Editorial: Jachera for mayor

Tomorrow, Nov. 8th, two candidates will face off in the election for mayor of Princeton Borough: Yina Moore ’79, the Democrat, and Jill Jachera, the Republican. Princeton students constitute 40 percent of the residents in the Borough, and tomorrow’s election is a chance for students to make a meaningful difference in local politics; as such, we encourage all registered students to vote. Furthermore, we endorse Jill Jachera in the race.

Given the scope of the University’s presence in the operations of the Borough, town-gown relations are an issue of extreme importance in the election. Of the two candidates, Jachera has demonstrated a greater interest in student concerns and a greater dedication to pursuing concrete measures that would improve relations between campus and the broader Princeton community.

The difference between the two candidates’ receptivity to student concerns is perhaps best reflected in their willingness to devote valuable campaign time to addressing students. While Jachera attended an event on campus, sponsored by the Whig-Cliosophic Society and P-Votes, in which she was able to hear and respond to students’ opinions about local affairs, Moore failed to do so, despite the extraordinary measures taken to accommodate her, including rescheduling multiple times and permitting her to choose the time and date of the event. Though we understand that Moore is an active community member, her lack of willingness to make time for student concerns indicates that she does not consider them to be of substantial importance. We believe it unlikely that a candidate unconcerned with students’ interests will be effective at fairly taking those interests into consideration when considering the University’s place in town affairs.

Jachera, by contrast, has both made improved town-gown relations an important principle of her platform and adopted positions responsive to student concerns in a variety of concrete policy debates. To begin, she has proposed general measures to improve the quality of dialogue between the Borough and the University. She advocates the establishment of a Student’s Commission, which would meet with the mayor on a quarterly basis, acting as a direct liaison between the student body and the community; she would also create a Mayor’s Recognition Award, granted each year to students who volunteer in the Princeton community. From her support of directing 911 calls from eating clubs to Public Safety rather than Borough Police to her support of the proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood in the Alexander corridor, Jachera’s policy proposals consider the interests of Princeton students, who, after all, do comprise much of the town’s population, in addition to those of unaffiliated residents.

Of course, the attention she pays to town-gown relations is not the only consideration in our support of Jachera; she is a thoughtful candidate with compelling views on a variety of local issues. Given the small size of the Borough and the large size of the University, though, the relationship between the two is among the most important issues for a mayor; furthermore, as students, it is clearly the most crucial for us. Thus, we believe that Jachera is the best choice in tomorrow’s election.