Volume LXXVII, Number 22
Trenton Film Festival Coming to Mill Hill Playhouse . . . . . . . . . . 5 “Wear Orange” Event Part of National Effort to End Gun Violence . . . . 8 PU Receives Grant to Lead Photonics Research Consortium . . . . . . . . 10 Theatre Intime Presents Cabaret . . . . . . . . . . 15 PU Football Offensive Lineman Byrd Aiming to Make a Big Impact for the Denver Broncos . . . . . 23 Devlin Stars as PHS Girls’ Lacrosse Falls in State Tournament Opener . . 26
Saluting Tina Turner On Walt Whitman’s Birthday . . . . . . . . 14 Art . . . . . . . . . . . .17, 20 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 21 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 31 Mailbox . . . . . . . . .12, 13 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 22 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 30 Performing Arts . . . . . 16 Real Estate. . . . . . . . . 31 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Summer Preview . . . . . . 2 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Zoning Board Carries Coffee Roasting Decision To June 28 Meeting At its Zoom meeting on May 24, Princeton’s Zoning Board listened to extensive testimony regarding Sakrid Coffee’s proposal to install a roasting facility in the coffee shop it wants to open at 300 Witherspoon Street. This left time for only a few of the more than 50 members of the public in attendance to offer comment on the controversial proposal, leading the Zoning Board to put off the vote until the next meeting on June 28 at 7:30 p.m. Last week’s discussion had itself been carried over from the Zoning Board’s previous gathering in April. At issue are the potential smells, noises, and environmental effects of the proposed coffee roasting facility, on residents of the neighborhood, and the Community Park Elementary School. Neighbors have expressed specific concerns about the volatile organic compound diaceytl, which shows up in the roasting process and in many other foods. Richard Ludescher, a professor emeritus from Rutgers University and a consultant in the food science industry, testified that all plants, especially their flowers, emit diaceytl, as do many cooked foods. The compound poses a risk only with very long-term, chronic exposure, such as for those in the food manufacturing industry. The levels at the proposed roasting operation — about 2.5 hours a week — would be much lower and barely discernible, he said. Sakrid co-owner Jonathan Haley told the Zoning Board that in response to concerns about use of an afterburner, more research had been done and it was decided to go with a system known as the VortX scrubber. The system aligns better with Sustainable Princeton and Sakrid’s mission, because afternburners remove roaster emissions but contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, said Haley. Representing VortX, Ron Kleist said the company has had no complaints in the systems they have installed at various locations across the U.S. “We wanted to help coffee roasting become a poster child for environmental responsibility,” he said. “We have been able to achieve that with the technology we’ve got. The product has been very well received by the roasting community, and achieving what we wanted to achieve as a business.” Continued on Page 9
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Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Eisgruber Urges Grads, “Let Your Voices Rise” In his commencement address at Princeton Stadium on Tuesday, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber put out an urgent plea for graduating seniors and grad students to stand up for equality, diversity, freedom, justice, and love. Claiming “the best weather for commencement in the history of Princeton University — and after what you’ve been through in the past four years you deserve it,” Eisgruber awarded degrees to 1,263 undergraduates in the Class of 2023, plus two from previous classes, and 679 graduate students. Thousands more families, friends, and guests in the stadium cheered on the graduating seniors and advanced degree recipients at Princeton’s 276th commencement. In his words to the graduates, Eisgruber noted “a movement afoot in this country right now to drive a wedge between the constitutional ideals of equality and free speech,” as he emphasized the necessity of caring simultaneously about equality and open debate on public issues. He condemned “educational gag orders” recently introduced by state legislatures restricting the teaching of information about inequalities within American society.
“Your help is urgently needed — now!” Eisgruber told the graduates, as he urged them to “stand up and speak out” for “free expression and full inclusivity for people of all identities.” The University also awarded five honorary degrees at Tuesday’s graduation ceremony. The recipients included computer scientist and transgender rights advocate Lynn A. Conway; Princeton University Professor Arcadio Diaz-Quinones, a leader of the University’s Latin
American Studies Program and a prominent public intellectual in Caribbean studies; Rhiannon Giddens, singer, instrumentalist, composer, two-time Grammy Award winner, Pulitzer Prize recipient, and MacArthur “Genius” who has “dedicated her career to raising up voices that have been overlooked or erased”; Suzan Shown Harjo, recipient of the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom and an advocate for Native American issues over the past half century; and Katalin Kariko, Continued on Page 11
June 6 Local Primaries are Uncontested; Candidates Look to November Election
Princeton voters will go to the polls on June 6 — or June 2, 3, or 4 for early voting—to select Democratic or Republican candidates to run in the November general election. On the primary ballot are candidates for state Senate, New Jersey General Assembly, Mercer County executive, county sheriff, Board of County Commissioners, and Princeton Council. Though the primary races in Princeton this year are all uncontested, the fall election promises several highly competitive contests — not including the Council
positions, where only Democrat incumbents David Cohen and Leticia Fraga, and no Republicans, have filed for two open spots. Democrats have run unopposed in Princeton Council elections since 2018. There is an early voting site at the Princeton Shopping Center, one of seven in the county, open Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Voters who wish to vote by mail and have not yet applied can go in person to the county clerk’s office in Trenton before Continued on Page 9
MARCHING ALONG: Presented by Spirit of Princeton, the annual Princeton Memorial Day Parade returned on Saturday morning with participants, including the Colonial Musketeers Fife and Drum Corps, shown here, marching down Nassau Street to Monument Plaza. The parade was followed by a ceremony at Monument Hall. Attendees discuss their Memorial Day weekend plans in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Sarah Teo)
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