John Witherspoon area residents speak out against overcrowding

About a 10-minute walk from the sprawling, manicured landscape of the University campus and the sparkling sidewalks in front of chic storefronts on Nassau Street, abandoned cars litter the yards and children sleep in basements in dangerously crowded conditions.

Residents from the John Witherspoon area — an ethnically diverse and typically lower-income area north of Palmer Square — filled the Princeton Borough Hall meeting room last night.

During the Borough Council meeting, area residents voiced their concerns over the deteriorating conditions in their community.

Representatives from the John-Witherspoon area came before the Council after holding several of their own forums during which they discussed problems they sensed had been rapidly growing worse in recent years.

Minnie Craig, of 173 Witherspoon St., stood before the microphone and encouraged her neighbors to take advantage of their opportunity to speak up.

"This is your chance to be heard," Craig said.

And members of the audience displayed no timidity, voicing an attack against their landlords while emphasizing that racial issues were in no way at the root of their anger.

"I want to stress that this is not a racial thing," said Craig, who is black. "We want our neighborhood to look nice again."

"Just because it's not a million-dollar house in Princeton doesn't mean it's not worth anything," said Edy Moshey, who owns a restaurant on Witherspoon Street.

Moshey also highlighted the hazards to safety and health posed by overcrowding in houses. She told the audience about a recent incident on Witherspoon Street, in which a fireman found "at least 15 children hiding in the kitchen and under beds," when he examined the structure to extinguish a small fire.

"All I'm saying is we want action," said Simeon Moss, who has lived in Princeton on and off for the last 80 years and whose mother has a playground named after her in the John Witherspoon neighborhood.

And the meeting ended on a note of unified determination with community leaders announcing their desire to work together and the Council pledging to examine the issues raised.

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Borough officials said they would work to strengthen ordinances, increase fines and investigate instances of overcrowding within legal limitations.

A long-time area resident solicited a round of applause from the audience in support of inviting members of the area's Latino population to community meetings to offer input on language barriers and assistance with interpretation.

Borough Mayor Marvin Reed vowed that the Council would present an updated agenda before Thanksgiving.