Isn't this just white flight in reverse?

Prospect Avenue high-rises are used as landmarks by pilots who guide noisy business jets into a landing at nearby Teterboro Airport. Hackensack residents say the jets clear rooftops by only about 200 feet, and the sight of a big plane appearing so close to the ground is startling. Many say the jets are a nuisance, but The Record has ignored their complaints.

The Record's front page today reports a seemingly dramatic flight of young North Jersey suburban couples with their children in tow.

But the lure of "middle- and upper-income areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn" appears evident only in the wealthier, mostly white towns of northern and western Bergen and Passaic counties, according to a map on A-12.

In Hackensack and other diverse communities, the number of children under the age of 5 is increasing -- not decreasing -- and schools are packed.

And judging from vehicles with New York plates, some of these children might be commuting from the Bronx and other working-class areas of New York City -- an aspect The Record ignores completely.

Check out the photo of a smiling Caitlin Sullivan-Pond, a photography editor who grew up in tony Montclair, and her 15-month-old son Dylan on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (A-12). 

She and her advertising director husband, whose name doesn't appear in the story, apparently have money to burn on a $2,800-a-month Manhattan apartment. Isn't life grand? 

Murder on readers 

Displayed next to this wildly exaggerated statistical analysis today is an overlong rehash of the murder conviction of Peter Shanley, who killed wife Debra in their Dumont home in 2010 (A-1).

Why is Editor Marty Gottlieb squandering all this space, not to mention the talents of Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, on this tortured tale?

The editing of Akin's story could have been better: "Three years passed between that April [2010] night and Shanley's murder conviction in January ...."

For one thing, the year of the murder appears in the photo caption, not in the A-1 text, and for another, the reporter is about three months short of "three years."

Testing our patience

Below the fold, readers learn The Valley Hospital is likely to seek approval for a scaled-down expansion -- a story The Record has beaten to death in recent years (A-1).

Is Publisher Stephen A. Borg still a member of the President's Council at the Ridgewood hospital? 

Contrast all the coverage of The Valley Hospital expansion plans with relatively little coverage of the impact of Hackensack University Medical Center's many expansions on its neighborhood and city services.

Corrected correction

In another sign of meltdown in the Woodland Park newsroom, check out today's A-2 correction of Saturday's A-2 correction of a wrong photo with the Friday obituary of South Hackensack Police Chief Frank Furbacher.

A second correction today fixes the misspelling of a name in Sports.

Chris and Sandy

On A-3, another Superstorm Sandy story reports the cozy relationship of the clean-up company, the taxpayers' monitor and Governor "Pay to Play" Christie, who is counting on Sandy to propell him to a second term.

Smoking out news

With Staff Writer Hannan Adely exploring the compelling "local issue" of smoking in public parks -- in the middle of winter, no less -- Hackensack residents are ignored for yet another day by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza (Local front).

Road Warrior John Cichowksi again turns his back on paralyzing traffic jams, overburdened mass transit and outrageous tolls to focus on drunk drivers in Ireland (L-1).

Cichowski may not be drinking and driving, but he is disoriented nonetheless. 

From hunger

In Better Living, food writers continue to write glowingly about chefs and little about restaurant customers who are seeking a decent meal at a reasonable price (BL-1 and BL-5).

On the Opinion front, Mike Kelly loses readers in the first few sentences of his "odd decisions" column about Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. (O-1).

I guess Kelly thought he was being funny when he wrote the Dominican Republic isn't in New Jersey, but could that have been a disdainful reference to  all the Dominican-Americans who live in the state?

Hey, Kelly. It's time to retire to a sunny Caribbean island.

 

'Your honor, Mr. Green isn't here'

Image via Wikipedia

The Rutgers College football team in 1882.

I feel sorry for that Rutgers football player who is paralyzed, but does Editor Francis Scandale really expect me to read this much about  it? I follow Formula 1 racing, not baseball, so I'm totally uninterested in the main element on Page 1 today. The Democrat turned Republican who is intent on unseating the congressman from Wantage? Yawn.

But look at the fourth A-1 story today in The Record of Woodland Park -- a glowing profile of the defense attorney for Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez, who is on trial in federal court. Look at that client list. Read about his rags-to-riches rise. Why should I be interested in that? What kind of hourly rate does he command? $300? $400? More?


Oh, that's not in the story. Is that a deliberate oversight? 

In deference to the bar, The Record long has avoided discussing legal fees or even what attorneys keep when a jury award or settlement yields many millions of dollars for a plaintiff. And, of course, the former Hackensack daily has never explored the larger issue of how high legal fees and the snail's pace of civil litigation limit people's access to the courts.

Poor Suarez. Even if he is found not guilty, he'll probably be broke or his "legal defense fund" will be empty.


The relationships among judges and attorneys is so cozy. A criminal defense attorney can walk into a courtroom and say, "Your honor, Mr. Green isn't here. I'd like a postponement." And the judge, who was an attorney, immediately understands the lawyer hasn't been paid his retainer. No retainer, no representation, no hearing.


The front of Local has an "Accident of the Day" photo on the front -- a signature of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes. No Hackensack or Teaneck news appears in the section.


Food Editor Susan Sherrill and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung have been so busy stuffing their faces with cupcakes, apple pie and other desserts, they didn't have time to write anything local for Better Living today.


Sherrill has been slaving away on her debut "Your Kitchen" column, based on a cookbook recipe. I've been eating takeout for days in anticipation.

You tell me what's good

Image via Wikipedia

Critics of "Eye on The Record" complain I rarely or never say anything good about The Record of Woodland Park. Well, why don't you tell me about the good journalism you see in today's paper. Click on the "comments" at the end of the post and you can praise the paper to the sky, anonymously, if you prefer.

Does anything on the front page today interest you? What about the speculative story about New Jersey losing federal aid and a congressman or woman, because of slow population growth? Or the other Page 1 stories, one about Hackensack University Medical Center's push to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital or fraud against a Paterson church? Is there anything inside the paper that should have been played on the front?

On Page A-8, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin or another writer blesses the decision to return a 9-year-old boy in Brazil to his American father, but a far more compelling custody battle is reported on the Local section front, where a judge imposes a 14-year jail sentence on the Spanish mother of a 9-year-old girl. Why the Brazil case? Should we expect another editorial tomorrow? Should the parents or foreign family involved -- both sides -- be taken to task for their hardened positions? Or is the American parent always right, as this editorial seems to say?

Besides the sentencing of the Spanish mother, there are eight court, crime or accident stories, or related stories, in the Local section, but no municipal or development news about Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood, Ridgewood or a host of other towns the paper is supposed to cover.

What's good today about the Business section, which refuses to document the waste, and the adverse impact on both the environment and commercial airlines of the private jet fleets at Teterboro Airport? Or the quality of  life of residents of Hackensack and other towns under its noisy flight paths?  What's good about the Sports section today? What's good about Better Living today?