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A step forward for the town of Princeton

We often talk about the need for a more inclusive, diverse campus environment, but we unfortunately tend to forget about the town of Princeton when holding those conversations. Although the world outside the Orange Bubble can sometimes seem very distant from campus life, the town and the University maintain a symbiotic relationship. When the town benefits, so too does the University. Even something as seemingly mundane as housing and zoning laws can have an outsized benefit on the overall environment of the campus and town.

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In a piece of good news, the Princeton Packet reported this week that the town of Princeton was in the process of filing its latest plan for implementation of affordable housing. The town took this action in response to a New Jersey State Supreme Court ruling that effectively mandated the construction of more affordable housing throughout New Jersey’s cities. The plan shows that the city is making strides in making affordable housing more accessible. Some of the newest real estate developments in the town of Princeton have specifically set aside affordable housing units, and the city has highlighted opportunities for zoning changes that would encourage the construction of future affordable housing developments.

It is undeniable that the town of Princeton is a highly desirable place to live. In fact, by some metrics — quality of life or education and health — Princeton is ranked the best small city in the country. Insofar as affordability is concerned, however, Princeton fell to 1,144th place out of 1,200 in that same ranking. The high cost of housing in Princeton is one of the major reasons why the affordability ranking was so low.

For lower-income families, housing understandably consumes a larger amount of the budget than it does for higher-income families. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs defines a low-income household of four in Mercer county as having a maximum income of $45,696. An average lower income family spends about 56 percent of its income on housing each year, and the deleterious effect of that spending is multiplied by the smaller number of dollars that the family has to spend. Trulia.com, a real estate aggregation website, gives the median sale price of a house in Princeton as online casino $657,500, with that price on an upward trend. Given the high cost of living in Princeton, it is important that the government help decrease those high costs of living; otherwise, lower income families in the Princeton area will be priced out by the increase in real estate costs.

And that is why it is important that after these plans are approved by the Mercer County Superior Court, the city take the steps necessary to make sure that affordable housing is constructed as quickly as possible. The recent protests on campus showed the need for greater inclusivity on campus and beyond, and the amelioration of socioeconomic issues through affordable housing is an important step toward achieving that goal. I am not advocating for the creation of the Princeton Commune, but having a steady roof over your head is an intangibly large benefit. Additionally, there is a large body of research indicating that American cities have become more socioeconomically divided, following the country’s larger trends of wage inequality, and that inequality threatens to restrict the further development of Princeton. A demographically homogenous town is antithetic to the ideals of this University as a place of learning in the service of everyone in the nation. The town of Princeton has an opportunity to create a more equitable environment, and I hope that opportunity will not be squandered.

Nicholas Wu is a sophomore from Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. He can be reached at nmwu@princeton.edu.

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