5 lightweights seek election in Hackensack

This eyesore is among several shuttered storefronts on just 2 blocks of Main Street in Hackensack, on either side of Banta Place. See photos below.

A barber on Banta Place says the street hasn't been paved in 30 years.

Jerome J. Lombardo is chairman of C.J. Lombardo Co., as well as chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2004 to promote Main Street and attract people to the shopping district. It's also called the Upper Main Alliance, because it doesn't represent all of Main Street.

No one is beating down the door to rent space on Main Street.

Another failed restaurant on Main Street.

When did Phiefer's, one of Hackensack's oldest restaurants, close?

Is it a conflict for Jerome Lombardo to own a lot of real estate on Main Street and head the public-private alliance that is pushing for redevelopment, with the full backing of a City Council that is trying to hold onto power in Tuesday's election?

The once-majestic United Jersey Bank headquarters on Main Street.

Maybe the Upper Main Alliance should have tried animal sacrifices to revive Main Street before this botanica was closed by a fire last week.

The 5 City Council candidates in the so-called Open Government slate are so many puppets whose strings are being pulled by the powerful political forces that have brought Hackensack to its knees.

Voters on Tuesday could elect independent Victor E. Sasson and other reformers who want to revive the city (vote Lines 11, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Or, apathetic voters might allow the Open Government slate (Lines 6-10) to win and continue to line the pockets of lawyers, developers and other insiders who have thrived under the decades-long rule of the Zisa family.

'Dragon Lady'

Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss, is a protege of longtime party bigwig Joseph Ferriero and the power behind Ken Zisa, the disgraced former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief (see Page 1 of The Record today).

On Saturday, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the widow of a longtime state senator shamed themselves by ignoring Hackensack's corrupt past and endorsing the Open Government slate -- in a display of divisive party politics.
 

Warehouses and other commercial businesses coexist uncomfortably with homes on Hobart Street in Hackensack, above, and near Elizabeth Street, below. With no park in the neighborhood, children use parking lots for recreation on weekends.

 

Candidate Victor E. Sasson is independent and honest, and owes no favors to special interests, unlike members of "the Zisa slate."

Mental lightweights

Let's take a look at the Zisa slate's 5 candidates:

• As a Hackensack police officer, Kenneth Martin couldn't spell "ambulance" and other words when writing reports. His first dumb move as a candidate was to remove opponents' signs in full view of a store surveillance camera.
• Jason Nunnermacker is a well-fed corporate lawyer and school trustee who has never spoken during the campaign about what he has accomplished in more than a year on the Board of Education. 
• Joanne Mania Colon boasts of more than 20 years of service as a volunteer on the city Planning Board, which has allowed the construction of warehouses next to homes, exposing residents to noise and fumes in their own backyards.
• Joseph Barreto is an educator in Manhattan -- not Hackensack -- and doesn't even send his children to the city's public schools.
• Scott Young apparently doesn't have what it takes to become a member of the city's Police Department, and is a volunteer or "special" officer.   

Lies, not reform
 
Campaign material sent out by the Open Government slate has been filled with lies and distortions about reformers on the Citizens for Change team, including Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term.