To the Editor:

While I am not a resident of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, I would like to share some of my observations about the conflict over the proposal to consider the designation of the neighborhood as a historical district and one that is referred to as historically African-American.

As we learned from the presentation on November 30, the neighborhood was never exclusively African-American. There were Irish and Italian immigrants also in the neighborhood at various times, as there are now a number of Hispanic residents (whose needs interestingly were not represented at all at the “crowded” meeting last Monday).

Although there are significant buildings in that neighborhood that ought to be preserved and protected — such as the African-American churches; the Dorothea House for its significance to the Italian residents of Princeton; places related to Paul Robeson, an outstanding resident of the neighborhood, his birthplace; the African-American cemetery — much of the neighborhood can use a facelift. There are also some buildings that would no longer serve the needs of residents where a teardown may be the best solution. Let’s not preserve poverty and decay.

There are two arguments I would like to make against designating the neighborhood historical and favoring its African-American constituency.

1) Such favoring of the African-American neighbors, although it may sound politically correct in our time, could create hostility between the different ethnic groups that make up the current neighborhood. It is not a move toward “coexist” and respect, but one toward resentment.

2) Hearing from residents who already live in historically designated neighborhoods that the cost of repair and upkeep to maintain historically approved looks can become prohibitive and thus can lead to decline and deterioration, rather than preservation, would discourage people moving into the neighborhood and providing the facelift.

I would like to recommend that the Council and the mayor of Princeton designate historically valuable property protected in the neighborhood, look at each house not as a district, but as an individual case when evaluating whether it should be preserved rather than replaced with something new. Such a one-by-one evaluation could be sensitive to all residents of that neighborhood and may add to its revival rather than freeze it in time and space for the emotionally motivated reasons of a few.

Ilona Melker

Valley Road