A pox on both their houses

Princeton is not paradise. Its students, faculty, staff, alumni and neighbors are not saints, and the members of this community are not insulated from the temptations that plague all human beings. One of these is mendacity. Another is avarice. Enter the Cottage Club tax exemption controversy.

Though Cottage is well within its rights and self-interests to pursue fiscal wellbeing to the utmost bounds of the law, its push for a tax exemption granted to historic buildings that are open to the public is fundamentally dishonest. It is laughable to think that historic preservation is reconcilable with the demands of Prospect Avenue; like all eating clubs, Cottage is susceptible to the violence and vandalism of belligerent drunks at least twice a week. Whether for 12 days or 96, Cottage is not open to the public (ask the average freshman on a Thursday or Saturday night), and to claim so unfairly penalizes other private social and country clubs in the State of New Jersey which lack the resources and cultural pedigree of Cottage. Perhaps the demolition of Penn Station in New York sacralized McKim, Mead & White buildings to the point where sound decision-making on historic preservation is no longer possible.

But Cottage is not alone in being worthy of condemnation. So are the politicians of Princeton Borough, including the mayor and council members, who advance the message that the Borough's public services will fall apart without the tax revenues of the eating clubs. The politicians should be reminded that students — and now the University — pay good money to utilize the clubs. If only the politicians were equally supportive of students' participation in civic life, especially voting.

It is preposterous to think that the University owes the Borough above and beyond its animating force to this region. If the University were not here, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary, Bristol-Myers Squibb and the restaurants of Nassau Street, among many other salary-paying institutions, would probably not exist. Without the University, the Borough would not receive much in the way of tax revenue. This whole area grew up around the University, not vice versa. The administration should finally take a strong line against the extortionary tactics of the Borough Council, and stop paying a "voluntary contribution" of over a million dollars per year. Perhaps it is also time that a student win a seat on the Borough Council. After all, this is not Jersey City.