More strikes against home rule

Image by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region via Flickr

The Great Swamp really was swamped by Hurricane Irene.

Today's editorial blames "civilization" -- not all those poorly run North Jersey towns desperate for ratables -- for repeated flooding that crested with the destruction of Hurricane Irene.


The editorial on Page A-20 of The Record of Woodland Park says:


"Environmentalists and state environmental officials have spent years shouting into the void that paving over flood plains, building houses in flood plains and generally ceding common sense to the lure of commercial development is about as wrong a move as civilization can make."


Of course, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin knows the shouting should have been at all those petty officials who hammer homeowners with high property taxes to run their expensive, inefficient home-rule towns, so why doesn't he say so?


Power plays


And how many businesses and homeowners have to lose power and sustain millions of dollars in damages before building officials insist that any new wires be installed underground, and that utilities begin to take down poles and put wires out of harm's way (A-1)?


Why do readers need an A-1 news story on the reopening of roads and a Road Warrior column on the same subject (Local front)?


In the second story marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, what's the big deal about the rate of volunteerism falling from 28.8% in 2005 to 26.3% in 2010, and why did Editor Francis Scandale put the story on Page 1?


The only good thing about the piece by Staff Writer Harvy Lipman is the non-profit reporter's byline has been appearing more than once a week lately.


Why does Doblin's A-21 column on President Obama carry a headline with a really unfortunate double entendre: "Can you come later?"


Office-driven coverage


Four days after gawkers invaded some flooded Bergen County neighborhoods to make light of homeowners' misery, a story appears on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section.


Apparently, no reporters or photographers visited those same neighborhoods until Thursday -- cementing the assignment desk's reputation as the laziest in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.


With all the news generated by the hurricane, tropical storm or whatever it was, it's a wonder Sykes found room on L-2 today for a photo and caption updating readers on telephone-pole news.


On L-3, a story and photo caption don't tell readers a police officer rescued the the driver from his smoking tanker truck until the fourth paragraph.


Stale review

In Better Living, the mouth-watering photos on the cover and Pages 16-17 deliver more than Gregory T's, an upscale diner in Emerson, where the "tough" prime rib "bore a grayish pallor," tortilla chips were stale and the crab cakes hid tiny pieces of shell.


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung delivers the kiss of death with a 2-star rating -- what she gives to a mediocre chain restaurant.


The features copy editor also lost his way in writing the caption for three food photos in the centerfold, describing the photo on the left  as "far left."