Councilmen: Do not move the Dinky

Four hundred and sixty feet may not be a long walk for most college students. The furor of Princeton residents over the proposed relocation of the Dinky Station, however, may force the University to substantially redraw its current plans for the Arts and Transit Neighborhood.

At an open house at the Arts Council of Princeton last night to discuss plans for new University neighborhood, residents and Borough Council members rose to express their vehement opposition to the move.

“You are saying that this is a development for the community, but I am going to say that this is really a development that is happening to the community,” Borough Councilman Andrew Koontz told Neil Kittredge, an architect for Beyer, Blinder, Belle, the architectural firm hired by the University to lay out the new site.

“There are plenty of expendable University buildings down there that have no artistic value and can go [to make room for the development],” Koontz argued. “But what is happening? A community space is going.”

In a Borough Council meeting on Sept. 9, Councilman Kevin Wilkes ’83, who is also an architect, presented four alternative plans for the redevelopment that did not require the Dinky to be moved.

In an e-mail, Wilkes said he believes that his “four plans are better for the community at large” than the University’s plan.

Princeton residents at the open house echoed Koontz’ and Wilkes’ sentiments.

Resident Cathleen Carroll brought a picture of Blair Arch from the early 20th century to the meeting, showing the Dinky Station directly behind it. When architect Steven Holl, one of the leading architects of the new development, told the audience that he had to leave to catch a train, Carroll rose and asked how long he thought it would take him to get to the Dinky.

When Holl said it would probably take him about 20 minutes, Carroll triumphantly held up the picture and proclaimed, “It would be a lot shorter if the station were still here!”

The assembled residents burst into applause when Borough resident Joan Mueller declared, “When you have to walk an extra 460 feet to the Dinky Station in the cold, in the rain, in the snow, that’s not a good thing.”

Township resident Bill Moody called the proximity of the Dinky to downtown Princeton the “jewel of the community” and said that the University could not be given permission to “take away this aspect of the community.”

In a heated question-and-answer session at the open house, Kittredge and University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69 defended the decision to move the station, arguing that it is the only way that traffic in the neighborhood can be kept under control.

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Kittredge said that with drivers headed to the Dinky, Wawa, McCarter Theatre and the new arts complex all converging in the same area, congestion would be inevitable.

He explained in an interview before the meeting that he had reviewed Wilkes’ proposals but that he still believes the current plans are superior. “We think that the plan as we proposed it, and thought through with a lot of traffic analysis, solves all of the problems in the best way,” he said.

Wilkes’ plans are similar to earlier plans that Beyer, Blinder, Belle considered, Kittredge said, but those plans were abandoned when simulations of traffic flow revealed unsolvable problems.

Improvements that the University is making to the area will make riding the Dinky a more pleasant experience than it is now despite the 460-foot move, Durkee said in an interview before the meeting.

The Jitney service introduced earlier this year and currently funded by the University will provide an alternative to walking in inclement weather, Durkee noted.

“For those who do walk, the area that they walk through and the amenities that will be available to them will be much livelier and much more attractive than the experience now,” Durkee added.

Decreased traffic in the area will make dropping off commuters easier, Durkee explained, adding that the new station will have a waiting room “with restrooms and a newsstand.”

“So we’ll see if people agree that those benefits outweigh the disadvantages,” he said.

For many Princeton residents, however, the journey to the station may be more important than what they find at the destination. “I moved to Princeton because I don’t like driving,” Carroll said. “My ideal would be to walk to the Dinky ... and head off to my out-of-town trip, trailing backpack or suitcase along.”