October 28, 2015
A Place With a Unique Personality:
Princeton by the Numbers
Ralph Widner
Compiler, "Princeton: A Statistical Portrait,"
and the Princeton Community Databank
A Place With a Unique Personality:
Princeton by the Numbers
Ralph Widner
Compiler, "Princeton: A Statistical Portrait,"
and the Princeton Community Databank
Ralph Widner, Speaker Owen Leach, Introducer
Minutes of the Seventh Meeting of the 74th Year
SPEAKER: Ralph R. Widner, Compiler of "Statistical Portrait of Princeton" and "Princeton Community Database"
Topic: Princeton's Unique Personality: Princeton 'By the Numbers'
CALL TO ORDER: The Old Guard of Princeton's seventh meeting of its 74th year came to
order.
INVOCATION: Arthur Eschenlauer
MINUTES: Minutes of the October 21 st meeting were read by Richard Fenn.
Copies of all minutes are available on the Old Guard website.
GUESTS:
Host Guest(s)
Ralph Widner Joan Widner (wife)
Marvin Reed Pat Henry
David Scott Ruth Scott (wife)
ATTENDANCE: 101
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Our next meeting will take place Wednesday, November 4, in the Convocation Room of the
Friend Center. The meeting will begin with a hospitality hour starting at 9:30 am. Our speaker will be Priscilla Roosevelt, Fellow of the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies,
George Washington University. Her talk will be entitled: "Serfdom and Splendor: The World of the Russian Country Estate."
Owen Leach introduced the speaker, Ralph R'. Widner, our member and Venues Committee
Chairman. Mr. Widner retired to Princeton after 45 years as a regional planning and development director who was involved in economic and social development issues in communities and areas throughout the United States and Europe. He authored over 100 papers and four books on economic and source development and taught at The Ohio State University and The University of Southern Calitòrnia's Washington D.C. Center.
PRINCETON'S UNIQUE PERSONALITY: PRINCETON 'BY THE NUMBERS'
Mr. Widner opened his remarks with the suggestion that the Town of Princeton should work together with Princeton University to develop a strategic plan capable of meeting future challenges that threaten economic development in the region. He emphasized that creative approaches to development in the town, and indeed, in the surrounding areas, are tied to the University and its approach to strategic planning. Many economic geographers believe that we are now living in an era of national development fueled by education and innovation and that the old manufacturing model with few educated workers is no longer viable. Princeton, stated Mr. Widner, is a prototype of a "brains town"; yet, it is the smallest "host community" of the 35 top research universities in the world. The town is, for this reason, more dependent on the University than are other larger communities, for example, the relationship between Harvard and MIT to Cambridge and the Boston area generally.
In this context, measurement is important and, to this purpose, a new comprehensive database has been compiled for our community. As Princeton's newest Nobel laureate, Angus Deaton warns: "(l) Measurement is important; otherwise we have no way to gauge our progress. (2) Beware of averages; always look under the hood. (3) Make sure your assumptions tally with the facts." And, Mr. Widner adds, beware of ways in which artificial borders between communities can distort or hide the realities of our daily life.
The data informs that Princeton has both a larger percentage of those in the "young" population group (college students) and in the "over 70" population group, larger than is found in the rest of New Jersey, or even the nation. Moreover, as the "Baby Boomers" reach age 60, by the year 2032 Princeton will have a percentage of seniors almost equal to its percentage of college students.
The challenge facing the University and the town concerns the recruitment and retention of educated individuals aged 24 to 45. Those in this age group want to work in a "vibrant" location with opportunities to meet others at work and socially, to collaborate with their peers, and to switch jobs easily, among other things. Equally telling, they want reasonable commutes coupled with a rich cultural environment. Because Princeton is small, even though it ranks high as a center of education and innovation (based on the number of college-educated residents, the quality of scientific programs at the University and the percent of patents per million residents), it cannot provide the environment sought by those in the 24 to 45 year age group. Only if the towns around Princeton, Princeton itself, and the University work together can that challenge be met.
We need to retrofit business and research parks to take care of residents and offer other mixed uses to accommodate this highly educated workforce.
We need to work with the towns around us to keep and develop affordable housing in an area where the cost of living, and particularly the cost of housing, is already high.
We need to attract entrepreneurial immigrant talent that is diverse racially and ethnically, as in the case of our growing Asian population and its contribution to economic growth in the region.
We need to deal with the traffic problems created by the office park development model and exacerbated by "passing through" traffic from and to the urban centers of the northeast and elsewhere.
We need to put talented people in a room, people from the greater Princeton area, business people, civic leaders, community members and others who want to contribute to our future, to plan, strategically and through an organized process, and to develop regional solutions for creating a community attractive to those who now — and will in the future — participate in the new economy.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Poritz
Topic: Princeton's Unique Personality: Princeton 'By the Numbers'
CALL TO ORDER: The Old Guard of Princeton's seventh meeting of its 74th year came to
order.
INVOCATION: Arthur Eschenlauer
MINUTES: Minutes of the October 21 st meeting were read by Richard Fenn.
Copies of all minutes are available on the Old Guard website.
GUESTS:
Host Guest(s)
Ralph Widner Joan Widner (wife)
Marvin Reed Pat Henry
David Scott Ruth Scott (wife)
ATTENDANCE: 101
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Our next meeting will take place Wednesday, November 4, in the Convocation Room of the
Friend Center. The meeting will begin with a hospitality hour starting at 9:30 am. Our speaker will be Priscilla Roosevelt, Fellow of the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies,
George Washington University. Her talk will be entitled: "Serfdom and Splendor: The World of the Russian Country Estate."
Owen Leach introduced the speaker, Ralph R'. Widner, our member and Venues Committee
Chairman. Mr. Widner retired to Princeton after 45 years as a regional planning and development director who was involved in economic and social development issues in communities and areas throughout the United States and Europe. He authored over 100 papers and four books on economic and source development and taught at The Ohio State University and The University of Southern Calitòrnia's Washington D.C. Center.
PRINCETON'S UNIQUE PERSONALITY: PRINCETON 'BY THE NUMBERS'
Mr. Widner opened his remarks with the suggestion that the Town of Princeton should work together with Princeton University to develop a strategic plan capable of meeting future challenges that threaten economic development in the region. He emphasized that creative approaches to development in the town, and indeed, in the surrounding areas, are tied to the University and its approach to strategic planning. Many economic geographers believe that we are now living in an era of national development fueled by education and innovation and that the old manufacturing model with few educated workers is no longer viable. Princeton, stated Mr. Widner, is a prototype of a "brains town"; yet, it is the smallest "host community" of the 35 top research universities in the world. The town is, for this reason, more dependent on the University than are other larger communities, for example, the relationship between Harvard and MIT to Cambridge and the Boston area generally.
In this context, measurement is important and, to this purpose, a new comprehensive database has been compiled for our community. As Princeton's newest Nobel laureate, Angus Deaton warns: "(l) Measurement is important; otherwise we have no way to gauge our progress. (2) Beware of averages; always look under the hood. (3) Make sure your assumptions tally with the facts." And, Mr. Widner adds, beware of ways in which artificial borders between communities can distort or hide the realities of our daily life.
The data informs that Princeton has both a larger percentage of those in the "young" population group (college students) and in the "over 70" population group, larger than is found in the rest of New Jersey, or even the nation. Moreover, as the "Baby Boomers" reach age 60, by the year 2032 Princeton will have a percentage of seniors almost equal to its percentage of college students.
The challenge facing the University and the town concerns the recruitment and retention of educated individuals aged 24 to 45. Those in this age group want to work in a "vibrant" location with opportunities to meet others at work and socially, to collaborate with their peers, and to switch jobs easily, among other things. Equally telling, they want reasonable commutes coupled with a rich cultural environment. Because Princeton is small, even though it ranks high as a center of education and innovation (based on the number of college-educated residents, the quality of scientific programs at the University and the percent of patents per million residents), it cannot provide the environment sought by those in the 24 to 45 year age group. Only if the towns around Princeton, Princeton itself, and the University work together can that challenge be met.
We need to retrofit business and research parks to take care of residents and offer other mixed uses to accommodate this highly educated workforce.
We need to work with the towns around us to keep and develop affordable housing in an area where the cost of living, and particularly the cost of housing, is already high.
We need to attract entrepreneurial immigrant talent that is diverse racially and ethnically, as in the case of our growing Asian population and its contribution to economic growth in the region.
We need to deal with the traffic problems created by the office park development model and exacerbated by "passing through" traffic from and to the urban centers of the northeast and elsewhere.
We need to put talented people in a room, people from the greater Princeton area, business people, civic leaders, community members and others who want to contribute to our future, to plan, strategically and through an organized process, and to develop regional solutions for creating a community attractive to those who now — and will in the future — participate in the new economy.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Poritz