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What's answer to city's billion dollar question?It's the first day of summer and, consequently, the longest day of the year. We're to have 15 hours and 37 minutes of daylight today. Trouble is, the sun has slipped behind the clouds, the wind is blowing and the 60-degree temperature at 8:15 Monday night feels like 50 degrees, or colder. Spectators sit huddled in jackets or long-sleeved shirts, along with pants instead of shorts that we're hoping for by now, as the Princeton Legion baseball team plays the team from Hopkins at Solheim Veterans Field in Mark Park. No one is at the city's splash park and the usual parade of walkers, runners and people pushing strollers is not in evidence. It's too cold on the first day of summer in our northern existence. Coming on the heels of one of the wettest, coolest Mays on record in Minnesota - as this weather does - one could even ask the question about why we live here. And to make matters worse, one of the largest crop of mosquitoes in years is buzzing around out there, even on a cool night that seems too cold for them. But there definitely is something attractive about the Minnesota quality of life and, yes, the Princeton quality of life, even if we are slow about spraying for mosquitoes. If you need evidence of that because, let's say, you're one of those people who criticizes many things about Princeton, just go downtown in the morning or afternoon. Wait, as I did twice today, for more than 30 cars to pass in both directions before being able to cross the street. Or foolishly try to get onto Rum River Drive in the morning by making a left turn, instead of taking back streets to the main intersection and the signal lights. Maybe you should take a drive by the hospital on the south edge of town where construction is speeding along for an additional floor, as well as additional construction and some remodeling. They're not doing that because they're getting fewer and fewer patients. Or, for that matter, try to get into the medical clinic on a Monday morning and see how patient you really are. Fourteen portable classrooms in use in the school district should also tell you something about how crowded things are there, with people moving into the district constantly. If somebody tells you, or writes a letter to the editor saying enrollment is going to go down, try to arrange a reality check, as WCCO-TV calls a feature on its news shows. Or maybe listen as Tim Dalton, director of Princeton Community Education, gives the school board an estimate that says population in the school district has increased from 17,011 two years ago to 20,087 (an 18.1-percent increase). It's an estimate based on housing starts, with a multiplier of 2.9 people per home, and shows Baldwin Township with 6,300 people this past April, compared to 5,500 24 months earlier, Or 4,600 in Princeton, compared to 4,150 in April 2002. After an American Legion meeting last week our discussion was about the country's billion dollar question: Was the United States right to go to Iraq, have we done the right things there, and what will happen when we leave? We're faced with somewhat the same problem here concerning growth. Are we doing the right things? What should we do differently? And where will we be five years from now with a sprawled-out city? Will we be better off or will we wish things had been done differently? Anyone have the answer to Princeton's billion dollar question? Princeton Union-Eagle |
