Christie's worst nightmare steps up to the plate

Developer George Capodagli hired The Brownstone in Paterson to cater Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for his 6-story, 222-unit rental building at State and Warren streets in Hackensack. Completion is set for January 2015, and monthly rents will be $1,600 to $2,000. 

The lead story in The Record today reveals Governor Christie's worst nightmare -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker -- a strong Democratic leader who would have stolen votes away from him in the November election (A-1).

Booker jumped into the special primary and election to pick a successor to U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died last Monday.

Christie, once full of his usual bluster, now appears desperate to win a second term.

He jumped through hoops, told lies and was willing to squander $24 million to prevent senatorial candidates from appearing on his November ballot.

He obviously was trying to avoid a comparison to Booker, who is expected to make quick work of defeating his presumed Republican opponent, radical Steve Lonegan of Bogota. 

Christie's mismanagement of state finances also made Page 1 news today: 

A state appeals court has stopped the GOP bully from grabbing $160 million in affordable housing funds to balance his mean-spirited budget (A-1).

Wet race?

Another A-1 story -- on plans for a Formula One race through the streets of Weehawken next June, the weekend after the F1 race in Montreal -- doesn't say whether grandstands will be covered to protect New Jersey fans from heat or rain.

In the past, thousands of Montreal racegoers paid hundreds of dollars for seats in unprotected grandstands, then had to leave during downpours and never saw the end of the race.

Back to the source

The quality of food coverage has declined for years, ever since Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded the paper's Food section.

Today, the Better Living cover story on farmers' markets completely omits mention of Closter, where 28 stands offered fresh produce, artisan bread and other food last Sunday.

In fact, Closter's Sunday market is bigger than most of those mentioned in today's poorly reported story (BL-1).

Friday's paper

Now, four former governors have gotten into the act to save the Palisades from a high-rise corporate headquarters planned by LG, the South Korean electronics giant (not "South Korean-based," as in the story on Friday's A-1).

Where were they when the Palisades south of the George Washington Bridge was defaced with one high rise after another?

A correction on Friday's L-2 is long enough to choke a horse.

Mouse that roars

The sub-headline on an A-18 editorial  ("Christie makes smart interim choice") sounds suspiciously like the headline on an A-19 opinion column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin ("Christie made the logical political choice").

Doblin, the mouse that roars, is incapable of writing a column without making references to Hollywood films or Broadway shows. 

Lazy warrior

Friday's Road Warrior column on Sen. Lautenberg's pivotal role in improving transportation only reminds readers of how little Staff Writer John Cichowski has written about mass transit since he took over the commuting column in September 2003 (L-1).

The burned-out, supremely lazy Cichowski prefers to base entire columns on the complaints about driving and other drivers he receives from his cranky readers, who love to see their names in print.

He even ran a question from John Balkun, The Record's assistant managing editor/sports (Wednesday's L-3). 

I guess that's better than making up comments, as he is suspected of doing in the past.

Main Street property owned by Jerome Lombardo, head of the public-private partnership pushing for redevelopment of the depressed shopping district, above and below.

Hackensack boom?

Friday's L-1 story on a groundbreaking in Hackensack quotes George Capodagli, the developer of a 222-unit rental building, with rents of $1,600 to $2,000:

"I'm bringing in the $20 martini people -- the rich and the famous."

The story reports a ribbon-cutting for Avalon Hackensack at Riverside, a 226-unit building near Route 4, and plans for "a full-service luxury residential building of more than 25,000 square feet" on Main Street.

The L-1 headline describes the three projects as a "residential building boom."

Englewood bust?

Englewood has four luxury apartment buildings or complexes, two of them downtown, but they have had no perceptible change in the fortunes of the Palisade Avenue shopping and dining district.

In the Hackensack story, Jerome Lombardo, chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, says:

"Nobody in North Jersey can beat Hackensack's location."

Lombardo hasn't disclosed how much property he owns on or near Main Street or how much he will profit from execution of the city's official Downtown Rehabilitation Plan.