Volume LXXVIII, Number 38
Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs Celebrates 90th Anniversary . . . . . . . . . .5 New Signs on LHT Add to “Outdoor History Museum” . . . . . . . . . . 9 PU Summer Programs Offer Rewards for Range of Students . . . 10 PSO Opens Season With 19th-Century Masterpieces . . . . . . 18 Empire Records: The Musical Premieres At McCarter . . . . . . . . 19 After PU Football Endured Series of Near Misses in 2023, Tigers Focusing On Detail in Prepping for Opener at Lehigh . . . . 27 With Senior Matsukawa Setting Up Powerful Hitters, PHS Girls’ Volleyball Tops Southern in Clash of State Champs . . . . . . . . . . . .31
(Photo by John Matthew Smith)
James Earl Jones (19312024) Co-Stars With W.E.B. Du Bois in This Week’s Book Review . . . . . . . . 17 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 24 Best of Fall . . . . . . . 2, 3 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 36 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 14, 15 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 25 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 35 Performing Arts . . . . . 22 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 12 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 36 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
New Advocacy Group Seeks Community Input On Civil Rights Issues About 35 local residents, seeking to sharpen the community’s focus on civil rights, have founded a new organization called Civil Rights Princeton (CRP). “Civil Rights Princeton is a citizens advocacy group intending to serve the cause of civil rights in Princeton, as a sounding board and information source, and, when needed, an advocate and mediator for victims of discrimination in our community,” wrote Walter Bliss, a member of the group and a longtime local resident. So far the committee has been meeting monthly with an agenda generated mostly by questions brought up by members of the group. “We’re brand new,” said Lew Maltby, CRP chair and chief organizer. “Nobody knows we’re here. We think that once people know we’re here, they’ll bring complaints to us.” Individuals with concerns, questions or complaints should contact CRP at maltbyadr@gmail.com, he added. The CRP was born last January after Princeton Council made the controversial decision to consolidate the Civil Rights Commission (CRC) into a single committee along with the Human Services Commission and the Affordable Housing Board. Council members, who voted unanimously in favor of consolidation, saw the opportunity for synergy and more efficient collaboration among the groups, but some citizens feared that those organizations would be diminished and disempowered. “A number of civil rights commissioners and others who believed in the CRC said, ‘We can’t let this happen. Civil rights is too important. There needs to be a body in Princeton that asks the hard questions and recommends changes if changes are needed,” recalled Maltby, a writer, attorney, and advocate for workers’ rights who, along with Bliss and five other CRP members, is a former member of the CRC. “We decided to create a citizens group that would be a spokesperson for protecting civil rights in Princeton, and that’s what we did,” he added. Maltby suggested that issues of police transparency, equity of discipline at Princeton High School, ICE raids, and the possibility of a local civil rights ordinance Continued on Page 8
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Search for Schools Superintendent Continues Ratcheting up their search for a permanent leader, the Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education (BOE) Search Committee is meeting on Wednesday, September 18 with two lead search consultants from School Leadership LLC, a Long Island-based firm hired last week. Four firms were interviewed by an ad hoc BOE committee, and the BOE noted that School Leadership, which has led many superintendent searches for school districts in the New York metropolitan area over the past 20 years, “had the best combination of search experience as well as familiarity with the Princeton Public Schools.” One of the lead consultants, Martin Brooks, who has served as superintendent in several Long Island communities, led the Tri-State Consortium, an alliance of public school districts of which Princeton is a member, for 16 years, and in that time he visited Princeton five times. Rina Beder, who has worked as an attorney and was a board of education member, serving stints as president and vice president, in Mamaroneck, N.Y., for six years, will be co-lead consultant as the
Princeton BOE pursues its search for a new superintendent. The Princeton Board noted that Brooks’ “vast knowledge of and experience with the district will be helpful as Dr. Brooks and Ms. Beder work to recruit potential candidates” and also emphasized the value of Brooks’ and Beder’s “deep knowledge of peer districts in the Northeast (including New York and New Jersey) as they reach out to potential candidates.” “We believe Marty and Rina know our
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district and have the experience to lead the search for our next superintendent,” said BOE Vice President Betsy Baglio, who is head of the district’s search committee. In a press release the PPS noted that Brooks’ familiarity with the district was evident throughout his interview and “he is well-known and well respected both within the district and throughout the region.” At last week’s BOE meeting Baglio stated that she was especially pleased that Continued on Page 7
Noom Moves to New Headquarters In Palmer Square Office Building
Noom, the digital health and wellness company known for its psychology-based weight loss program, has moved into a 9,000-square-foot space at 1 Palmer Square. The company also has offices at 5 Penn Plaza in New York City. Last Thursday, September 12, was move-in day for the company, coinciding with its introduction of Noom GLP-1 Rx, which combines an injectable weight loss drug with a way to taper off of it.
The program “addresses the biggest real-world problems with GLP-1s: poor persistence and lean muscle mass loss,” said Chief Executive Officer Geoff Cook in a press release. “Evidence demonstrates the vast majority of people, six out of seven, are not on these medications forever. They lose lean muscle mass and regain the weight, risking conditions like sarcopenic obesity, leaving them Continued on Page 12
YOUNG PARTIOTS DAY: Reenactors march past observers on Sunday at the annual day of history-themed activities at Princeton Battlefield State Park, hosted by the Princeton Battlefield Society. Attendees share what they learned at the event in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Sarah Teo)
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