Tag: South Brunswick

Election, Part III: the broken GOP

Republicans in South Brunswick and Monroe can’t be too happy with the results of Tuesday’s election.

While Bill Baroni won a Senate seat rather handidly, he only squeaked by in South Brunswick — he bested a weak candidate, South Brunswick resident Seema Singha — a town that he has visited often and in which he has always been popular. Mr. Baroni was the top votegetter in town in 2005, as well, but only by 24 votes in his last Assembly race — plus, his runningmate, former South Brunswick Police Chief Michael Paquette, managed only a third-place finish, raising questions about Baroni’s coattails.

Taken together — along with Linda Greenstein’s huge showing in the township this time around (she was the top votegetter with 1,966, which probably helped put her over the top) — show once again how difficult it has become for Republicans to win in South Brunswick.

The same goes for Monroe, where a controversy over the proposed new high school should have inflicted some damage on the Democrats, especially with Mayor Richard Pucci topping the ticket. Instead, as has been the case for several years, the GOP offered only the barest of challenges (though, if the party can find a decent candidate for Ward 3 in 2009 and find some real cash to fund him or her and not come off sounding shrill and petty….).

There are several reasons for this, I think, including demographics — senior voters in Monroe, a more affluent, East Coast voter in South Brunswick. But the big reason is that both GOP organizations are broken (Monroe Chairwoman Sidna Mitchell has been working dilligently to repair things there, but the party does not have much of a farm system at this point) and have failed to offer decent candidates or a coherent platform in years.

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

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Village of the crammed

The Richardson Properties Corporation is still pushing its misguided plan to cram 240 apartments, retail space and a clubhouse ontoa 25-acre parcel in Dayton.

The alternative, says Russ Richardson, is a 350,000-square-foot, four-story office building, with 1,200 parking spaces. That, he says, is what the property is zoned for.

The council wasn’t so enamored with the plan — nor should it have been.

My sense is that Mr. Richardson is overstating what can be done with the property — once you factor in buffers and other issues, the office building is likely to be smaller than he says. Plus there are questions about the market for that kind of facility.

He says the best use is a village. He’s probably right — if by best use he means best use for him.

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

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A traffic fix that makes sense

This proposal for a revision of the traffic pattern at Route 522 and Route 1 (encompassing Stouts Lane, as well) may sound confusing, but it can only make a poor intersection function more logically.

As things stand now, you can’t get from northbound Route 1 to the section of Route 522 known as Promenade Boulevard — a huge issue for residents of Princeton Gate and Princeton Walk. Nor is there an easy and logical way to get into the new Target shopping centere — unless you know the side entrance.

So adding a new reverse jughandle heading north and realigning Stouts just makes sense. Plus it will help with what is becoming an annoying traffic backup from Route 1 heading west that blocks the left-turn access onto Stouts.

Let’s hope the state agrees.

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

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Very cool news for the SB library

The George and Helen Segal Foundation has agreed to permanently place a piece of George Segal’s artwork in the South Brunswick Library. The piece (pictured from the foundation’s Web site), “Couple Against a Grey Brick Wall,” was completed in 1986 and used two local residents as models.
Segal, who died in 2000, was an influential and important artist — and a longtime South Brunswick resident — whose work includes “Depression Bread Line,” a sculpture for the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial; “Kent State — Abraham and Isaac,” a sculpture on the campus of Princeton University in memory of the 1970 Kent State shootings; and “The Commuters, Next Departure” at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

Bravo.

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

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.