of the project is to “revitalize the streetscape and improve the pedestrian experience on the north side of Nassau Street.” Although councilmembers lingered on aesthetic milieu, pedestrian safety emerged as a prominent area of discussion.
The Council then shifted its attention to reducing the number of curb extensions, also known as bump-outs, at main intersections along Nassau Street. Curb extensions are supposed to enhance safety for pedestrians crossing major roads.
Mayor Mark Freda raised concerns that bump-outs were actually making intersections more dangerous.
“[If] you drive down Nassau Street, and you look at how people use the bump-outs, the pedestrians come to the edge or beyond the edge of the bump-outs, and now they’re either in the street or so close to the street,” he said.
Council President Mia Sacks added that “With the bump-out, people are going to go right to the edge,” while traditional crosswalks have more of a buffer between where cars are driving and pedestrians are standing. Several community members also expressed concerns about curb extensions.
Dave Lustberg, CEO of Arterial, the design company running the Nassau Street redecoration, said not all planned curb extensions had come to fruition.
“There are certain corners where we looked at the curb and said, ‘Yeah this wasn’t the right idea,’ and pulled it back,” he said.
The council also held two public hearings to re-award a liquor license to the Graduate Hotel, which quietly reopened in August after being closed for months due to construction. The hotel hosts a bar in its lobby — Ye Tavern Restaurant and Bar — which “unique pre-prohibition era cocktails.” The Graduate website claims that a bar once stood in the same spot as the hotel on Nassau Street.
Two hearings were needed: one to re-award the license and one to issue it. No community members spoke at the hearings in objection of the license being awarded and issued.
The town council also recognized student group Mariachi Los Tigres as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
“I’m super happy to have brought this tradition here to the Princeton community as it not only celebrates culture but it also brings people together over a shared platform of music,” President and Founder Esteban Gonzalez ’26 told the council upon accepting the award. “I hope to continue sharing this music with the community and building more bonds with more people.”
Meghana Veldhuis is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Bergen County, N.J. and typically covers faculty and graduate students.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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