As visions of cranberry sauce, turkey, and pumpkin pie dance in our heads, it is sobering to reflect back to our 2003 Helping Hands issue, which focused on the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Writer Bart Jackson learned that “Trenton, capital city of the most affluent state in America, claims 40 percent illiteracy, over 18,000 of its 85,000 population living below the poverty level, and one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the nation.”
A photo that accompanies that story shows former T.A.S.K. director Peter Wise (he retired in 2006) with a volunteer, Lee Seglem. Seglem went on to become T.A.S.K.’s board chairman. A former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, Seglem is assistant director of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation in Trenton. He has written a book about his experiences with T.A.S.K., “In Plain Sight,” the preface of which is excerpted in our Interchange column on page 4. Seglem’s book shows how the story of T.A.S.K. exemplifies a larger crisis: that providers of emergency food and shelter are scrambling to meet rising demand while battling hunger’s complex causes.
U.S. 1 2008 Calendar
The December 19 issue will also include our 2008 wall calendar. There is still time to submit events for the calendar. If your organization would like us to include the 2008 dates for any scheduled meeting, seminar, workshop, reading, performance, fair, concert, event, or exhibit that is open to the public, please E-mail pertinent information to events@princetoninfo.com on or by Monday, November 26.
To the Editor:
Traffic Concerns
We, the people of South Brunswick, should wake up and listen to the call, “The traffic is coming, the traffic is coming.” The land swap deal between Princeton University and South Brunswick township made two years ago has come back to bite us.
Princeton University recently announced that it wants to build seven laboratory buildings, two hotels, and one office building, housing about 1,000 employees, in 1 million square feet, on a strip of land abutting Route 1 and Independence Way. Part of the land swap deal requires Princeton University to improve Independence Way. That project is already underway. (See story, page 42, for more accurate numbers.)
Problems that exist now and should be watched include the egress and ingress roads probably controlled by the state, and the effect on traffic, especially Route 1, Route 27, and Ridge Road. Adding hundreds and hundreds of cars to Route 1 has to be studied.
Just as our forefathers stood vigilant, we the people have to protect our quality of life, not the profits of Princeton University.
John G. O’Sullivan
