Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Watching the game, 1

I am a Mets fan, which means I am by nature a pessimist. I watch Tom Glavine run five innings of shutout ball in game two of the playoffs, after a season in which my team won 97, and I am aprehensive — when will it happen?

But the Mets are executing. They make few mistakes. And now they have two on and Glavine drops a perfect bunt (one of the prettiest plays in all of baseball) and there are two in scoring position.

So the Dodgers opt to walk Jose Reyes, load the bases for Paul LoDuca with one out with the bashers coming up and the pitcher being changed.

Stay tuned.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Widen Route 1 now

The state is finally coming to the realization that something needs to be done to Route 1. While it acknowledges the need to widen the road, it also views the aggregation of traffic lights as a significant problem.

Travel south on the highway and you can get a glimpse of what probably needs to be done. There are no traffic lights in Plainsboro and the handful that are left in West Windsor will be replaced when they eventually complete the Millstone By-pass.

In South Brunswick, we could stand to lose a couple of lights and close off a few openings.

The township should encourage the state to close Henderson Road and make it a right-turn only intersection, encouraging traffic to use Finnegans Lane. This would take some traffic off both Henderson and Route 1. Also overpasses are needed at Beekman and Route 522.

New and Sand Hills/Major are more of an issue — how you close those interesections or install overpasses is a huge question. We may need to leave one or both as lighted intersections.

The state, however, should not wait to widen the road. Widen it now and, if it can be arranged, work on the intersections later. It may coast more in the long run, but drivers in South Brunswick can not wait for the state to decide what to do with the intersections.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

More on 92, from the TSTC

Damien Newton of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign reminds me in an e-mail that there is no money on the table for Route 92 (remember the Turnpike moved the cash designated for the road to its far-more-important widening project).

“With all the money they’re spending on the Turnpike and Parkway widenings (roughly 150 more lane miles) it won’t be happening in time for any of the traffic projections to be worth the
papery their printed on.”

A very good point.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Armed and ready to teach?

Huh? This news item from Wisconsin can’t be serious:

Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay) announced Wednesday that he plans to introduce legislation early next year that would give teachers and other school personnel the option of carrying concealed weapons. The action was largely prompted by the school shootings in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Weston Schools principal was killed last week.

Makes me glad to live on the East Coast.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.