Volume LXXIX, Number 17
Spotlight on
Lambertville Pages 23-25 Tenth Annual “Perspectives On Preservation” Photo Contest Held by FOPOS . . . 5 Trenton Walks! Offers Many Opportunities To Explore History and Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Arbor Day at Marquand Park Features Many TreeRelated Activities. . . . 12 PU Orchestra, Glee Club Combine for Concert of French Music . . . . . . 17 Senior Standout Omene Looking to Come Full Circle as Top-Seeded PU Men’s Volleyball Hosts EIVA Tourney . . . . . . 28 After Waiting to Lead Hun Softball Pitching Staff, Murphy Starring As the Raiders Have Started 8-0 . . . . . . . . 32
Plainsboro Resident Edward Tenner’s New Collection is The Subject of This Week’s Book Review . . . . . . . . 16 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . 37 Sounds of Spring. . . . . 2, 3 Mailbox. . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . . 26 Obituaries . . . . . . . 35, 36 Performing Arts. . . . . . . . 18 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . . 10 Princeton Porchfest. . 20, 21 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . 37 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Topics of the Town . . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Municipality Endeavors To Make Safety a Priority On Local Streets, Roadways At its most recent public meeting on April 14, Princeton Council passed an ordinance reducing the speed limit from 40 to 35 miles per hour on a portion of Cherry Hill Road between Mt. Lucas Road and a point 565 feet north of Foulet Drive. This change, which makes the entire length of the roadway uniform at 35 miles per hour, is small but significant. According to Councilman David Cohen, it will likely be followed by future ordinances lowering speed limits in the center of town. Cohen has been especially active in efforts to make the streets of Princeton safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. He applied for, and was accepted to, the 2025 Champions Institute, which is sponsored by Smart Growth America, a national organization that helps make communities affordable, convenient, and safe. Cohen is working on an action plan to make Princeton’s bicycle boulevard network more effective. Created during the leadership of former Mayor Liz Lempert, the bicycle boulevard network is a loop of streets that connects the town’s schools. It includes low-speed, low-volume roadways designed to prioritize bicycle movement using a combination of signage, pavement markings, traffic calming, and/or volume management. “The problem is that people don’t know what the bike boulevard is,” said Cohen. “Right now, it’s just these little green signs on the road. Nobody really knows what it means, so we will have a real education campaign.” The bicycle boulevard network is mostly for streets that are used by local residents rather than visitors from out of town. “This is not something that was invented by Princeton,” Cohen said. “This is nationwide. It’s actually approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.” On some streets, advisory bike lanes — in which a single car lane is in the middle of the road, with bike lanes on either side — may be created. They already exist on some streets owned by Princeton University, including Lawrence Drive and College Road, Cohen said. Another safety-related effort for the municipality is Vision Zero, a national initiative geared toward reducing Continued on Page 7
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Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Search for Missing PU Student Focuses on Lake Carnegie A Princeton University student was reported missing on Tuesday, April 22, according to a TigerAlert sent to the University community around 11 a.m. by the school’s Department of Public Safety. Lauren Blackburn, an undergraduate member of the class of 2026, was last seen at about 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 near Firestone Library. Blackburn, 23, is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair. According to the Department of Public Safety, when last seen he was wearing blue jeans with torn knees, a yellow T-shirt with a black, zippered hooded sweatshirt, and blue, flatbottom shoes. According to a report by the ABC News affiliate WPVI, a search of Lake Carnegie began around 12 a.m. on Tuesday morning after a phone belonging to a missing student pinged in the area. It was not confirmed that the phone belonged to Blackburn. On Tuesday af ternoon, news
helicopters from ABC and NBC news stations were circling the area. The Princeton Alumni Weekly reported that an emergency vehicle towing two inflatable motorboats was seen on Washington Road heading toward Lake Carnegie. A Trenton fire truck and other emergency vehicles are reported to have been in the lakefront near the Harrison Street Bridge. Sonar units and drones from Hamilton Township, as well as K-9 units, were also being utilized.
The Princeton Police Department directed a query to the University’s Department of Public Safety, but said they were assisting in the effort. Blackburn was a National Merit Scholar and a Gates Scholar at Corydon Central High School, in Corydon, Indiana. He graduated in 2019. In a local television news segment aired that spring, he said that he toured several universities before settling on Princeton when he was accepted early. Continued on Page 10
Tenth Annual Princeton Research Day Offers Abundant Learning Opportunities
With about 150 undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs presenting and several hundred curious spectators in attendance, the 10th annual Princeton Research Day (PRD) on May 8 will afford everyone a glimpse of some of the research that’s happening at Princeton University and a chance to learn about
something they didn’t know before. Taking place at the University’s Frist Campus Center from 12 to 4 :30 p.m., the event will be free and open to the public, and “a very interactive session,” according to Pascale Poussart, who is the University’s director of undergraduate research Continued on Page 8
CHAMPIONSHIP MOMENT: Members of Princeton University women’s lacrosse team celebrate after they defeated Brown 15-13 last Saturday at the Class of 1952 Stadium to clinch a share of the Ivy League regular season crown. The Tigers, now 12-2 overall and 5-1 Ivy League, play at Dartmouth on April 26 as they look to earn the outright league title and the No. 1 seed going into the Ivy postseason tournament. For more details on the game, see page 27. (Photo by Bill Alden)