Hey, Monsy, what about the new signs?

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Hey, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado, aren't you going to be writing anything about Hackensack in The Record of Woodland Park outside of the case of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa? What about all the new signs the city has put up in the past couple of months, directing visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse, the Academies, the shopping district, parking, the medical center, and so forth? Isn't that a legitimate story? Maybe even a photo or two? They're gold and blue, and dress up the city.


What about the proposed city budget and tax hike, reportedly more than 7%? Isn't that worthy of coverage? Are you that busy with the Zisa coverage -- and so under the thumb of clueless head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- that you have failed so miserably in your assignment: Hackensack.


What about the Police Department's continuing use of gas-guzzling cruisers? Don't you have time to ask the city manager about whether he plans to replace them with more efficient, six-cylinder cars, like the ones being used for parking enforcement? What about solar power for city buildings and schools? In fact, a couple of years ago, in a roundup, you quoted the official as saying Hackensack had taken only "baby steps" on alternative energy. Did you ever follow that up?


Do you still call yourself a reporter, Monsy? How much time do you actually spend in Hackensack? How many residents do you talk to? We know you don't cover City Council or school board meetings, so what do you do to justify your existence? Why is there no Hackensack news in the former Hackensack daily today? Why are you and Sykes giving the royal F.U. to Hackensack residents?

I know you're afraid of Mother Hen Deirdre, Monsy (so is everyone else, including Editor Frank Scandale). And I don't expect you to sacrifice yourself to expose how bad Sykes and her minions are for local news coverage. Where are the Borgs? Counting their money?


The lead story today on A-1 is about the proposed dissolving of Teterboro, which has 38 residents and 23 city workers. I doubt it will come to pass, but if it did, businesses would have to pay higher taxes, and that presumably includes the incredibly annoying airport and jet charter companies.


The Record continues to ignore all the noise Teterboro Airport visits on residents in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns, but can't help promoting business jet sales and travel at the airport, as Staff Writer Richard Newman does today on L-7. Thousands of readers groaned to read about an increase in flights, but Newman did his best imitation of a public relations man on the airport's trade show.


How can The Record be objective about Teterboro? Do you recall how the aviation museum there once was a pet project of then-Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg. Before the museum was established, Mac couldn't stop promoting it, even when he invited to lunch in his private dining room a new executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the airport. It was the first thing out of Mac's mouth -- expletive deleted.

An alleged sexual assault after a prom? Is that A-1 news? A barn fire in Pequannock (might as well be Wyoming). Is that A-1 news? 


On the front of Local, the road-building lobby continues to call the shots for Road Warrior John Cichowski. Hey, John, ever hear about mass transit?

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is the latest staffer to accept protesters' claims that expanding The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood may endanger the health of students in a nearby school (A-22). Did The Record express similar concerns when the FiveSix School was built next to Hackensack Middle School?

The Record supports the hospital expansion -- without acknowledging the potential gain in advertising revenue from a bigger medical center. (I just threw away some copies of the paper, including Food and Go! sections, from 2005 and 2006. They were incredibly fat with advertising when compared with today's pathetically thin papers.)

I'm glad Food Editor Bill Pitcher -- who is obsessed with eating meat -- finally has reviewed a  seafood restaurant in Better Living (a few weeks ago, he sampled only meat dishes at a Turkish place). But he pans McCormick & Schmick's, a chain restaurant. Why one star? It sounds awful. Are you protecting an advertiser, Bill? Copy editors left a problem in the second paragraph, and the ending makes no sense.

Next time, Bill, try Sea Shack in Hackensack or a more casual choice, Seafood Gourmet in Maywood.


Pitcher still has not explained to readers why restaurant sanitary inspections from Wyckoff never appear in Friday's column. Are you protecting someone, Bill?

(Photo: Church on The Green, Hackensack)

The Zisas and the Borgs

The former Borg family homestead at Summit and Fairmount avenues in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Here is a fascinating look into Hackensack's past from a self-described old-timer. 

You'll likely never see this in The Record, which fosters lazy, incompetent editors and weak reporting. 

This was posted on HackensackNow.org, a community message board:

"This whole issue has multiple dimensions.

"There are many people who are upset with the coverage of The Record in terms of Hackensack issues.  Not the amount or thinning of coverage, but the political slant that they have.  Columnist Mike Kelly is no friend of the Zisas, and neither is [Bergen County Prosecutor John] Molinelli, especially since the debacle of the Prosecutor's "safe-house" that the County wanted to buy on Summit Avenue a number of years back.  So this is payback time.

"On the other hand there are many people who are fed up with Chief Zisa.  Fed up with the dozen or more lawsuits, fed up with the idea that law enforcement should be involved in partisan politics, fed up with the infighting and wrangling that has gone on in the Democratic party... the list goes on.  At the height of his power, Ken Zisa was so powerful that he was able to force a sitting Sheriff to step aside so that he could run for sheriff.  He then lost to the Republicans.

"These two categories of people are not mutually exclusive.  They can be sick of both parties, and many are.

"The existing city council would be smart to distance themselves from this situation. Otherwise it could come back and bite them in the next election.

"One needs to look at history to see how they came to power.  In 1989, there were no Zisas in power.  Frank Sr. had served as Mayor from 1977 to 1981, and then as a Councilman under an adversary, Mayor Fred Cerbo, from 1981 to 1985.  After the 1985 election, there were no Zisas in power.  There was no "Dynasty" to speak of.  The Zisas were just one of several prominent Italian families with a patriarch who had been Mayor or who was looking to be Mayor.

 "They were looking for a way back into power.  One son (Jack) was to go the Republican route and also be a successful business owner. The other son (Ken) was to get active in the Democratic Party and rise to power through the Police. Frank Sr. always taught that whoever controls the police controls Hackensack.

"1988 was the key year for the Zisas in their return to power. Joseph Pizza of Summit Ave got the Zisas firmly involved with zoning and community activist controversies in the Fairmount section  With the help of Pizza and others, they built a huge base of support over the Borg tract debate.  This started their war with The Record that has continued till this day. Earlier in 1988, they finally came to terms with Democratic Chair Lynne Hurwitz, and she agreed to support them.  It could be argued that Lynne saw the handwriting on the wall and decided this time to support the group that was going to be the next Council. Nevertheless, Zisa barely beat the D'Arminio slate.  Certainly if Lynne Hurwitz or the environmentalist leaders had supported the D'Arminio slate, a few hundred votes would have swung and Jack Zisa would have never been elected. Ken would have never become Chief under that scenario.

"In 1988, Pizza and the Zisas instigated a Recall election against the Cerbo administration, which was thrown out of court over something silly, but it totally discredited Cerbo and the incumbents.  In the 1989 election, Jack Zisa became Mayor.

"Political activist Geneva Youngblood publicly predicted that they would put the other son, Ken Zisa, as Chief of Police within a few years.  She was right on the money.  He bypassed so many high-ranking police brass, each sitting and waiting for their one year as Chief to maximize their pension and retirement package.  Ken Zisa skipped over about 12 - 15 of them.  The Record makes a big deal about one of them, but there were so many, and each could have been Chief for a year or two.  Such as Emil Canestrino, who became a political activist for nearly 20 years against the Zisas as a result. This jump to power caused big fallout within the Police Department that festered for a long time.

"The Record is now struggling to put the pieces together and 'report' about the Zisa dynasty, the who, the when, the why.... Good luck, only us old-timers know what really happened."