Wealthy Hackensack landowners tout failed strategy

This morning, residents of Hackensack awoke to a winter wonderland after a snowstorm that didn't come close to the "near blizzard" predicted in The Record's shrill report on Thursday -- part of the media's relentless weather hype. Some people who live on Euclid Avenue, above, found that neighbors with snow blowers had cleared sidewalks and driveways without waiting around for a thank-you.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In The Record today, you'll find Hackensack real estate executive Eric Anderson smiling broadly in a photo on A-6.

And why not? 

As head of Alexander Anderson Real Estate Group, Anderson and other wealthy property owners on or near the city's Main Street stand to make a killing from the development of luxury apartments.

In a couple of years, Anderson will be able to pose for another photo showing him laughing all the way to the bank with no guarantee Hackensack will have seen the end of its economic doldrums.

No worries

In a breathless Page 1 account today, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports that city officials and members of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, including Anderson, envision "a modern downtown with high-rise apartments, first-floor stores, green plazas and fashionable facades" (A-1).

That sounds a lot like the hundreds of luxury apartments that have already been built in Englewood, where empty storefronts continue to dot that city's downtown, and where entertainers often play to row upon row of empty seats at the Bergen Performing Arts Center.

Hackensack city plows work in a cross-hatch pattern, leaving corners untouched and difficult to negotiate for both drivers and pedestrians. Banks of snow in front of uncleared bus stops force riders to stand in the street or balance precariously on top of the snow.

Stale news

News of the snowstorm that hit North Jersey was really stale when the paper was delivered today -- about 4 hours late.

The Record's Woodland Park newsroom is nowhere near a 24-hour operation, and early deadlines resulted in pathetically thin coverage.

An A-1 photo caption describing Route 4 on Thursday night refers readers to another photo and a short story on L-2.

The L-2 photo looks staged. 

It shows a woman near a stopped bus with its doors open on Route 3 in Clifton, but apparently it's not the one Abby Endifru of Belleville is waiting for.

This morning, residents started clearing sidewalks and driveways, and municipal crews did their usual sloppy job of plowing streets and crosswalks, and leaving bus stops behind banks of snow.

Lazy editors

But don't expect Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and his lazy minions to suggest their reporters go out and rate towns on how well or how poorly they did in making streets safe for residents.

A story on the Local front reports a suspect smashed into two Hackensack police cars on Thursday afternoon, injuring two officers and "totaling" the vehicles (L-1).

But the one marked Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor shown in the big photo doesn't look anywhere near totaled.

Call an ambulance

After reading Staff Writer Elisa Ung's 3-star appraisal of such classics as fillet of sole with a brown-butter sauce and scallops "drenched in a vermouth cream sauce," I had to resist the urge to get my cholesterol checked (Better Living centerfold).

She describes the dishes served at Madeleine's Petit Paris in Northvale as "unabashedly rich," not unabashedly unhealthy (BL-12).

Ung also sampled artery clogging creme brulee, french fries, chocolate mousse and "big, puffed souffles."

Excuse me while I go and throw up.