A reader -- not the paper -- finds Sandy's big lesson

On Oct. 29, a big tree fell, taking down power lines on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack.

The big lesson of Hurricane Sandy and the recovery effort in New Jersey has been all over The Record's front page for about a week now, but it took a reader to connect the dots.

Yes, Bernardo Guterman of Riverdale says today in a letter to the editor, the federal government worked while the private sector failed us big time (A-12).

In a rebuke to Republicans who claim the private sector can do a better job delivering services, Guterman points out that in the aftermath of Sandy, "most roads are open, public transportation is coming back [and] mail is being delivered."

Guterman, who wrote his letter Nov. 3, didn't mention all the federal assistance President Obama delivered to New Jersey, earning the praise of even Governor Christie, the GOP's attack dog. 

Government works

"It's time to reevaluate the dogma of the Reagen era and recognize that some services ... are best delivered by the government and then must be funded appropriately, and that the private sector is not that good in the business of taking care of people in need," Guterman says.

"Hundreds of thousands of homes are still waiting to get power reconnected, thousands of motorists are spending long hours trying to get their tanks filled, and the cable and phone trucks are nowhere to be seen," he wrote on Nov. 3.

A glaring example is Public Service Electric and Gas Co., a private company with the monopoly on delivering electricity and natural gas in New Jersey.

Ten days, no power

Ten days after Sandy hit, homes and businesses remain without power, but at least the lines of cars at gas stations have evaporated.

A nor'easter that hit Wednesday caused more damage, and will delay the restoration of electricity.

In Hackensack today, more than a dozen traffic lights along Hudson and River streets were out or flashing yellow.

The H Mart in Little Ferry reopened on Wednesday, but it's heating system was knocked out. Today, shoppers and workers shivered inside the big Korean supermarket.  

Even a loud mouth like Christie can't get PSE&G to move faster, and the only ones listening to all those complaining mayors in Bergen and Passaic counties are reporters for The Record (A-1).

No more politics

Readers cheered the end of the long, expensive presidential campaign -- and all of the clueless media coverage -- but Editor Marty Gottlieb hit them with three political stories on Page 1 today.

One came from The Washington Post, and The Record's biased political reporters cranked out the others.

Isn't it time to get rid of Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, who gave far more extensive and favorable coverage to Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, than he did to the challenger, Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen, a Democrat?

Writing off Gussen

Was it Jackson or his assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, who decided to write off Gussen's campaign, but who gave lavish coverage to Englewood Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's challenge to Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson? 

These so-called journalists couldn't have been more wrong.

If you look at the vote totals in Wednesday's paper, Gussen came far closer to unseating the incumbent than did Boteach (A-3).

The Teaneck Democrat got 43% of the vote in the 5th Congressional District, compared to 55% for Garrett.

Boteach, on the other hand, received only 23% of the vote in the 9th District against Pascrell's 76%. 

Stale Stile

And aren't readers sick and tired of Staff Writer Charles Stile's fawning coverage of Christie in column after column (A-1)? 

Flawed home rule

Hurricane Sandy showed the federal government works, but local government is another matter.

Look at the pathetic efforts of volunteer firefighters in Mahwah to save a garage in a Boy Scout camp and four condominiums, all destroyed by fire (Local front).

Give me a professional fire department every time. That's why I live in Hackensack after many years in Englewood, both of which have professional departments.  

I'd be scared to live in a town with volunteers fighting fires. The use of volunteers firefighters -- presumably to keep property taxes down -- is just another reason to get rid of home rule. 

Where is Hackensack?

The front of today's Signature section carries photos and a long story about the Hackensack River by Staff Writer Stephanie Akin.

Akin is the reporter assigned to Hackensack -- the city, not the river -- but she hasn't reported any municipal news for many weeks.

Let's hope Sykes and Sforza don't find out about Hackensack, Minn., or they'll be sending Akin to freeze her ass off there.

Copy editing

The Record is now referring to Hurricane Sandy as "superstorm Sandy."

Why the lower-case "s"? It should be "Superstorm" or "Super Storm."

Where is Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the copy desk, on vacation in Hackensack, Minn.? 

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