To the Editor:

Yina Moore’s term as mayor of Princeton Borough was short, but distinguished. That it was distinguished should surprise no one.

Yina is uniquely informed, both by an intimate, first hand knowledge of our town’s history and by decades of training in the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, engineering, and transportation. Few of our recent mayors and elected officials have been blessed with her generations-long associations with Princeton, its neighborhoods, and its institutions. No mayor in recent memory — of either municipality – was remotely her equal in evaluating large scale development proposals and anticipating the often adverse consequences of proposed zoning changes.

Yina put her knowledge to good use in her twin roles as the most outspoken member of the Planning Board and the last mayor of our historic Borough. Recognizing the risks inherent in the process of combining two municipalities with very different priorities, she has been in the habit of taking courageous, far-sighted, and often lonely positions — in the process making herself a reliably effective advocate for the core neighborhoods and traditions that have long defined our lovely town.

Thank you, Yina, for persevering in the face of smears and denunciations that seemed to this resident often to be slanderous. Would that your term had been longer and your initiatives less overwhelmed by the exigencies of consolidation. I hope you remain actively engaged. We need your wise counsel now more than ever.

Peter Marks

Moore Street