To the Editor:

I have to assume that our elected officials were either completely bamboozled by consultants or do not have an ounce of sense. Why else would they change from a perfectly good parking payment system to the new one?

As a longtime Princeton resident, I have frequently supported restaurants and businesses in town. No longer. We are relegated to fumbling with change purses or struggling to read dark meters. Or, we are forced into a $1 minimum should we opt for a credit card. And rates have ballooned to pay for these undesired changes. On principle, I refuse to use an app with a 35 cent surcharge per (often small) transaction. I will continue to visit the library, but I presume the library lot will be ‘full’ with greater frequency, as visitors avoid on-street parking.

So, while there are already quite a number of empty Princeton storefronts, I would expect that number will grow as other Princetonians, like me, opt to take their business elsewhere due to this unnecessary change.

Kristine Olson

Lawrenceville Road