Mayoral race gathers steam

Monday, October 27, 2003

By ROBERT STERN
 

PRINCETON BOROUGH - If election results in the borough since the mid-1990s are a good indicator, this year's mayoral contest between Democrat Joe O'Neill and Green Party candidate Steve Syrek won't be a taut horse race.

The borough's strong Democratic leanings would seem to give O'Neill, a 69-year-old retired education consultant, the clear advantage.

Syrek, a 25-year-old graduate student, hopes to edge out his opponent by tapping into voters' concerns about downtown overdevelopment that he says the Democrats are promoting.

Since the mid-1990s, Democrats have won every borough election with ease.

They hold all six council seats and the mayor's post.

There isn't even a Republican seeking the mayor's office, even though Marvin Reed, the borough's Democratic mayor, is not running for re-election.

And while registered Republican Alan Hegedus is running for one of two council terms at stake this year, he is doing so as an independent.

Hegedus and running mate Mark Alexandridis are campaigning under the Princeton Party banner in a bid to unseat incumbent Councilwomen Wendy Benchley and Margaret "Peggy" Karcher, who are Democrats.

But the O'Neill-Syrek race may be the one to watch because no matter who wins, the borough will have a new mayor for the first time in 13 years.

If he is elected mayor for the next four years, O'Neill said he will have a two-pronged agenda early on. One would be to fashion some plan to ensure that municipal employees are recognized publicly for their work.

The other would focus on development, with the key issues there being the future of the University Medical Center at Princeton and the fate of the long-stalled plan by Palmer Square to build 97 condominiums on the unfinished northern end of its complex along Hulfish Street, O'Neill said.

"I see us facing over the next four years a transformation of downtown Princeton, and I include the hospital in that," O'Neill said.

"The hospital and Palmer Square, even though they're about four blocks apart, have a tremendous impact on the entire downtown," he said.

"So, over the next six months, we are going to be shaping the spaces, the look, the feel of a very central part of Princeton Borough," O'Neill said, adding that public forums must play a key role.

The board of the Princeton HealthCare System, which governs the hospital, has been working on a long-term strategic plan for the hospital.

That plan could entail expanding its Witherspoon Street home or building a secondary campus in the Princeton area that might one day replace the existing facility.

Syrek, for his part, says O'Neill and most of his Democratic colleagues on council are too quick to accept the notion that development is inevitable and good for Princeton.

"Their idea of positive change is progress without end: building new things, creating new things, constantly trying to prime the pump with projects," Syrek said.

"It's not a sustainable solution to any of the problems that we think we have," Syrek said.

Alluding to the council-approved Spring Street garage and mixed-use complex under construction, Syrek said he would discourage the "rhetoric of redevelopment and progress that makes it sound like what they're doing is so positive and beneficial."

"This whole idea that you either grow or you die is ridiculous because perpetual growth is impossible," said Syrek, who is working toward a doctorate in English at Rutgers University.

But Syrek said he sees no need to pick fights with the council if he becomes mayor.

"If I'm elected, the last thing that I want to do is be hostile to the council because I do think they mean well," he said. "I just think they are somewhat ignorant or unwilling to address the real issues."