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A controversial plan to convert this parking lot, between Atlantic and Warren streets, into a downtown park has been discussed at meetings of the Hackensack City Council, which last week approved a $650,000 bond to help pay for it. Now, The Record reports, the plan is called "an open-air venue" that will complement the city's planned Performing Arts Center (old Masonic Hall, rear right).
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By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
An outdoor stage and a green; a groundbreaking set for the end of October, and, eventually, a 300-seat performing arts center.
New details of what has been called the Atlantic Street Park in downtown Hackensack were reported today in The Record (L-1).
The space -- to replace a parking lot used mainly by law firms lining Atlantic and Warren streets -- is now being called an "open-air venue for entertainment and community events."
A $650,000 bond approved by the City Council last week and a $268,085 Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund grant will pay for the work.
Renovation of the old Masonic Hall the city acquired in 2010 is estimated to cost $1.3 million, but it hasn't been funded yet.
Bad headline
The story makes clear groundbreaking for the new green space must take place by the end of October or the city risks losing the county grant, but the headlines refer incorrectly to Hackensack starting work "on art center," presumably meaning the Masonic Hall.
Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, who gets paid six figures to keep such errors out of the paper.
Real estate and business interests, including prominent members of the Main Street Business Alliance, pushed for the new green space to make downtown Hackensack more attractive for redevelopment.
Still, the group has refused to pay for it.
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| First the Shell station on Cedar Lane and River Road in Teaneck went out of business, and now the Cedar Lane Grill next to it has closed, above and below. |
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| The shuttered gas station has been an eyesore for years. |
This is local?
A Page 1 story today reports New Jersey colleges are enrolling many more foreign students (A-1).
But the editors of our daily local paper decided to use a photo from Rutgers University in New Brunswick on the front page instead of one from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck (A-1).
More than once, the story makes it a point of reporting the wealthy international students chose Rutgers and Fairleigh because they are "close to New York."
So, Fairleigh students likely won't even notice the sad condition of Teaneck's main business district, including the double eyesore of a long-shuttered gas station and diner at Cedar Lane and River Road, less than a block from the campus.
Where is Starbucks Coffee when you really need them? The nearest company store is on Essex Street in Hackensack.
Sad state of TV
The sad state of television is exposed in today's coverage of the Emmy Awards (A-1 and BL-1).
The awards for top drama and best actor in a drama went to "Breaking Bad," described as the tale of a "cancer-stricken high school science teacher who turned into a crystal meth kingpin" (A-1).
Julia Louis-Dreyfus won for best actress in a comedy for "Veep," one of the un-funniest shows I have ever had the misfortune to watch (one or two episodes) -- especially in view of the paralysis in Washington.
Wake up, Marty
Editor Martin Gottlieb, the former editor of The New York Times' international edition, seems to forget he no longer works in Paris.
Gottlieb keeps on putting international news on Page 1 and burying local stories, such as the terrific interview with one of the last farmers in Bergen and Passaic counties (L-9).
Todd Kuehm, the fourth generation at the 120-year-old Farms View in Wayne, refuses to sell out to developers, and has "turned down huge numbers that would boggle most people's mind, but I don't care."
Neither does Marty, who probably lives in Manhattan and could care less about the Garden State.
What a poor choice Gottlieb was to replace the incompetent Francis "Frank" Scandale.
