When you add up the numbers, we're screwed

NJ Transit says you cannot take a bus from Hackensack to the ferry terminal off of River Road (Port Imperial Boulevard) in Weehawken, above. Parking in a lot near the terminal is $13 or $15 in a garage, and the round-trip senior fare is $16.50. 

The ferry approaching the Manhattan terminal.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One of the funniest things I've read in The Record appears on Page 1 today.

Jane Huang of Alpine says of the parcel she sold for $5 million -- more than doubling what she paid in 2002:

"Where can you find 2 acres 15 minutes from midtown Manhattan?" 

Doesn't add up

Let's hope she didn't use that bit of fiction as a selling point, because the sad state of mass transit and growing traffic congestion makes that trip possible only in the middle of the night.

Why is this gee-whiz real estate story out front when readers find only a few paragraphs on Page 1 about the sad state of New Jersey's economy under Governor Christie?

New Jersey has lost 1,900 jobs so far this year (A-1 and B-1).

"New Jersey's labor market is going nowhere slowly," said one researcher. "Nothing stands out as a reason to be optimistic about where we are going."

Lazy editors

Other numbers could lift our spirits, but The Record's lazy editors didn't bother localizing the lead Page 1 story on the Affordable Care Act signing up 8 million people (A-1).

So, The Associated Press story tells readers California's state-run insurance exchange signed up 1.4 million, outpacing estimates.

But there are no numbers for New Jersey, where Christie sabotaged the roll-out by refusing to set up a state exchange or even use more than $7 million in federal funds to market federal health insurance.

Christie, Zisa

In a letter to the editor, Paula Rogovin of Teaneck says she and other taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the whitewash report clearing Christie of any wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge lane closures (A-12).

Christie hired the lawyers that wrote the report, and their firm donated money to the Republican Governors Association, which the GOP bully chairs.

"Instead," she wrote, "let's use the $1 million to pay for health and mental health services, jobs, education and housing for ... veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan."

In a second letter, this one reacting to an editorial about the corrupt Ken Zisa, Hackensack City Councilman Leo Battaglia notes:

 "The city was was too tightly controlled by the political machine headed by Zisa and his circle of powerful political cronies for anyone to challenge their power."

Battaglia, a member of the reform slate that took office last July, says, "The abuse of power and the intimidation of employees and citizens will not be tolerated by this council."

Editors on vacation

Today's Local section is filled mostly with Law & Order news.

Does the hanging of a portrait of Fair Lawn Officer Mary Ann Collura 11 years after her death really merit all of that coverage on L-1 today?

A story on vacant retail highway sites (B-1) has many readers wondering why Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to ignore all of the empty storefronts in Englewood, Hackensack and other downtowns.

Bridge crowd

Fort Lee's mayor eats there, and you can read the resumes of the owner and chef in Staff Writer Elisa Ung's lukewarm review (BL-16). 

Who cares? G.W. Grill sounds like it is still finding its way as a restaurant:

"Chewy" salmon, "rather resilient rings of calamari," "heavy fusilli," "searing hot" desserts and a cocktail served with "a dirty straw."

Really disgusting.

Ung notes the owner believed Fort Lee, now dominated by Asian restaurants, needed "more of a neighborhood watering hole with American and Italian favorites."

This ain't it. I'll stick with ramen, sashimi, soft tofu and fiery kimchi.