New poll on Christie suggests he may very well be history

On a brisk morning in Paramus, the outside temperature of 10 degrees was tolerable, but the biting wind chill wasn't.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A new poll on Governor Christie's record low "favorability" rating could be just the excuse Editor Marty Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and Staff Writer Melissa Hayes need to take their swelled heads out of their oversized anuses.

Typical of how The Record plays anti-Christie stories, the poll on the GOP bully being viewed "unfavorably" by a majority of New Jersey voters -- for the first time since early 2010 -- is on A-3 today.

Precious space on Page 1 is reserved for yet another in a endless series of speculative stories on how one of Christie's policies will affect his White House dreams (A-1).

Meanwhile, the Woodland Park daily has taken little notice of how the Garden State has become choked with weeds since Christie's ascendancy.

Port Atrocity

Thanks to the governors of New Jersey and New York, patronage, cronyism, conflicts of interest and favorable treatment have been hallmarks of the Port Authority for decades (A-1 today and Thursday).

But The Record's editors have spent little time reporting the bi-state agency's only response to increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings has been to raise tolls, not to expand mass transit.

$541 v. $460,000

Two 20-year-old Paterson women facing robbery and related charges for allegedly shoplifting $541 from Lord & Taylor in Paramus could face jail time (L-2).

So, it's strange that former Ridgewood employee Thomas Rica was given probation for his systematic theft of $460,000 in parking-meter revenue.

Today's L-1 story on Rica's non-custodial sentence and how his thievery went undetected for so long is likely the first time since the crime came to light last year The Record has bothered to ask village residents for their reaction.

Reporters and their assignment editors are much more comfortable calling up so-called experts, consultants, prosecutors, lawyers, poll directors and just about anybody else except readers and other North Jersey residents.

That certainly has been the case since Christie took office and started waging war against the middle and working classes.

No editing

Staff Writer Chris Harris, who has been covering the Rica case from the outset, apparently gets no editing.

How else to explain Harris calling Rica's methodical theft of quarters a "crime wave" (L-1).

Also, Harris reports Rica stole "more than a million quarters," but an editorial puts the loot at "almost 1.9 million quarters" (A-8).

The story and editorial also can't agree on whether the original theft was $460,000 (story) or almost $472,000 (editorial).

Hackensack news

A story on Aldi seeking to build a supermarket at 480 Main St. in Hackensack, on the site of a vacant Sears appliance store, is good news to nearby apartment residents who now rely on the grocery section of Target, which doesn't offer meat or fresh fish (L-1).

Another story on the Local front today, about residents opposing a four-story apartment building near downtown Leonia, includes a map (L-1).

But what's the point of running a map, beyond filling space, if Broad Avenue, Leonia's main drag, isn't labeled?

Indoor picnic

I wonder whether freelance Restaurant Reviewer Julia Sexton will ever realize the artery clogging lobster poached in butter, foie gras pate and creme brulee she sampled at Picnic on the Square have long been out of fashion with the older readers who make up the bulk of her audience (BL-14)?

Instead, she says the 34-seat Ridgewood restaurant, the second from Executive Chef Christine Nunn, is inappropriate for "thrifty diners."

I read the review before glancing at the byline and realizing Sexton seems to be channeling The Record's chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung.

There is no discussion of salads or low-mercury fish or whether the kitchen is willing to prepare food without butter and heavy cream.

And I'm puzzled by Sexton finding " a large pile of arugula, avocado and mango" under a carpaccio of bluefin tuna "superfluous." 

That sounds delicious, and I wonder if Picnic serves another raw fish, such as fluke, which isn't overly exploited and has far lower levels of harmful mercury.

Sexton, who is the restaurant critic for Westchester magazine, visited Picnic three times for the 2.5-star review, and took at least one guest.

That's a ton of money for North Jersey Media Group to spend for such an uninformative report to readers.