Editors gaze into crystal balls, ignore our messy present

This morning, Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, between Main Street and the railroad tracks, remained a one-lane street -- just one of the many spots city plows missed after the snow stopped falling on Saturday night.

On Main Street in Hackensack, between Berry and Passaic streets, parking was banned this morning, above and below, until the city could clear all of the snow in front of parking meters.

Lavash City, an Armenian restaurant, and other businesses on this block of Main are lucky to have a rear parking lot for customers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors are so bored with our dysfunctional state government and the blizzard of 2016 they are already looking into the future.

On Page 1 today, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson and Staff Writer James O'Neill are gazing into crystal balls on November ballot questions and the weather for the rest of the winter.

On the Local front, the moronic Road Warrior, John Cichowski, continues to ignore blizzard dangers -- even as the death toll mounts -- and referees a pissing match over whether residents are obligated to clear fire hydrants of snow (L-1).

On the first Business page, Staff Writer Joan Verdon delivers a breathless report on a German discount supermarket chain that isn't expected to open stores in the U.S. before 2018 (L-8).

Snow clearing

The snow stopped falling Saturday night, but pedestrians continue to encounter third-world snow clearing in Hackensack and many other towns, where bus stops, corners, turn lanes, parking meters and crosswalks remain covered or barricaded today.

On the Local front, the editors published an image rarely seen in the Woodland Park daily -- a Hackensack bus stop blocked by a snowbank (L-1).

On Sunday and Monday, reporters visited a couple dozen towns, but pretty much ignored the amateurish job turned in by municipal crews -- as The Record has done for decades. 

Snow job

One example was reporting from the front lines in Teaneck by resident and Columnist Mike Kelly, the veteran reporter whose work appears regularly on the front page. 

Here is an excerpt from his hard-hitting report in Monday's Local section:

"By noon Sunday, Teaneck's main business district along Cedar Lane was buzzing with traffic and pedestrians."

Kelly probably could have described Cedar Lane the same way on any Sunday, given the large number of Orthodox Jews in town who are forbidden from shopping on Saturday.

He also noted "mounds of snow" were "left at the end of [residents'] driveways by snowplows that worked through the night to clear town streets."

Apparently, Kelly didn't venture very far, because he missed the poor job the snowplows did on Cedar Lane, where only one of two travel lanes was clear between the Hackensack line and River Road on Monday morning.

Wrong headline

Even though a number of people died from shoveling snow, carbon-monoxide poisoning and hypothermia over the weekend, Monday's local front carried an upbeat headline and sub-headline:

Postcards from a wintry land

North Jersey
worked hard
in storm, but 
played, too

This is what a block on Main Street in Hackensack looks like after the snow was cleared from in front of parking meters.

The bus stop at Euclid Avenue and Main Street, where you can board NJ Transit buses to the city, remained buried under snow this morning, including the city provided bench.

Ditto for the bus stop across the street from Sears on Main Street.

Governor Christie

Wow, would you look at all of the ink on Page 1 today criticizing Governor Christie for leaving New Jersey on Sunday and returning to New Hampshire in his futile campaign for the GOP presidential nomination (A-1).

I can't recall headlines this big or similar criticism when he did a number of things as governor -- from cancelling new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010, waging war on teachers and other members of the middle class, and executing more than 500 vetoes so far to stop bills on gun control and a host of other issues.

Burger King

An editorial today on the response to the blizzard doesn't question why employees of Burger King in Hackensack didn't call police when an elderly New York woman told them she was afraid to drive home in the storm on Saturday afternoon, and planned to park in their Hackensack Avenue lot (A-8).

Police Director Mike Mordaga says in a news story on A-6 today the body of the unidentified woman, 78, was found in her gold Cadillac on Monday morning.

The Burger King had closed at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and didn't reopen until Monday morning.

On Spring Valley Avenue in Maywood, near the Hackensack border, a woman was forced to walk on the pavement this morning, only inches from passing cars on a street that is too narrow for all the traffic it carries in even the best of weather.

The corner of Main Street and Johnson Avenue in Hackensack.

Hackensack to ban buses and limit parking on Main Street

Buses and 54-foot-long trucks will be banned after Main Street returns to a two-way traffic pattern. State Street also is expected to become a two-way street at the same time.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Traffic and parking on Main Street in Hackensack will be radically altered when the street returns to the two-way pattern of the past.

Before Tuesday night's City Council meeting, officials were briefed on changes to the 2012 Downtown Rehabilitation Plan by Francis A. Reiner of DMR Architects.

Reiner, the city's redevelopment consultant, said buses and 54-foot trucks would be banned, and UPS and other delivery services would have to use designated Main Street loading zones with restricted hours.

The city also will enforce "tandem parking" for cars and other passenger vehicles on Main Street, between Passaic and Essex streets, that would leave an 8-foot gap between spaces for two vehicles.

That will allow drivers to pull forward into the spaces, eliminating the the need to stop and reverse, which causes traffic jams, Reiner said during the public Committee of the Whole meeting.

Hackensack's plan to revitalize and redevelop the areas around its bus terminal and train stations will allow the city to apply for a Transit Village designation.

That would bring priority funding from some state agencies, and Department of Transportation grants to both the city and developers.

Reiner mentioned the possibility of a rubber-wheeled trolley linking Hackensack University Medical Center to the city's two NJ Transit rail stations.

The conversion of Main and State street to two-way traffic is at least two years away, city officials said.

Today's paper

Another Record front page dominated by baseball, state tests, politics and medical news doesn't offer much for the majority of local readers. 

On the Local front, the editors made sure to run an upbeat story on unanimous Hackensack City Council approval of a redevelopment plan for the former River Street headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper (L-1).

NJMG is expected to sell the 19.7 acres for $20 million or more.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg isn't expected to use any of that money to improve local-news coverage or even resume giving raises to the newsroom staff in Woodland Park.

Borg was responsible for moving printing of The Record to Rockaway Township from Hackensack in 2006, and then closing NJMG headquarters in 2009, hurting already struggling Main Street restaurants and other businesses.

Bear, fire news

Thousands of Record readers have been sitting on the edge of their seats, awaiting the reopening of Ramapo Valley Reservation and Ramapo State Forest, and today, their prayers are answered in a story leading the local-news section (L-1).

A Lodi fire that harmed no one dominates today's Local front, thanks to a gee-whiz photo from a freelancer (L-1).

Better eating?

The Record's editors continue to send mixed messages to readers with articles on breast cancer in both women and men (A-1 and BL-1), and recipes that mock heart health (BL-2).

Clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson specializes is artery clogging food, such as today's Chili Cheese Dip.

You'll need a half-pound of mystery ground beef and a full pound of Velveeta for this week's disgusting dish.

Christie's worst nightmare steps up to the plate

Developer George Capodagli hired The Brownstone in Paterson to cater Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for his 6-story, 222-unit rental building at State and Warren streets in Hackensack. Completion is set for January 2015, and monthly rents will be $1,600 to $2,000. 

The lead story in The Record today reveals Governor Christie's worst nightmare -- Newark Mayor Cory Booker -- a strong Democratic leader who would have stolen votes away from him in the November election (A-1).

Booker jumped into the special primary and election to pick a successor to U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died last Monday.

Christie, once full of his usual bluster, now appears desperate to win a second term.

He jumped through hoops, told lies and was willing to squander $24 million to prevent senatorial candidates from appearing on his November ballot.

He obviously was trying to avoid a comparison to Booker, who is expected to make quick work of defeating his presumed Republican opponent, radical Steve Lonegan of Bogota. 

Christie's mismanagement of state finances also made Page 1 news today: 

A state appeals court has stopped the GOP bully from grabbing $160 million in affordable housing funds to balance his mean-spirited budget (A-1).

Wet race?

Another A-1 story -- on plans for a Formula One race through the streets of Weehawken next June, the weekend after the F1 race in Montreal -- doesn't say whether grandstands will be covered to protect New Jersey fans from heat or rain.

In the past, thousands of Montreal racegoers paid hundreds of dollars for seats in unprotected grandstands, then had to leave during downpours and never saw the end of the race.

Back to the source

The quality of food coverage has declined for years, ever since Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded the paper's Food section.

Today, the Better Living cover story on farmers' markets completely omits mention of Closter, where 28 stands offered fresh produce, artisan bread and other food last Sunday.

In fact, Closter's Sunday market is bigger than most of those mentioned in today's poorly reported story (BL-1).

Friday's paper

Now, four former governors have gotten into the act to save the Palisades from a high-rise corporate headquarters planned by LG, the South Korean electronics giant (not "South Korean-based," as in the story on Friday's A-1).

Where were they when the Palisades south of the George Washington Bridge was defaced with one high rise after another?

A correction on Friday's L-2 is long enough to choke a horse.

Mouse that roars

The sub-headline on an A-18 editorial  ("Christie makes smart interim choice") sounds suspiciously like the headline on an A-19 opinion column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin ("Christie made the logical political choice").

Doblin, the mouse that roars, is incapable of writing a column without making references to Hollywood films or Broadway shows. 

Lazy warrior

Friday's Road Warrior column on Sen. Lautenberg's pivotal role in improving transportation only reminds readers of how little Staff Writer John Cichowski has written about mass transit since he took over the commuting column in September 2003 (L-1).

The burned-out, supremely lazy Cichowski prefers to base entire columns on the complaints about driving and other drivers he receives from his cranky readers, who love to see their names in print.

He even ran a question from John Balkun, The Record's assistant managing editor/sports (Wednesday's L-3). 

I guess that's better than making up comments, as he is suspected of doing in the past.

Main Street property owned by Jerome Lombardo, head of the public-private partnership pushing for redevelopment of the depressed shopping district, above and below.

Hackensack boom?

Friday's L-1 story on a groundbreaking in Hackensack quotes George Capodagli, the developer of a 222-unit rental building, with rents of $1,600 to $2,000:

"I'm bringing in the $20 martini people -- the rich and the famous."

The story reports a ribbon-cutting for Avalon Hackensack at Riverside, a 226-unit building near Route 4, and plans for "a full-service luxury residential building of more than 25,000 square feet" on Main Street.

The L-1 headline describes the three projects as a "residential building boom."

Englewood bust?

Englewood has four luxury apartment buildings or complexes, two of them downtown, but they have had no perceptible change in the fortunes of the Palisade Avenue shopping and dining district.

In the Hackensack story, Jerome Lombardo, chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, says:

"Nobody in North Jersey can beat Hackensack's location."

Lombardo hasn't disclosed how much property he owns on or near Main Street or how much he will profit from execution of the city's official Downtown Rehabilitation Plan.

Clueless Kelly should visit Englewood real soon

A week ago, in a column on the front page of The Record, burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly compared downtown Hackensack unfavorably to Englewood and other towns, which reportedly "bustled with new businesses." But the reality is far different, as these empty storefronts on Englewood's Palisade Avenue show, above and below. 

This empty retail space is on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building.

All of the empty storefronts are on Palisade Avenue or on a side street, and all are within one block of each other. And there are others on both side of the railroad tracks that divide Englewood economically and racially.

In recent years, The Record has virtually ignored downtown Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck, in favor of stories about Ridgewood, Tenafly and other wealthier towns. And the newspaper has never explored the impact it had on Hackensack's Main Street when it abandoned the city where it had prospered for 110 years. Kelly, of course, never mentioned The Record's departure in his Hackensack column.

In  today's Memorial Day Parade, the Englewood Police Department Honor Guard marched past a Palisade Avenue storefront that remains empty more than a year after Victoria's Secret closed (not shown).

5 lightweights seek election in Hackensack

This eyesore is among several shuttered storefronts on just 2 blocks of Main Street in Hackensack, on either side of Banta Place. See photos below.

A barber on Banta Place says the street hasn't been paved in 30 years.

Jerome J. Lombardo is chairman of C.J. Lombardo Co., as well as chairman of the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2004 to promote Main Street and attract people to the shopping district. It's also called the Upper Main Alliance, because it doesn't represent all of Main Street.

No one is beating down the door to rent space on Main Street.

Another failed restaurant on Main Street.

When did Phiefer's, one of Hackensack's oldest restaurants, close?

Is it a conflict for Jerome Lombardo to own a lot of real estate on Main Street and head the public-private alliance that is pushing for redevelopment, with the full backing of a City Council that is trying to hold onto power in Tuesday's election?

The once-majestic United Jersey Bank headquarters on Main Street.

Maybe the Upper Main Alliance should have tried animal sacrifices to revive Main Street before this botanica was closed by a fire last week.

The 5 City Council candidates in the so-called Open Government slate are so many puppets whose strings are being pulled by the powerful political forces that have brought Hackensack to its knees.

Voters on Tuesday could elect independent Victor E. Sasson and other reformers who want to revive the city (vote Lines 11, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Or, apathetic voters might allow the Open Government slate (Lines 6-10) to win and continue to line the pockets of lawyers, developers and other insiders who have thrived under the decades-long rule of the Zisa family.

'Dragon Lady'

Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss, is a protege of longtime party bigwig Joseph Ferriero and the power behind Ken Zisa, the disgraced former state Assemblyman and convicted ex-police chief (see Page 1 of The Record today).

On Saturday, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the widow of a longtime state senator shamed themselves by ignoring Hackensack's corrupt past and endorsing the Open Government slate -- in a display of divisive party politics.
 

Warehouses and other commercial businesses coexist uncomfortably with homes on Hobart Street in Hackensack, above, and near Elizabeth Street, below. With no park in the neighborhood, children use parking lots for recreation on weekends.

 

Candidate Victor E. Sasson is independent and honest, and owes no favors to special interests, unlike members of "the Zisa slate."

Mental lightweights

Let's take a look at the Zisa slate's 5 candidates:

• As a Hackensack police officer, Kenneth Martin couldn't spell "ambulance" and other words when writing reports. His first dumb move as a candidate was to remove opponents' signs in full view of a store surveillance camera.
• Jason Nunnermacker is a well-fed corporate lawyer and school trustee who has never spoken during the campaign about what he has accomplished in more than a year on the Board of Education. 
• Joanne Mania Colon boasts of more than 20 years of service as a volunteer on the city Planning Board, which has allowed the construction of warehouses next to homes, exposing residents to noise and fumes in their own backyards.
• Joseph Barreto is an educator in Manhattan -- not Hackensack -- and doesn't even send his children to the city's public schools.
• Scott Young apparently doesn't have what it takes to become a member of the city's Police Department, and is a volunteer or "special" officer.   

Lies, not reform
 
Campaign material sent out by the Open Government slate has been filled with lies and distortions about reformers on the Citizens for Change team, including Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term.

Hackensack defends developer's 30-year tax break

Hackensack resident Steven V. Gelber questioning Councilman John Labrosse, second from right, on Tuesday night about his three health-insurance policies, including coverage by the city and Hackensack University Medical Center, where Labrosse works in plant operations. Labrosse, the only incumbent running for a new term, declined to answer during the public session. The Record covered the meeting, but didn't report any comments from Gelber or other residents.

At the Nellie K. Parker Elementary School in Hackensack on Tuesday, blogger Victor E. Sasson approached two teachers or teacher's aides during recess, and asked them to sign his petition of nomination for the City Council election on May 14. Although they had been talking to each other, they said they couldn't sign the petition because they had to keep their "eyes" on the children. Later, a short, balding man with a white mustache came out and said he couldn't sign a petition on "city time," and that Sasson would have to stand across the street from the school, if he wanted to solicit signatures.

The Record's upbeat story on a 222-unit apartment building planned for State Street in Hackensack doesn't report residents' objections to a proposed 30-year tax break for the wealthy developer, Capodagli Property Co. of Pequannock (L-3).

At a City Council meeting on Tuesday night, officials introduced an ordinance allowing the developer to pay $1,200 in property taxes per unit for the first 7 years or a total of $266,400 a year.

Based on a partial assessment of a 226-unit apartment complex that is nearing completion on Hackensack Avenue, between two shopping centers, the State Street building would be paying only about a third of full property taxes, a city official said today.

Downtown spark?

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono and council members defended the giveaway as necessary to develop the "blighted" State Street property, which, they said, is now yielding less than $80,000 a year in property  taxes.

They said the building, which will be called Meridia State and have only 141 parking spaces, will spark the renewal of Main Street, which is a block away. 

But the building won't be completed until January 2015. 

Young professionals

The Hackensack Avenue complex will be marketed as a perfect place for shopaholics to live. 

Let's hope for the sake of Main Street merchants the "affordable luxury" building on State Street isn't aimed at young professionals who have maxed out their credit cards.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in taxes that won't be collected means Hackensack residents will have to wait longer to see their neglected streets paved, and can give up hope of ever seeing their own property tax bills stabilize.

Across America, large and small cities are making their downtowns more liveable in the hopes of attracting empty nesters and seniors, but Hackensack appears to be focusing on young professionals to bring about a renaissance.

Today's paper

If you expected to see local news on the front page today, you can forget about it. 

Editor Marty Gottlieb has got bigger fish to fry than Hackensack's future.

Errors, not corrections

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski presents another column filled with numbers -- this one based on a report from the U.S. Census Burea -- and quotes from commuters he undoubtedly interviewed by telephone.

The problem is that the tired Cichowski has shown a propensity to misread and misreport numbers in reports, as he did on Sunday in his column on rollover crashes, according to a concerned reader:

"The Road Warrior continues to demonstrate an inability in his March 3 column to correctly report information from government reports, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration annual traffic fatalities for passengers involved in vehicle rollovers.

"The Road Warrior's problems are so bad that he is unable to correctly report on a graph that is published in his own column.

"He indicated that rollovers account for 2 out of 3 SUV deaths in New Jersey.

"The graph in his column clearly shows that rollover deaths in SUV's have NOT exceeded 50% of all SUV deaths since the mid-1990's, with the average closer to 45% in the past 10 years.

"Readers should also always use caution when encountering any of the Road Warrior's published scientific information, which inevitably defies scientific laws."

Read the full e-mail to management on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Help! I've fallen, and lost my glasses