Quite soon, Princeton, Texas — the city I have called home for the past six years — is going to assume a title I don’t think anyone ever wants for their community.
Princeton will become known as the City to Avoid at Rush Hour.
How do I know that? Because the Texas Department of Transportatio is going to lay waste to the major east-west thoroughfare that runs straight through the middle of Princeton.
U.S. Highway 380 is going under the bulldozer’s front as TxDOT starts to expand the highway from four lanes to six. Here, though, is the kicker: To expand the highway, TxDOT is going to narrow it, turning it from a four-lane right-of-way to a two-lane.
None of this, I hasten to add, will have much to do with the construction of the freeway bypass TxDOT is planning along the 380 route from Denton to Greenville.
One can argue that Princeton already has the Rush Hour ban label already. Traffic slows to a near stop west bound in the morning and east bound in the aftenoon along U.S. 380. I try to wrap my noodle around what will happen when TxDOT decides to narrow the highway from four lanes to two. It boggles my noggin.
To be candid, at my relatively advanced age I don’t expect to live long enough to see the completion of the bypass route around Princeton. Or around any of the other cities along the 380 route for that matter.
The state is facing some serious property condemnation issues as it seeks to purchase the land on which to carve the new highway. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution does require government to give “just compensation” for property it takes as its own. It’s going to be mighty expensive to build it … you know?
I long have favored development. I want my community to grow and to prosper. I believe Princeton will prosper once the highway gets improved and once the state finishes its bypass project.
But damn! The nightmarish inconvenience of it will make it mighty difficult to anticipate good things when the end of the work arrives.
I believe Princeton needs an identity to give the city a personality. This isn’t quite the ID I anticipated for the city where I choose to live.