Why is Publisher Stephen A. Borg's hair turning gray?

Shuttered businesses in Englewood, above and below, cast doubt on the strategies of officials there and in Hackensack to revive their business districts by building more apartments downtown, as reported today and Monday in The Record.

Landlords charging high rents could be causing business failures in Englewood in Hackensack, not the lack of foot traffic.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Stephen A. Borg of Tenafly is president of North Jersey Media Group and publisher of The Record, the company's flagship daily newspaper.

He lives in a $3.65 million McMansion bought with a mortgage from NJMG, and he's sitting on a pot of gold -- the 19.7-acre parcel that has been empty since the paper left Hackensack in 2009, as reported today in The Record (A-7).

That property might not be as attractive once Costco Wholesale closes its 20-year-old Hackensack warehouse store nearby and opens a bigger one in Teterboro (A-1).

But that certainly shouldn't be turning his hair gray.

You can clearly see the transformation in a photo on Page 112 of the October 2014 issue of (201) magazine, which celebrates the Dwight-Englewood School's Anniversary Gala in Englewood under the heading, "Giving Back."

Borg is shown with his wife, Monica, who appears in another photo on Page 102 of the same issue, one of four women in the "Best Dressed of the Month" feature.

Same old, same old

If anything, the hair of readers should be turning gray over the sameness of the front page today -- more boring news about the Ebola epidemic that isn't, and yet another tedious political column on Governor Christie's image (A-1).

The Costco story is the only one on the front page that could pass for local news, and that has been rumored for more than a year.

A bigger Costco is under construction near Teterboro Airport, about 3 miles from the Hackensack warehouse.

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski counts on his readers having memories as bad as his, especially when he repeatedly screws up the age of the George Washington Bridge.

Last Friday, Cichowski finally got it right, reporting the bridge was 83 years old on that day (Oct. 24) after four previous columns as far back as last December had already declared its age as 83.

According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, the veteran reporter also messed up the name of the award bestowed on the subject of his column, Warren "Pops" Tashian, 99.

Cichowksi claims that in 2004, the Bergen County YMCA gave Tashian its "Man of the Year" award.

But the award has never been called that. The award is "Person of the Year," and Tashian didn't get that, either.

He was honored as "Most Inspirational Adult."

The Bergen County Y may add a "Most Incorrect Adult" award, and give it to Cichowski. 

See: Playing dumb and dumber again

Readers want less shore coverage, more local news

A former Korean bakery at 479 Main St. in Hackensack, opposite the Sears parking lot, is being converted into Daheen Wang Mandoo, which would be a branch of a popular Korean dumpling restaurant in Manhattan and the Flushing section of Queens. The renovations are being slowed by the owners' inability to get permits from the city's Building Department, and it's unclear what assistance they are receiving from the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership that promotes shopping and dining out on Hackensack's struggling Main Street.

With big headlines, photos and a map, The Record's front page today reports on the slow pace of recovery at the shore from Superstorm Sandy.

But that takeout gets a lot more play than another story on the impact on Hackensack and other towns of a proposed 55-acre retail development in Teterboro being fueled by a $19 million state tax break.

And a third story on Page 1 doesn't even mention Governor Christie might have revenue to pay for new tax cuts, if he wasn't giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in such breaks to wealthy retailers and other businesses. 

This kind of coverage just plays into Christie's hands.

After mismanaging the state's economy for more than 3 years, Christie is trying to revive the shore and throwing tax breaks around like confetti in a desperate bid for a second term.

Shore is expensive 

North Jersey residents love the shore, but high property taxes here and high rents there mean most can only afford an annual two-week vacation by the sea.

And second homes are out of reach for anyone but multimillionaires like the Borgs, with shacks at the shore going for $500,000 or more. 

Give us a break

Why did The Record omit mention of the $19 million state tax break in last Thursday's front-page story on Walmart and, possibly, Costco Wholesale opening stores in the Teterboro development?

Was North Jersey Media Group and the Borg family wooing Walmart for the 20 acres they own along River Street, the former headquarters of The Record, and did they lose out because no such state incentive was offered? 

Today's story is silent on the Walmart rumors that swirled around the Borgs' property, and doesn't differentiate between the low-wage jobs at the low-price retailer and the unionized labor at Costco.

Kids and salad

On the front of today's Local section, a story on a program "aimed at curbing obesity through organic gardening" caught my eye (L-1).

Students in a Teaneck middle school and members of the Hackensack Boys & Girls Club grew lettuce "and learned to make their own sugar-free salad dressing."

Imagine that. Young people eating salad and growing lettuce in a greenhouse, of all places, to escape the vagaries of the weather. 

Why doesn't every Hackensack school have such a program? 

And why isn't the tax-exempt Hackensack University Medical Center offering to help the schools serve healthy meals, in return for not having to pay taxes on $130 million in property?

Borg family remains mum on 20 acres in Hackensack

There are signs of renewal in Hackensack, but not at the old headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record, above and below. In 2009, they abandoned the city where the newspaper prospered for more than 110 years, and the pullout of hundreds of employees hurt an already struggling Main Street.

Today's Page 1 story on possible anchor stores for a 55-acre project in Teterboro appears to end speculation that the Borg family was courting Walmart for the 20 Hackensack acres once occupied by The Record.

Many residents of Hackensack reacted negatively to the Walmart rumors, fearing traffic jams.

But given the newspaper's low quality of local journalism in recent years, a retailer that offers low prices and low quality might be appropriate for the land on River Street.

Discussions with city

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono has said officials have had discussions with the Borgs about their plans, but he wasn't at liberty to discuss them.

Today's story on Walmart and Costco Wholesale doesn't mention North Jersey Media Group's Hackensack property, which has become an eyesore.

The stores wouldn't open in Teterboro until October 2016, The Record reported.

How about a land swap? 

Many residents of Prospect Avenue would like to see the Borgs negotiate a land swap with the developer of a controversial, 19-story Long Term Acute Care Hospital proposed for a small parcel between Prospect and Summit avenues, near Golf Place.

Residents have been fighting the plan, which was rejected by the city's zoning board, 5-0, in 2012 after 3 years of hearings, but the developer has appealed the denial to Superior Court. 

Tonight, the Prospect Avenue Coalition is sponsoring a third forum for the 11 candidates in the May 14 City Council election, all of whom support the residents.

Well-traveled

On the front of Local, The Record's Hannan Adely  reports the Hackensack City Council on Tuesday voted to amend the city code to allow Class II police officers, "who have the power" of regular cops, "but make a fraction of the pay" (L-1).

The byline of Adely, who is assigned to cover Hackensack, also appears today on a front-page story about a walking tour of Paterson's Great Falls "that you can download to your smart phone" (A-1).

But I question the accuracy of the headline:

 "Historic tour goes high tech"

The tour, according to the story, is new, not "historic." 
 

Did editors help reach historic moment?

Seal of Bergen County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Home-rule government has long been one of the sacred cows at The Record, which made its reputation as a local newspaper by covering just about every meeting in just about every town in Bergen and Passaic counties.


Small towns fought hard to preserve their individuality and neighborhood schools, but home rule is inefficient and expensive, resulting in high property taxes.

Except for a series on municipal finance -- the infamous "Mun-Fin" in the 1980s -- The Record has stood by as towns have resisted consolidation of any kind and taxes have gone up year after year.

Today, Editor Marty Gottlieb leads the paper with the historic vote to dissolve the Demarest Police Department and merge it with the Bergen County police (A-1).
 
Borough officials say the plan will save $400,000 in police costs, an unknown amount of that in donuts, which the county buys in bulk at a lower price.

The first paragraph calls the vote a "historic first for Bergen County," but on A-8, readers learn Teterboro disbanded its police force in 1992 and contracted with the county for full-time coverage.

So, maybe "historic second" would be more accurate.

But readers long ago gave up the expectation of accuracy under Production Editor Liz Houlton and her band of merry copy editors, even in Page 1 stories.

Shafting readers

Gottlieb also pushed a sports story for the front page today: Alex Rodriguez' career may be nearing an end now that he's thrown out his hip during sexual activity (A-1).

Can't you just hear the snickers among the tabloid copy editors who coined "A-Rod" to fit short-count headlines -- a nickname that hints at his sexual prowess?  

There is so little municipal news in Local, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, had to use a big photo on L-3 -- the latest saga in utility pole news.

Mass hysteria

Monday's front page continued the Woodland Park daily's unprecedented coverage of mass transit, but the bus and rail system maxed out long before Superstorm Sandy damaged hundreds of NJ Transit locomotives and rail cars. 

The editors acknowledge how little they've covered mass transit in the past decade by inserting the word "commuter" before "locomotives and railcars," lest readers think NJ Transit transported cattle, bottled water or organic spring mix.

See previous post on comments 

Missing the year's biggest story

Image via Wikipedia

Can you believe The Record of Woodland Park missed Monday's best story -- passage of a mean-spirited state budget pushed through the Legislature by our steamroller of a governor? What's all this Cold War-era nonsense about spies who live "next door." In Montclair? The majority of readers live in Bergen County, and we're sick and tired of the lazy editors settling for the sensational over the substantial.

Was the spy headline supposed to make me shake in my bathrobe? I know my neighbors, and they're hard-working middle class families who resent the lack of Hackensack news day after day.


So few of the reporters under head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes do anything, it's a colossal misjudgment to assign four of them to this stupid spy story, then give it bigger play on Page 1 today than the budget story, and for what reason?

Was it early deadlines, which sacrifice getting late, breaking news into the paper to accommodate the dysfunctional home-delivery system? Did Sykes and Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale want to go home rather than get the year's biggest story into the paper? Or was it simply more incompetence?

Governor Christie's budget represents the biggest assault on the middle and working classes, the elderly and the poor in New Jersey history, while benefiting small-business owners and such fat cats as the Borgs. 

Charles Stile's column has run on the front before. Why not today, when he describes the once-moderate state Republican Party's nasty turn? In fact, all of the elements on A-6 should have been on A-1 today. The inconsequential spy story actually gets more space than this historically flawed budget and its impact on our way of life. Even Alfred P. Doblin, the editorial page editor, took the evening off, leaving behind two lame editorials.


On A-10, a letter to the editor savages Doblin for his June 25 column with the headline, "Springtime for Gordon, winter for Teterboro." The buffoonish Doblin, it seems, invoked a comedic song about Hitler to criticize Sen. Robert Gordon, the Fair Lawn Democrat who happens to be Jewish, for sponsoring the proposal to break up Teterboro.

Doblin's juvenile style reminds me of that other jerk on the staff, Bill Ervolino, whose northjersey.com blog was shut down in March after inappropriate references to Malia Obama, then 12, one of the president's daughter. When are the Borgs and Scandale going to dump the offensive Ervolino and clownish Doblin?

The lead story on the Local front has the headline, "Chase ends in crash," that the news copy  editors keep on a save-get key. There is more police news in the section, including Giovanna Fabiano's contribution from Englewood, but no municipal news from that city, Hackensack or Teaneck. 


Should we wait for Fabiano's takeout on the Hispanic community in Englewood -- both legal and illegal -- and how it has added a new dimension to the city? Nah. She's too lazy to tackle enterprise, and her assignment editor is clueless. She spends so little time in Englewood, people are always asking to see her press pass.


But I really shouldn't single her out for criticism when Staff Writer Jean Rimbach trades on her friendship with "Mother Hen" Sykes to write an average of one story a year. When is the last time Shawn Boburg wrote a story? Or Monsy Alvarado?

The reporting staff was basically untouched by the downsizing that started in 2008, so it's likely there are still about 50 reporters or specialty writers in the newsroom. If you see only eight bylines in the paper, what does that mean? What are the others doing to justify their existence?

(Map: Teterboro)

More fishing for news

Image via Wikipedia

The desperate editors couldn't run the photo on Page L-3 any bigger -- it's as wide as it can get, as wide as the page. Let down by the lazy assignment and news staff under Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes for yet another day, the layout editors had no news for that page today, and plugged the hole with a photo of people fishing and looking as bored as readers of The Record of Woodland Park.



Who can blame them? No news of Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other important towns appears in Local today. Local? Why not call it Yokels, which is how Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale regards residents of key communities. Bears in West Milford get better coverage than Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years.

On Page 1, the paper reports that failing students in some districts now have to pay for summer school. Isn't that good news for taxpayers? But is it really A-1 news? 

The plan to break up Teterboro -- a plan few thought would be successful -- is on hold, the lead story on the front page discloses. Why did the paper write endlessly about the politics of the proposal, but not bother to report on Teterboro Airport's impact on the quality of life of tens of thousands in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns annoyed by noisy aircraft filled with such fat cats as the Borgs?


For cutting-edge food coverage from Better Living, see the newest junk food on F-1. The copy editor calls a doughnut cheeseburger part of a "culinary renaissance." "Artery-clogging renaissance" would be more accurate. A reader-friendly story would report on what healthy options are available at the fair.

(Illustration: Teterboro Airport. Only two runways, but endless noise.)