Best-read paper in Hackensack isn't The Record

A full moon rising over Hackensack on Thursday night. The photo was taken from the parking lot of the Devonshire on Overlook Avenue, where the 11 candidates in the May 14 City Council election introduced themselves to building residents and answered questions. Independent Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record, was scheduled last, at 9 p.m., and only a handful of people stayed to hear him speak.




Friday's edition of The Record carried an unusually large amount of news from Hackensack, all of it bad.

Today's paper is what residents have come to expect: no Hackensack news.

But residents may be too busy to notice. Two other papers have grabbed their attention:

The Hackensack Citizen, published by the Citizens for Change slate in the May 14 City Council election; and the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, which leads with the April 16 school board election.

Here are stories from The Hackensack Citizen:
 

Belly laughs can be heard all over Hackensack from quotes in the Chronicle.

Francis W. Albolino, an incumbent who was elected to his eighth term on the Board of Education said, "We ... would like to thank the voters for coming out."

Albolino was the highest vote-getter with 1,091 -- this in a city with 20,000 registered voters.

He actually meant to say he thanks the voters for not coming out, ensuring victory for the city's political machine.

Critics of Albolino say he falls asleep at meetings, and note the schools win many sports awards, but no academic ones.

Many Hackensack High School students refuse to eat what passes for lunch, and they vote with their feet by walking to a nearby pizzeria, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks.

Mayor Michael R. Melfi, who is a benefactor of the same political machine propping up Albolino, swore in board members on April 22. 

Wrong-way reporter

In Friday's Road Warrior column, Staff Writer John Cichowski reports the Court Street Bridge in Hackensack was scheduled to open today for the first time since Superstorm Sandy (L-5).

But the bridge has been open to traffic in recent months, only to be closed a few days ago. And Hackensack police said the bridge is not reopening today. 

Cichowski likes to exaggerate to get readers' attention, as in describing the Anderson Street  Bridge, which has no moving parts, as "wheezing."

The Salem Street Bridge -- which is under no weight restrictions -- is "rickety."

Of course, anyone who has seen how slowly the burned-out columnist moves realizes those words fit him perfectly.  

Pasta with raw fish?

Friday's restaurant review pans Union Bar, a freakish Japanese-Italian hybrid that serves sushi and pizza in Cliffside Park (BL-18).

But the critic fails to note this is the former Bushido Bar and Restaurant, which was faulted for using inferior raw fish in a review published in June 2012.

Why did The Record review this place again?

For Road Warrior, a bridge too far

(Wikipedia)

Editor's note: A concerned reader again finds numerous flaws in a Road Warrior column, this one about the Route 46 bridge over the Hackensack River, connecting Ridgefield Park and Little Ferry, that was opened in 1934.

Once again, the Road Warrior mistakenly reports misleading and incomplete information and then further confuses or misleads readers by misinterpreting and misstating the facts.

His Nov. 25 column is the 18^th problem article since his 9/12 column that I have brought to the attention of The Record's management & Staff Writer John Cichowski without indication of any preventive actions to address these problems and very few published corrections.

Highlights of misleading and incomplete facts and statements from his column are noted below. The Record or Road Warrior should make appropriate corrections.

1. Misleading incomplete fact - "The Hackensack River span [bridge by the Little Ferry Circle] — under state control as part of U.S. 46 — is considered functionally obsolete"

CORRECT FACT - That Hackensack River span is considered structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.  US DOT national bridge inventory classifies this bridge as structurally deficient. A NJ DOT bridge rehabilitation project, which is extensively reported in this column, was approved to primarily rectify the problems that cause the bridge to be classified as structurally deficient, as well as correct some functionally obsolete problems.  One of the reasons the bridge will still be functionally obsolete, even after the rehabilitation project, is that it will still not have any road shoulders.

2. Misleading statement - "The Hackensack River span ... is considered functionally obsolete, which means cars and some trucks can use it safely"

CORRECT FACTS - Functionally obsolete does NOT automatically mean cars and some trucks can use it safely. 

Functionally obsolete means a bridge has older design features and configurations, and though not unsafe, cannot accommodate current traffic, larger vehicle sizes, or heavier weights in accordance with current improved safety design standards.  It can lead to more traffic congestion or accidents, such as the fatal accident of Gloria Popp that the Road Warrior has regularly recounted over the years, including in this column.

Structurally deficient means a bridge may be closed or have traffic restricted in accordance with weight limits and/or speed limits because of its more limited structural capacity in comparison to its original design capacity.

Functionally obsolete or structurally deficient bridges may still allow cars and some trucks, depending on size and weight, to use the bridge if drivers and pedestrians, if allowed, use it in a more cautious safe manner.

3. Misleading and contradictory Road Warrior forecasts - "Last year, your column told us to sit tight because the state would soon do the work [on the Route 46 bridge]," said the Dumont reader who was 13 [43 years ago] when his big sister was run down by a driver. "I told my family and friends, but still no work has been done."

"But in an economy move last year, the agency decided to combine the bridge work with a reconfiguration of the Little Ferry Circle."

PROBLEMS WITH READERS RELYING ON ROAD WARRIOR FORECASTS -   While the Road Warrior was forecasting last year the state would start bridge work soon, he did not report last year that the DOT agency had decided to combine that work with reconfiguration of the Little Ferry circle, which meant the work would be delayed. 

The Road Warrior also did not report in his current column on any current project estimate for when the contracts for the bridge work and Little Ferry circle reconfiguration might be awarded or work started.  Instead, he provided no real answer based on a DOT spokesman.  Perhaps, the Dumont man and other readers will have to wonder again for another year.  Perhaps, the Road Warrior will follow up with the project manager for this work rather than a bureaucratic DOT spokesman for more accurate and timely forecasts.

Readers want accurate reporting, forecasts, and reviews with timely updates and corrections.  I'm in agreement with that Dumont reader, who said, "I'll believe it when I see it."

Here's hoping for change and better fact-checking, corrections and reviewing (Googling?) by The Record's editors, columnists, & reporters -- for more reliable, accurate, and common sense information.