Missing the real story about Teterboro Airport

Frequently patched but not repaved since 1979, this stretch of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack's Fairmount section gives drivers a rough ride on the way to Summit Avenue. It's one of many streets that have been neglected as taxes have risen.

Business jets on the way to Teterboro Airport roar overhead and appear to skim the rooftops of Prospect Avenue high-rises in Hackensack. Residents get the noise and passengers on the jets get to sip single-malt whisky as their planes touch down gently.

Residents of Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns who have complained bitterly about aircraft noise took a quick look at the Page 1 photo of a man pointing a revolver skyward and thought:

Someone has finally acted out their fantasy of trying to scare away the multimillion-dollar aircraft.

The Record's story on bird strikes completely misses the point about Teterboro Airport, which continues to have a huge negative impact on the quality of life in Bergen County.

This is really a story about the 1%: all of the wealthy owners of those business jets, including Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg.

And how they are pitted against the 99%: homeowners and apartment dwellers whose complaints have fallen on the deaf ears of the editors and the Port Authority, which owns and operates the airport, and rakes in tens of millions of dollars in landing fees.

Has the Woodland Park daily ever covered a meeting of the airport's liaison committee, which includes a Hackensack City Council member and other officials?

Dissing Hackensack 

A second front-page story -- on towns that turn public services over to the private sector -- discusses a half-dozen communities among the 90 or so in North Jersey, and ignores the most diverse -- Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

In the past several years, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, seem to have made a conscious decision to concentrate coverage on the wealthy or mostly white towns in Bergen County.

Vote against women

A letter to the editor accuses Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, of standing with his friends in the Tea Party, not with the women of New Jersey, when he voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (A-9).

Garrett is the moron in Congress residents of Hackensack, Fair Lawn and most of Teaneck, among other towns, are stuck with after he was reelected in November.

Residents have The Record to thank for writing off his Democratic challenger, and concentrating its coverage on the arch-conservative Garrett. 

Rote journalism  

Today's Local section contains no news of Hackensack except a photo taken at the middle school (L-3).

Check out the imaginative over line for the beautiful photo by Kevin R. Wexler: "THAT'S DANCING".

No. That's a bored copy editor.