According to a consultant hired by the Princeton Council to study whether the Princeton Shopping Center neighborhood should be declared an area in need of redevelopment, the shopping center is a sea of underused parking fields, the courtyard area in the middle of the center rarely sees much activity, the configuration of the center is terrible, the infrastructure is ancient, and the vacancy rate is alarming but has nothing to do with the pandemic. “It’s about to go into the abyss if it hasn’t already,” planner Carlos Rodrigues told the Princeton Planning Board on Thursday evening when discussing the shopping center’s vacancy rate, which he estimated to be 19.5 percent or higher.