In our unusually diverse state, Christie demonizes Syrians

Guajillo Mexican Restaurant at 10 Sussex St. in Hackensack has served its last taco.

Guajillo is another business on or near Main Street that couldn't wait for the renaissance officials are predicting after tenants move into new downtown apartments.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've met a lot of nice Syrians in Paterson in the past 30 years, but judging from the front page of The Record, today would not be a good day to be one.

Governor Christie -- whom the editors have elevated to world leader from his usual role as incompetent state executive -- is going after Syrians in the wake of the Paris massacre (A-1).

Many readers are getting sick and tired of the expected also-ran in the GOP presidential nominating contest taking pot shots at President Obama that seem racially inspired.

Silk City

And Paterson seems to be on Christie's shit list, if you include all the work he has done to fight crime in Camden instead of Silk City, and his comments on barring Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

Even though reporter Hannan Adely has written extensively about Muslims in North Jersey, she makes no attempt today to explain to readers that most of the Syrians in Paterson are Christian, not Muslim, and many have lived there for generations.

They work in county government and in just about every other job, including lawyers, teachers, police officers and firefighters, and in South Paterson, Syrian immigrants, both Christian and Muslim, run bakeries, restaurants and other food businesses.

Syrians have helped make New Jersey one of the most diverse states in the nation, despite the GOP moron who is running roughshod over more progressive leaders in Trenton.

Local news

The editors of Local ignore Hackensack for yet another day, and the thin section contains two major elements from Passaic County, and stories about bears and oysters (L-1 and L-3). 

A story on the Local front speaks volumes about home-rule governments, which seem to foster no-show jobs and outrageous salaries for police chiefs, high school principals and others.

Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo has resigned as the $35,000-a-year "supervisor of school custodians," a position he has held for more than two years (L-1).

The story identifies Rotundo as "full-time ... assistant  executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority," but his name is not included in the agency's 2015 budget.

Christie helps Camden again, but still ignores Paterson

This block of Forest Avenue off of River Road in Teaneck is another street that hasn't been repaved for eons, even though residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is up to his old dirty political tricks again in Camden, where he unveiled a $1 billion waterfront project.

And The Record's editors and reporters are swallowing his B.S. hook, line and sinker (A-3).

How's that for a mixed metaphor to describe the story by Staff Writer Melissa Hayes?

In a bubble

Hayes, who is assigned to cover the GOP bully and his so-called presidential campaign, inhabits a bubble.

How else could she report that Christie on Thursday claimed:

"The news media were skeptical when he took office and reached out to Democrats. He said there were allegations of backroom deals."

The Record's chief political columnist, Charles Stile, was never skeptical of Christie's claims of cooperating with the Democrats who control the state Legislature.

Stile has filled numerous Page 1 columns with that preposterous notion, as recently as a few weeks ago.

More B.S.

Then, Hayes has the gall to quote Christie saying:

"Political leaders in this state have decided to drop their R's and their D's and instead put forward their NJ's. We care more about our state than we care about our party."

How could Hayes not challenge such nonsense, when on the next page readers see a banner headline reporting the Senate has failed again to override a Christie veto (A-4)?

"As in all the other tries in the past five years, the Democrats ... were unable to get the necessary support from Republicans ....," The Record notes.

Missing from the story is the total number of vetoes Christie has exercised (more than 350), and his political retaliation against Democrats like the mayor of Fort Lee, triggering the Bridgegate lane-closure scandal.

Why not Paterson?

Hayes story doesn't explain why "Christie has made revamping Camden a cornerstone of his governorship" while allowing Paterson and the rest of New Jersey go to hell (A-3).

In the 2010 census, Camden didn't even rank in the top 10 of communities with the biggest population, but Paterson was the third most-populous city behind Newark and Jersey City.

In fact, The Record's editors have never questioned all of the attention Christie has paid to Camden compared to Paterson, were gun violence claimed the lives of four innocent young people in less than a year.

Campaign lies

In Camden, Christie has tried "to improve the schools, reduce violence through a regional police force and bring businesses back to the city," Hayes says, noting they are among the governor's "talking points" on his doomed quest for the GOP presidential nomination (A-3).

That may fly in Iowa and New Hampshire, but in Paterson, Christie is a dirty word.

Pope Francis

The Record assigned at last seven reporters, one staff photographer and an unknown number of editors to Pope Francis' arrival in New York on Thursday (A-1, A-8, A-9 and L-1).

An eighth reporter is in Philadelphia, where Francis goes next. 

How many reporters will be assigned to follow-up on how none of the pope's initiatives -- from eradicating poverty to immigration reform to easing climate change -- will ever become a reality in the United States as long as conservative and Tea Party Republicans control Congress?

Today, the main story on Page 1 reports the pope sent "a remarkable message of empathy ... to my Muslim brothers and sisters" after a stampede killed more than 700 in Mecca.

Trump, Carson

Of course, the leading contender for the GOP presidential nod, Donald Trump, has for years demonized President Obama, and questioned whether he was born in the United States.

And at a recent town hall meeting, Trump didn't contradict a speaker who said Obama is a Muslim.

And the Uncle Tom named Ben Carson, who is second in the polls, said a Muslim should never become president.

Going to Totowa?

I wonder how many Bergen County residents are going to jump into their cars and drive to Totowa on horrendous Route 80 for dinner at Ristorante Benissimo (2.5 out of 4 stars on BL-16)?

I am so tired of all the Passaic County restaurant reviews from Elisa Ung, who can't seem to find anything but Italian-American or Turkish food out there.

Tens of thousands of Jews say: Shame on you, Boteach

Four photographers from The Record managed to cover Memorial Day parades in only five Bergen County towns, according to today's Local section, but none visited Englewood, above and below.

VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Shame on you, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, for your publicity mongering and your support of Governor Christie, the worst leader in New Jersey history.

And shame on you, Editor Martin Gottlieb and Columnist Mike Kelly, for devoting more than 100 inches in The Record today to a rabbi who makes tens of thousands of Jews cringe at the thought that they have anything in common.

How can Kelly -- himself a walking question mark --dare ask on Page 1, "Who is he [Boteach], anyway?" (A-1).

Readers know Boteach purchased a mansion on Englewood's East Hill, even though it was next door to the home of the Libyan ambassador to the U.S.

Then, in 2009, the shamelessly self-promoting rabbi grabbed the front page of The Record several days in a row, protesting the planned visit of Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.

Folloing those news stories was a glowing profile by Staff Writer Jim Beckerman, who described pop king Michael Jackson's visit to the Boteach mansion for Friday night dinners.

The reporter referred to the mansion as "an ordinary house in Englewood."

Must-read list

Head Assigment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza managed today to find room for Memorial Day photos from only a half-dozen North Jersey towns (L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Any other photos were held to make room for thousands of names in a huge Dean's List (L-5), which Sykes and Sforza rely on frequently when they can't find legitimate municipal news.

Monday's paper

The Record's front-page story on the crash death of Princeton University mathematician John Nash fails to report the Nobel laureate and his wife weren't wearing seat belts in the back seat of a taxi.

NJ.com reported the Nashes were ejected from the cab during the national "Click It or Ticket" campaign on seat-belt use, a stepped up enforcement program that runs through May 31.

In mid-May, Road Warrior John Cichowski warned more than 4,400 tickets were issued in Bergen County alone during last year's two-week crackdown.

Yet, The Record consistently fails to report whether people killed in car crashes were belted in.

Christie and crime

In another front-page story on Monday, Gottlieb and the other editors managed to hold Christie blameless for police layoffs that resulted in a spike in violent crime in Camden, Newark, Paterson and other cities.

The story by Staff Writers Abbott Koloff and Melissa Hayes goes on and on, but never reports the GOP bully cut state aid to poor cities in 2011.

Camden lost 163 officers and Paterson -- which has twice as many residents -- let go 125.

The Record's revisionist theory is that the layoffs were caused by the "recession, coupled with a freeze in state aid and a 2 percent state-imposed cap on local property tax levies" (Saturday's A-11).

Different story

In 2011, The Record and other media attributed the layoffs to Christie's state aid cuts. 

On July 1, 2011, NJ.com reported the governor cut aid for the state's most troubled cities to $10 million from $149 million.

On Monday, The Record described that drastic aid cut as "a freeze in state aid."

Now, the Woodland Park daily -- which struggles to report what happened yesterday completely and without errors -- can't be relied on to accurately report what Christie did in his second year in office.

Front-page news, views from everywhere but North Jersey

Construction of a Justice Center on Court Street in Hackensack, above and below, seems to be moving as slowly some of the civil lawsuits filed in the Bergen County Courthouse.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With all of Paterson's troubles, why did Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record race down to Camden to assess whether it's the success story Governor Christie claims it is?

Christie has totally ignored Silk City, where gun violence took the lives of two innocent young girls last July and September.

And why did Editor Martin Gottlieb put Kelly's piece on Page 1, where the poor writing and lack of editing are even more embarrassing than the reporter's dated thumbnail photo, complete with its shit-eating grin.

Kelly's main character, Camden resident Clifton Bond, "pondered a landscape handcuffed by poverty and crime...." (A-1). 

"Pondered"? A "handcuffed" landscape? Is English Kelly's first language?

Stale Stile

Columnist Charles Stile has been known to write about Christie's White House ambitions as many as three times in a single week, as if he is on the GOP bully's payroll.

Today, for a change, his boring political column focuses on another Republican who wants to be president, Jeb Bush, younger brother of one of our worst presidents, George W. Bush (A-1).

Stile reports Christie raised funds for George Bush's 2000 campaign, but so did real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, a close friend of the Borgs, who control  North Jersey Media Group, publisher of the Woodland Park daily.

You won't find any mention in The Record of Hanson raising money for W and for Christie himself, and Hanson wasn't identified in a recent story on his companies' role in a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Vinnie Carzo

Also on Page 1 today is a heart-warming story about Vinnie Carzo, 20, a disabled Wanaque man who was made an honorary funeral director.

But you have to question the editor's decision to play this story on the front page when the obituaries of many prominent North Jerseyans are literally buried inside the paper.

Izod Center

If the 34-year-old Izod Center is expected to open "in a new form" in 2017, why has The Record made such a fuss over its closure, playing the news on Page 1 two days in a row?

Deep in the Izod story, Hanson -- Christie's sports and entertainment adviser -- is identified as a director of Yankee Global Enterprises, owner of the Yankees.

Legends Hospitality, a joint venture of the Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, provides concessions for the Prudential Center, the Newark arena that may see increased attendance after the Izod closing.

And, of course, Christie's friendship with the owners of the Cowboys is well-known.

Talk about a ruling class. No wonder Christie has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on the Borgs and other millionaires.

Body in trunk

In Local, a photo on L-2 of investigators gathered around a body in the trunk of a BMW could be a scene from one of TV's popular CSI series.

The story says the victim, Jordan Johnson, lived in a luxury Fort Lee high-rise with his girlfriend.

But reporters make no attempt to explain whether Johnson was gainfully employed or how he had obtained a "large amount" of jewelry and cash stolen from the apartment.

Chilean sea bass

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung holds herself out as an expert on steaks and desserts, but she doesn't know much about fish and the potential for ingesting a lot of harmful mercury.

She complains the Chilean sea bass she was served at Matthew's Italian Restaurant in Clifton (2.5 stars) "was so grossly overcooked that it took some serious knife work to cut a slice" (BL-14).

But she should have said the real problem with the server describing the dish as "sea bass" is that "Chilean sea bass" or Patagonian toothfish has elevated levels of mercury not found in the much smaller fish. 

More jobs, cops for Camden -- still zero for Silk City

Exchange Place in Jersey City, across the river from the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Readers could be forgiven if they think Staff Writer Melissa Hayes of The Record has been assigned to rehabilitate Governor Christie's image in the wake of the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Hayes, Columnist Charles Stile and other staffers have been beating the drums for the GOP bully, a White House aspirant who is raising money around the country as the head of the Republican Governors Association (see Monday's upbeat A-1 story).

Today, Hayes reports on Christie's Monday trip to Camden, where he heralded a "new era" for the hard-luck city.

More jobs, cops

The state has promised a $260 million tax break to an energy technology company that promises to hire 400 people at its new Camden plant (A-3).

Christie noted the city's police force was replaced with "a regional county force," which "put more boots on the ground and has reduced crime already ... in Camden."

Gee, didn't Hayes think to ask Christie about Paterson's rising gun violence and the July 5 fatal shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, who was hit by a stray bullet as she rode on her scooter in the impoverished 4th Ward?

What about a regional force to replace Paterson's Police Department, where 125 officers were laid off in 2011 after Christie-inspired cuts in state aid (L-3)?

Hayes apparently is the kind of reporter who sticks to the story she was sent to cover. How disappointing.

Clock is ticking

Today's Page 1 reports a plea deal with the former manager of the Tick Tock Diner  in Clifton (A-1), but was it really necessary to send a reporter to the Route 3 landmark to get reaction from customers (L-1)?

Didn't the Woodland Park daily do the same exact reaction story after Georgios Spryropulos was arrested? Are we going to see a third reaction story after he is sentenced?

Meanwhile, two filler photos run in Local today devoid of any real information (L-1 and L-3), as Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza desperately plug holes in their thin local-news coverage.

Couldn't they spare a reporter to call the police for details of what, for example, caused the tractor-trailer to crash? Was it excessive speed?

Genesis story

Sykes and Sforza report on Paterson officials seeking a "business curfew" (L-3), but apparently the editors are unaware of a movement to organize "a committee that will be composed of city residents of all nationalities and religious backgrounds" in the battle to end gun violence.

For that, see the letter to the editor from Corey L. Teague, a member of the city's Board of Education (A-10).

Native Americans

Today's front page also reports on the objections of the Ramapough Lenape Nation to the possibility Franklin Lakes will revise letterheads, business cards, vehicles and borough Web sites to remove the image of a Native American (A-1).

Also today, an editorial says it would be a mistake to cap a Superfund site filled with 106,000 tons of Ford Motor Co. toxic waste in Upper Ringwood, where many Ramapoughs live, instead of cleaning it up (A-10).

Editors discover abandoned city

WHITNEY HOUSTON (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
1963-2012

Half of The Record's front page today is covered by the same-old coverage of Camden -- in a rare instance of the paper sending a reporter and photographer to the impoverished city. 


But readers won't find the real story -- why Camden was abandoned by state government and the media decades ago. 


Columnist Mike Kelly plays crack houses, the flight of industry, crime, poverty and unemployment like violins -- but hasn't all of this been reported many times before (A-1 and A-6)? 


And doesn't North Jersey have its own Camden in Paterson? Why just cover breaking news there? Why not dig under the surface for why Paterson is allowed to fail.


Recall all the stories portraying Paterson as a center of drugs and prostitution that ran when Francis "Frank" Scandale was editor and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes was his bitch.


It's not surprising Kelly doesn't have the balls to explore why Camden's minority residents have been so totally rejected by society. 


Recall his repugnance at the influx of gay couples who were reviving Asbury Park when he was sent there with a photographer in 2000. He never mentioned the renewal in his extensive report.


Resort's obituary


Instead, his obituary for Asbury Park covered three newspaper pages in The Sunday Record on Aug. 6, 2000.


On the same exact day, an upbeat cover story in The New York Times' New Jersey section reported that urban homosexual men and women were leading the way in reviving the run-down resort, drawn by affordable, stylish homes and gay clubs. 


One photo showed two women on the beach with their arms around each other.

The two stories were like night and day, with Kelly reporting conditions that had existed for a decade or more, and The Times breaking the story of the resort's turnaround.


Total letdown

Today's Sunday edition of The Record is a total letdown, including another repetitive Local section from Sykes. 

After reading about the heart-breaking loss of singer Whitney Houston at only 48 (A-1), nothing else seems interesting or compelling, and the news and Better Living columnists sound stale.

It's lucky The Record had The Star-Ledger's excellent obituary of Houston to run on the front page -- displacing some of the briefs in the off-lead position -- because it's unlikely any of the weekend editors on duty Saturday night were up to whipping together such a piece.

Taking a break

Eye on The Record will return next week.

I'll be reading and publishing comments until then, and would like to hear first impressions of Editor Marty Gottlieb, who came on board three weeks ago.