Main Street high-rise construction driving everyone crazy

A diesel-powered pile driver is hammering steel beams deep into the ground at Main and Mercer streets in Hackensack, above and below, where a 14-story apartment building will rise, only a block or so from the old headquarters of The Record. The Borg family's property along River Street has been approved for 700 residential units, but they haven't announced a development deal yet. 

An employee of Rainbow Castle Preschool, which is next to the site, said the noise is driving everyone crazy, but that the children have grown accustomed to the repetitive thud that can be felt inside the building.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you walk along the 100 block of Main Street in Hackensack, you can smell the diesel fumes and hear the loud crashing noise from a pile driver on the biggest construction site in the city.

Everyone from children attending a preschool next to the enormous pit to lawyers down the block are being driven crazy by the constant hammering of steel beams into the ground.

This site, where a 14-story apartment building will rise, is the second major project in Hackensack's ambitious downtown rehabilitation plan.

The first, at 94 State St., has already started leasing, according to a sign on the 222-unit residential building.

"You can hear the constant hammering from the pile driver at the big site," says a lawyer whose office is on the same block. "I can hardly concentrate."

At Merit Trophy, employees had to clear the shelves, because "things were falling," the lawyer said

On Sunday, The Record's Better Living section promoted a cranberry chocolate chip ice cream sold at Ice Cream by Mike on Main Street in Hackensack, but the store was closed, below.

The sign says, "Closed for repairs." 

'New life'

The 382-unit building at 150-170 Main St. is expected to take up to 30 months to build, and will include 7,500 square feet of new retail with outdoor seating and dining. 

The storefronts, which will face Main Street, are "expected to breath new life into the area," city officials say.

That may be the only consolation in view of the impact the construction noise is having on established businesses, law offices and restaurants. 

Art of Spice, an Asian Indian restaurant, is across the street at 159 Main St., but it's closed on Mondays.

At Casual Habana Cafe, 125 Main St., where a $10 all-you-can-eat lunch buffet is served, employees said the pile driver didn't bother them or customers because the music playing on the sound system drowned out the noise.

Rainbow Castle Preschool is on the edge of the construction pit.

A sea change?

On Monday, only a couple of days after The Record named a new editor, readers did a double take at all of the municipal news filling Local, a section that has been dominated by Law & Order news for far too long.

Most of the stories were from Teaneck, Bogota, Leonia and other Bergen County towns, and stories about Passaic County towns appeared on L-6.

Instead of the usual gee-whiz shot of a vehicle rollover on L-3, a beautifully composed photo by freelancer Jim Anness showed a man sitting on a bench in brilliant sunshine, his feet in snow, with the Hudson River and George Washington Bridge in the background. 

One step back

Unfortunately, today's Local section seems to be a return to business as usual, with the third sensational story in a row on a husband charged with killing his wife all over L-1.

But the section also contains two local obituaries (L-1 and L-6), and municipal stories from a number of towns.

What hasn't changed is that Editor Deirdre Sykes and Managing Editor Dan Sforza continue their boycott of Hackensack news.

Went south?

Todd South, the reporter formerly assigned to the city, was promoted to another beat, and Sykes and Sforza haven't replaced him.

That may mean the newsroom is short of staff as a result of Publisher Stephen A. Borg's many economies -- from moving printing of the paper out of Hackensack to a major downsizing to completely abandoning the city in 2009.

Borg also has denied raises to newsroom employees for more than 5 years, even as he and his family have prospered.

The wage freeze has been cited as a factor in the recent departure of two star reporters, Shawn Boburg and wife Stephanie Akin.

Page 1 politics

In another bad sign, Sykes is continuing her predecessor's obsession with politics, wasting a huge amount of front-page space on the Iowa caucuses today and Monday.

An A-1 story or column from Iowa by political reporter Charles Stile appears both days, but a reader of the paper says his story on Governor Christie's dismal showing is not accurate.

Stile, the paper's chief Christie apologist, claims the GOP bully "was tied for seventh place" with three other also-rans (A-1); the reader and other media say Christie finished 10th.

Now, Stile will try to convince readers Christie has a far better chance in New Hampshire. 

But with crackpot Ted Cruz's victory in Iowa, the presidential election is all but decided, because America certainly will pick a Democrat to move the country forward over a Tea Party conservative who wants to turn back the clock.

Last front page of '15 is same mix of sensational, political

Post offices in Fort Lee, above, and Maywood have small parking lots for patrons, but the much bigger Hackensack Post Office only offers metered street parking.

Free parking is at a premium in Fort Lee, but postal patrons luck out.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

So many front pages in The Record speculate on the future -- today, the lead stories discuss the guilt or innocence of Bill Cosby, and which GOP candidate will take the Iowa Caucuses.

Yet, the vast majority of readers want the media to do a better job of reporting what happened -- the definition of "news" -- especially in their town, county and state.

Below the fold today, a story on the warmest December in state history recalled the poor job The Record did recently in reporting the anemic sale of all-electric cars in the Garden State.

The emphasis was on their limited range and lack of chargers, not on their zero emissions or how they are perfectly suited to the lifestyle of North Jersey's senior citizens.

Local obits

It's time for another annual roundup by the local obituary writer, Jay Levin (L-1).

Often, the local obit is the only relief from the editors' over-reliance on police news, trials and photos of rollover accidents.

Yet, in 2015 as in previous years, many of these well-written life stories literally were buried in the back pages of Local.

What's coming

If you want a good laugh, take a look at what the Better Living editors are predicting for 2016 in food and culture (BL-1).

The first item ignores that Italian-Americans and other ethnic groups have been eating such small fish as anchovies, sardines, herring and mackerel since the invention of the net.

The last item is another shameless plug for a restaurant that won't open until March from The Record's chief critic, whose lavish dinners are paid for by the newspaper.

Elisa Ung doesn't mention menu prices at American Cut Bar & Grill probably will induce sticker shock in anyone outside of the 1%.

County lawman quits as pedestrian-death probe drags on

Hue D. Dang, 64, was walking in or near this Jackson Avenue crosswalk in Hackensack last March 9, when she was struck and fatally injured by an unmarked car driven by John C. Straniero, a detective sergeant in the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Hackensack police investigated, but brought no charges against him in her death. 

Dang was struck only blocks from her apartment on Hudson Street in Hackensack. This photo shows markings left by investigators, and the woman's blood staining the pavement, right. At the urging of Eye on The Record, the Union County Prosecutor's Office took up the investigation, which still is open.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective sergeant whose car struck and fatally injured a Hackensack woman has retired.

John C. Straniero, then 49, apparently was driving to his home in Wayne last March 9, when he started to turn right on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack, near Route 80, and struck Hue D. Dang, 64.

The Vietnamese-American woman, who was carrying plastic grocery bags, was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour after the 4:45 p.m. accident.

After Hackensack police cleared Straniero of any wrongdoing, Eye on The Record contacted the state police and Attorney General's Office, which asked the Union County Prosecutor's Office to investigate further.

That probe is ongoing, a spokesman for the office said this morning, but he would not discuss why it is taking so long.

See: Union prosecutor to review Hackensack death

Single story

The Record published a single story about the accident on March 11, but Staff Writer Stafanie Dazio didn't mention the crosswalk or whether the woman was in it when she was hit.

When asked this morning, Maureen Parenta of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said Straniero had retired.

Parenta, the prosecutor's communication director, wasn't available later in the day to provide any details.

The victim's family has filed a notice that it intends to sue the detective in her death.

The report filed by Hackensack police shows the approximate location of the unmarked car and the woman after she was struck on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street. But the diagram is at variance with markings on the pavement made after the accident.

Local news?

Readers looking for local or even regional news on Page 1 of The Record strike out again.

Unless they're as consumed as reporters are with how Governor Christie will do at the Iowa Caucuses on Feb. 1, local readers threw away their money today.

The headline over Charles Stile's boring political column contains the phrase "turn silent," leading many readers to wonder when the burned-out reporter will do just that (A-1).

For the second day in a row, Local reads more like a police blotter, with a couple of court stories thrown in, than a section devoted to news of Bergen County towns. 

The lead story is about more gun violence in Paterson, and Bergen readers are cheated even more by six other Passaic County stories, both long and short (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

What a farce: Mitt beats Rick

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr
The two-party system wasn't such a great idea after all.

The Record is looking more and more like an official Republican Party organ, especially with the main elements on both Page 1 and the Local front today devoted to a celebration of the GOP's selfish conservatism.


On A-1, the outcome of the Republicans' hayseed vote wasn't known until well past the paper's deadline, but the headline had presidential overtones: 

A seesaw struggle

Romney and Santorum neck and neck in Iowa caucuses

Hey, interim Editor Douglas Clancy, are more than four people in North Jersey interested in this story? That's the best you could do for the front page?

Copping out

The off-lead is more relevant -- the Elmwood Park police chief and six other retiring cops are entitled to a total of $1.2 million for unused sick days and other time off (A-1).

Though the story notes Governor Christie wants to end such payouts for public employees, there's no discussion of why he hasn't capped police chiefs' ridiculously high salaries, as he's done for school superintendents.

Then, the third A-1 story is so poorly edited the first paragraph leads readers to believe the scandalous quid pro quo in Dumont occurred Tuesday night, when, in fact, it occurred at a meeting Dec. 23.

Two embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today, including the corrected photo of the Saddle Brook police chief.

More GOP news

In head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, I looked quickly at the big photo on L-1 and thought it was from "The Biggest Loser," but it turned out to be Christie at the swearing in of Fair Lawn's Republican mayor.

Is this the best local news Sykes could muster today? 

Road Warrior John Cichowski's stale L-1 column is the third in a row based on readers' e-mails, which deal with such monumental issues as whether drivers can use debit cards at the MVC.

More police news

Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin reports on the swearing in of the city's first Muslim police officer, Mohammad Sheikh, who had been laid off in Paterson (L-3).

It's good to see some Hackensack news in the paper, but 97% of those stories are about suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa and cops who have sued him or have been charged administratively by him.

Sykes demoted to L-3 an amusing story on Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, attending the same Bergen County Freeholder Board Reorganization meeting on Tuesday night in Hackensack.

Perfect photo

There's a great a photo of a glum Rothman, a smiling Pacrell and a goatee-wearing John Molinelli, the county prosecutor, who is sitting between them.

The two congressmen will be facing each other in the November election, because Rothman is too much of a coward to take on right-wing conservative Rep. Scott Garret, R-Wantage.

In Better Living, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill tries to make amends for all the unhealthy recipes she published in 2011 by offering readers "Yellow Winter Vegetable Soup," the first recipe of the new year (F-1).

Christie rolls over on the editors

Image via Wikipedia
Readers are bored to tears by the Republican circus in Iowa, but that didn't stop The Record from putting it on A-1.

The Record's editors got into bed with Governor Christie long ago, so it's no surprise today's Page 1 "analysis" on his first two years in office sounds like he rolled over and crushed their objectivity.


Interim Editor Douglas Clancy gave away the store with a glowing lead paragraph, only to jerk readers around in the second paragraph by telling them that's "the version promoted by the governor and his supporters."


That is bad journalism -- compounded by bad editing.


Why give more front-page space to a warehouse blaze that injured no one than to this supposedly even-handed assessment of the first half of Christie's first term?


And why leave out so much negative information, including the GOP bully's regressive policies of refusing to impose a tax on millionaires or raise the low gasoline tax to pay for road and mass-transit improvements?


Forgoing $1 billion in tax revenue -- to protect his wealthy supporters -- forced Christie to make deep cuts in aid to public schools and cities, and to slash homestead rebates and programs for low-income women and children.


Farm news


Today's hayseed vote for Republican presidential hopefuls in Iowa has been endlessly hyped and analyzed by the media, which are bored with any election that isn't a horse race.


The Record jumps on the bandwagon with a front-page story, another on A-4, an editorial on A-10 that compares the Iowa caucuses to spring training "for pitchers and catchers" and an OpEd piece on one of the candidates (A-11).


In fact, the Woodland Park daily has done a far better job of covering the caucuses than head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has done in covering Hackensack, as shown once again by today's Local section.


Think of all the stories the media ignored while it was chasing the seven or eight GOP turkeys vying for the party's presidential nomination -- such as the partisan gridlock in Washington or the attempt by Christie and other Republicans to destroy our middle class way of life.


Imagine what it would be like if The Record and other media waited for the Republican National Convention in August and the selection of a nominee before starting to cover the 2012 election.