Readers question Page 1 column on house without driveway

Posters in the "My County Poster Contest" were on display today in the lobby of the Bergen County Administration Building in Hackensack, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You've seen those houses -- on the edge of Route 17 or next to railroad tracks -- and wondered why would anyone buy and live in them.

The same question could be asked of Ken Klabouch, who lives in a house with no driveway and has to jump through many hoops to comply with Midland Park's ban on overnight parking, The Record reports today.

Is it any surprise Klabouch can't sell the place (A-1)?

Surely, I'm not the only reader questioning why Staff Writer John Cichowski thinks this real estate story has anything to do with his responsibilities as a commuting columnist.

Cichowski took over the Road Warrior column more than a dozen years ago, and quickly turned his back on bus and rail commuters, and drivers who faced mounting congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Instead, he specialized in reporting on waiting times at the MVC, potholes, teen drivers and highway lighting, and wrote column after column quoting state police statistics on fatal accidents -- though he rarely transposed the data accurately.

How far is Klabouch's house from an NJ Transit bus stop, does Midland Park have rail service and could the place be ideal for a young couple who want to reduce their carbon footprint?

The clueless Cichowski doesn't say.

Memorial Day

Staff Writer Paul Berger did a fine job covering the Memorial Day ceremony at the monument to war dead in Englewood on Monday (L-1).

He ignored the speeches, and focused on Olga Mosciaro, 88, who has organized the parade "since the days she was a secretary in the city's Police Department detective bureau 30 years ago."

Berger's readable story noted the woman's white hat "barely poked above the lectern."

Korean drivers

The gee-whiz photo on L-2 today only adds to the poor opinion of Korean-American drivers held by many people.

The caption notes the large "SUV wound up on top of another vehicle ... when a parishioner at the Korean Presbyterian Church of the Palisades in Old Tappan lost control of the vehicle." 

What does "lost control" mean? Was the driver elderly, and did he or she mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal -- a common problem among seniors, whether they are Korean or not? 

The Record's editors made no effort to find out, and in the process smeared the reputation of Korean drivers.

Monday's paper

Page 1 on Monday reported that eight residents of Midland Park -- a 1.5-mile-square borough with about 8,000 residents in the 1960s -- were killed in three years of the Vietnam War.

The story was by Staff Writer Todd South, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan.

As I read the story, I wondered whether this was the first time The Record had reported the heavy toll.

Nothing on the front page indicated the moving story was anything but the result of great reporting, but when readers turned to the continuation page, they finally saw the truth.

The story was based on the work of another Marine veteran, Paul Chepurko, a Hawthorne resident who self-published a book on the eight soldiers from Midland Park, "Small Town-Big Sacrifice II" (Monday's A-6).

Was the story deliberately written or edited to leave mention of Chepurko to the continuation page?

What do Hackensack residents get for their high taxes?

Hackensack gives property tax payers a 10-day grace period, so 1st-quarter payments are due on Wednesday. When is the last time you saw a story -- any story -- about local property taxes in The Record of Woodland Park?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you live in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood, Ridgewood or another community with a tax-exempt hospital, you are paying more for such services as police protection and garbage collection.

In fact, residents are subsidizing the non-profit medical complexes, and in Hackensack, that means the city is powerless to collect more than $10 million on $257 million in tax-exempt property.

And Hackensack residents also are saddled with tax-exempt property owned by Bergen County, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Eastwick College and others.

All of them add to the disproportionate financial burden carried by residential and commercial property owners -- higher taxes that have been totally ignored by the local editors at The Record of Woodland Park.

At the same time, it's unclear what, if anything, those non-profits have returned to the city in lieu of taxes.

$4.5M payment

On Jan. 26, the Hackensack City Council voted to approve a settlement of claims, "some going back decades," that requires Hackensack University Medical Center to pay $4.5 million over three years.

The agreement also includes "which properties owned by HUMC and/or affiliated entities shall remain taxable."

HUMC also will pay $200,000 annually for pedestrian-bridge air rights on Atlantic and Second streets dating to December 2009, officials said.

City services

I've lived in Hackensack since 2007, and I'm pretty happy with police and fire protection, and other city services, with the exception of sloppy snow plowing, which endangers drivers and pedestrians.

Street paving also seems to be hit and miss, with some blocks showing rough patches after being neglected for more than 30 years.

And the city's free-spending Board of Education has been a thorn in taxpayers' sides, operating this year on a $106 million budget that exceeds the city's own.

My school taxes are 44.13% of my total property tax bill.

Police report

In a year-end report, Hackensack police said they issued 6,981 moving violations, but I still see stop-sign runners almost every day, especially at Euclid Avenue and the railroad tracks, where there are four stop signs.

The report listed 2,048 accidents, two fatal, and 465 "hit & run."

"Both burglaries and robberies in 2014 and 2015 were reported to be the lowest in past 30 years," the report stated.

"The Police Department worked closely" with the [tax-exempt] county homeless shelter on South River Street "in addressing the concerns of the homeless."

The report was silent on whether HUMC has agreed to provide medical staff who could help police cut down on the large number of trips transporting homeless people from the shelter to the hospital's emergency room -- another story The Record has ignored.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer Todd South didn't cover the Jan. 26 City Council meeting in Hackensack or the two meetings before that.

South, who has been promoted to the Bergen County government beat from his Hackensack duties, today reports on a regional high school poetry contest (L-1).

In today's thin Local section, you'll find municipal news from East Rutherford, Rutherford, Leonia, Waldwick and Rockleigh, but nothing from Hackensack.

A brief on L-3 today must make the 535 residents of Rockleigh feel really safe, and speaks volumes about how North Jersey is poorly served by the home-rule system of local government.

The borough's Fire Department has only two fire engines, so the council "is exploring" an agreement to "borrow" a vehicle in an emergency.

Staff Writer Marc Lightdale doesn't shed any light on whether the vehicle would be another firetruck.

Page 1

Editor Deirdre Sykes and Managing Editor Dan Sforza have been in their new positions for only 10 days, but their front-pages have been uniformly disappointing.

Today's is dominated by politics and sports -- again.

Sykes and Sforza still can't shake their old roles as local assignment editors who did their best to screw readers searching for news of their town.

Does anybody still read Columnist Charles Stile's almost daily assessment of Governor Christie's doomed campaign for the GOP presidential nomination (A-1)?

The CNN Poll of Polls is reporting Christie will be the choice of only 5% of New Hampshire Republican primary voters or seventh in the field of eight -- just above Dr. Ben Carson's 3%.

First Hackensack story in many weeks is really stale news

Visitors to Hackensack University Medical Center are treated to a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline from the top of the parking deck -- little consolation to Hackensack residents whose taxes are higher because the medical complex claims a non-profit tax exemption on $257 million in property.

This sculpture, once displayed in the lobby, was modeled after Managing Editor Dan Sforza of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today again tries to pass off legal arguments in the 2012 criminal case against former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa as legitimate news.

In the last month or two, Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza have virtually ignored municipal news from Hackensack, where the Zisa family political dynasty ruled for decades before the election of reformers in May 2013.

No reporter for The Record has covered the last three City Council meetings, and the Woodland Park daily hasn't reported at all on the city's free-spending school board.

Today, former Hackensack reporter Todd South does his best to get readers interested in Zisa's attempt to have an official misconduct charge thrown out (A-1).

Months after the 2012 guilty verdicts against Zisa, South reports, the trial judge, Joseph S. Conte, "in a rare move, dismissed three of the five convictions against him, a decision that outraged jurors and confounded legal experts" (A-6).

Governor Christie

Sykes, named as top editor in the newsroom a week ago, continues to waste an enormous amount of space and resources on Governor Christie's doomed campaign for the GOP presidential election (A-1).

Two bylines appear on today's story, Herb Jackson and Dustin Racioppi, over a New Hampshire dateline.

But The Record's reporting on financing of the Christie campaign is weak, compared to WNYC-FM, a public radio station (A-8).

Matt Katz reported this morning the founder of Home Depot withdrew his financial support of Christie in the last quarter of 2015.

Still, the Christie campaign received $70,000 from lawyers at Gibson Dunn -- the firm that issued a whitewash of the governor's role in the George Washington Bridge lane closures that cost taxpayers more than $8 million.

Local news?

Sensational crime and court news again dominates the section that is supposed to be devoted to local news (L-1 to L-6).

A filler photo has fans of the environment cheering the destruction of a gas-guzzling Cadillac Escalade in Old Tappan (L-6).

Confused critic

"Istanbul is among the biggest of a wonderful selection of Middle Eastern restaurants ... along Main Avenue in Clifton," says Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung (BL-16).

With that sentence, Ung completely ignores an equally wonderful selection of Middle Eastern restaurants just over the Clifton-Paterson border, on Main Street in South Paterson.

On Jan. 26, three days after the snow stopped falling, a bus stop remained buried under snow, above, and drivers were forced to use only one lane on two-lane Euclid Avenue, below.

Reporter's secret

Before she was hired as a reporter for North Jersey Media Group's weekly papers, Kristen Agnes was a sales associate at Victoria's Secret.

That may explain why her story on Page 1 of this week's Hackensack Chronicle is sending mixed messages about the lousy job city plows did cleaning up from the late January blizzard.

Her lead paragraph reports "ma[n]y residents attended the City Council meeting on Jan. 26 to voice their concerns regarding snow removal."

But her next four paragraphs quote City Manager David Troast, praising employees for an "excellent job handling over 24 inches of snow."

And the headline seals the deal:

"Officials laud snow removal effort"

Except for a photo or two, The Record completely ignored the botched cleanup in Hackensack, Teaneck and many other towns, as Sykes and Editor Dan Sforza have been doing for more than a decade.

Despite controversies, editors stop covering Hackensack

On Tuesday morning, the crosswalk and curb at Main and Berry streets in Hackensack were clear, but the NJ Transit bus stop was buried under a snowbank, testament to a sloppy job by snowplows throughout the 4.4-square-mile city. One resident complained snow was cleared with "no regard for pedestrians."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

No reporter from The Record covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, where Hackensack residents again complained about haphazard snow clearing that endangered drivers and pedestrians.

Staff Writer Todd South, who had been assigned to Hackensack and Maywood, has been promoted, and no reporter has taken his place to cover the most populous town in Bergen County.

Only Hackensack police news has appeared in the Woodland Park daily for several weeks. 

South's last Hackensack byline was on Dec. 12, when he wrote about a dispute over a marriage license involving Richard Salkin, the Board of Education attorney.

The Record seems to have stopped covering Hackensack, where the Borg publishing family prospered for more than 110 years before abandoning the city in 2009 for Woodland Park.

Hospital, downtown

Yet, the county seat is embroiled in a controversy with the tax-exempt Hackensack University Medical Center, and residents have questioned concessions to developers during the biggest downtown rehabilitation in North Jersey, if not the entire state.

The Record also hasn't reported who stands to profit most from redevelopment.

On Tuesday night, four residents appeared before council officials, meeting as a Committee of the Whole, to complain about snow clearing after the blizzard of 2016, and to urge officials to draw up a plan for future storms.

Irrelevant columns

Instead of municipal news, Editors Martin Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza continue to choke readers with hundreds of inches of type from Columnists Charles Stile and John Cichowski (A-1 and L-1) -- the editorial equivalent of fiddling while North Jersey burns.

Stile and another reporter filed 50 inches to 60 inches of type on A-1 and A-10 analyzing Governor Christie's response to criticism that he left New Jersey too soon after the snowstorm to return to his doomed New Hampshire campaign:

"I don't know what you want me to do , you want me to go down there with a mop?"

Meanwhile, Cichowski continues to distance himself from the pathetically inadequate advice he gave car owners on how to cope with the blizzard.

Sadly, a 23-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son died on Saturday from carbon-monoxide poisoning in an idling car with a snow-blocked exhaust, a hazard that Cichowski didn't mention (L-1).

Abe Vigoda

Staff Writer Bill Ervolino's obituary for actor Abe Vigoda demonstrates once again why The Record's columnists -- including Stile, Cichowski and Mike Kelly -- fail readers day after day (BL-1).

I can't make any sense of the so-called humor columnist's first paragraph that "if you don't have an uncle who looked a whole lot like Abe Vigoda, then you probably aren't Italian," followed by news that Vigoda was a first-generation Russian Jew.

Readers would do better with a sidebar from local obituary writer Jay Levin, who interviewed Vigoda's daughter after the 94-year-old died in his sleep on Tuesday in her Woodland Park park home (BL-3).

The best lines: 

"This is a man who was never sick a day in his life," Carol Vigoda Fuchs told Levin. "He could've waited for his birthday" (Feb. 24).

'Superfoods'

It isn't enough for Staff Writer Sophia F. Gottfried to quote dietitians on hidden sugar, sodium and fat in foods and products many people consider healthy (BL-1).

Her article doesn't name alternatives, making the advice useless, unless readers embark on their own investigations.

And if they are going to do that, what's the point of her article?

CEO at non-profit HUMC is being paid nearly $3M a year

Fort Lee has become known as a destination for affordable Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and other Asian food. Now, The Record's food editor reports, a high-end Korean steak restaurant will open in July on the ground floor of the Hudson Lights development, left, serving a full menu of mystery beef.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even as Hackensack University Medical Center defends its non-profit, tax-exempt status in its cash-strapped host city, CEO Robert C. Garrett is being paid nearly $3 million a year.

And Garrett's salary of $2.72 million was for 2012, according to a 2014 investigation by NJBIZ.com.

See: "Medical Millionaires"

Web site

The Web site of the tax-subsidized hospital lists Garrett, but contains no information on his current compensation.

NJBIZ.com identifies Garrett as head of the "$1.72 billion Hackensack University Health Network."

HUMC and other non-profits are defending a legislative proposal that would have them make "community service contributions" in lieu of property taxes.

The city of Hackensack, where several non-profits shift the property tax burden onto residents, would receive $690,762.50, if the bill becomes law, according to The Record.

HUMC is paying about $4,877,000 a year on its taxable property in the city.

But most of its property is tax-exempt. 

Those buildings would normally yield an additional $10,623,000 a year in taxes, Tax Assessor Art Carlson says.

Hackensack news

The Record's local assignment desk hasn't done any reporting on the compensation of Garrett or anyone else running HUMC nor has it been covering recent Hackensack City Council meetings.

But Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter assigned to Hackensack and Maywood, made sure he got a seat at a court hearing on Thursday involving a marriage license for Richard Salkin, the Hackensack Board of Education lawyer.

Today, South reports Judge Roy F. McGeady, presiding judge for the Municipal Courts, dismissed a harassment complaint by city Registrar Maria Tartaglione as well as a counter complaint by Salkin (L-1).

Mystery meat

The Better Living cover today puts the focus on the mystery meat that will fill the menus of North Jersey restaurants slated to open in the coming months -- "from a funky Mexican joint to a high-end American steakhouse" (BL-1).

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz does her best to promote eight restaurants sight unseen.

Most of them are expected to advertise heavily in The Record.

On Friday, the paper's chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung, offered a lukewarm, 2-star review of the pricey Ho-Ho-Kus Inn and Tavern, saying the chef's "flavors are all over the map."

The restaurant also lost points for desserts she labeled "heavy," "dry," "bland" or "unremarkable."

Those same words could describe her review.

Departing editor didn't ease crisis at our local daily paper

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record in the Woodland Park newsroom. Reporter Lindy Washburn, the paper's chief medical writer, is at left in this photo by Staff  Photographer Carmine Galasso.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's news story on the retirement of Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record comes at a time of crisis -- a troubled period at the Woodland Park daily the veteran journalist did little to ease.

The Record's local news content, and the quality of editing and reporting, have declined dramatically since Publisher Stephen A. Borg ordered a major downsizing in 2008, and moved North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper out of Hackensack in 2009.

Gottlieb, who took over the newsroom in January 2012, inherited several lazy, incompetent editors, but never cleaned house.

They include Deirdre Sykes, head of the local assignment desk; Assistant Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, Projects Editor Tim Nostrand; and Production Editor Liz Houlton, who has missed hundreds of errors, typos and bad headlines.

Gottlieb also did nothing to curb several veteran columnists, including Charles Stile, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and Bill Ervolino, printing everything they wrote, no matter how pathetic.

Local news?

Today's Local front story on Gottlieb lists as his main accomplishments:

"Leadership of The Record's coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal," and becoming "a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for a series examining the spread of heroin in the suburbs" (L-1 and L-6).

But his hands-on editing resulted in stories, especially those on Page 1, becoming longer and less accessible to readers.

And the front page showed a far greater emphasis on national and international news.

All of that came at the expense of covering municipal news in Bergen County, especially in Hackensack, where the Borg publishing family prospered for more than 110 years. 

Today, for example, Staff Writer Todd South is reporting on a Nov. 24 incident for the first time:

Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin has been charged with harassment for allegedly threatening Health Department Registrar Maria Tartaglione (L-1).

'Drop dead'

Salkin was applying for a license to marry former City Clerk Debra Heck, but was told by the registrar "she could not provide the certificate because errors had been crossed out in the license form he provided and corrected in pen," South says.

"You're a piece of shit, drop dead," Salkin allegedly shouted, Tartaglione complained, according to The Bergen Dispatch, which reported the incident on its Web site on Nov. 30. "Do you want me to bury you?"

South, with the approval of his editors, has managed to avoid reporting on the city's Board of Education; the school budget, which this year exceeds the city's own; or anything else to do with the schools.

The board approved a new contract with the Hackensack teachers union on Nov. 12, but that wasn't reported until Friday, when the Hackensack Chronicle carried the nearly month-old news.

Another screw-up

Today's local-news section again shows Sykes' and Sforza's desperation to fill space, with long wire-service obituaries on an obscure Native American activist and an even more obscure crossword puzzle champ (L-6).

Page A-2 carries Houlton's correction of a Road Warrior column last Sunday, in which Cichowski tried to drum up business for a volunteer ride service for seniors.

Unfortunately, the addled, error-prone reporter published the wrong telephone number, and none of the editors who looked at his story actually dialed the number to see if it was correct.

1971 to 2016

Gottlieb, 67, began his journalism career in 1971 as a municipal reporter covering Bergen County towns for The Record.

Then, he worked as a reporter or editor at the Daily News, The New York Times and the Village Voice before returning to the Daily News and The Times, the latter in 1995, working there until he was named editor of The Record in January 2012.

Today's story says he will leave The Record in January, four years after he arrived, basically his way of cruising into retirement.

His departure from The Times, where he was global editions editor from 2008 to 2011, has never been explained.

Dark days ahead if Ken Zisa returns as Hackensack chief

If you stay off Route 17 or Route 4, below, driving on Bergen County's two-lane roads can actually be a pleasant experience.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A Record story that could have been written by former Police Chief Ken Zisa's defense attorney had many Hackensack residents soiling their underwear this morning.

Staff Writer Todd South reports on the Local front today Zisa intends to sue the city for nearly $35 million in damages, and is fighting to get his old job back.

But the reporter leaves the other side of the story to deep on the continuation page:

Zisa remains under indictment on an official misconduct charge, and Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli is seeking a new trial on that count (L-6).

And the police chief position no longer exists in Hackensack, which has a police director.

"He cannot be reinstated to a job that no longer exists," City Attorney Alexander H. Carver III said of Zisa.

Legal arguments

Zisa's defense attorney, Patricia Prezioso, has wide latitude when filing a lawsuit notice, but that is no excuse for The Record to basically adopt her arguments in paragraph after paragraph, and leave any rebuttal for deep into the story.

Zisa was convicted in 2012 on charges of official misconduct and insurance fraud, and sentenced to five years in prison. 

He was under "house arrest" for three years as he appealed the convictions, and managed to get the insurance fraud charge dismissed. 

Lawsuits galore

Zisa's conduct as police chief and as a onetime state assemblyman was cited in lawsuits filed against him and the city by more than 20 police officers.

City officials say Zisa cost the city at least $8 million in settlements and related legal costs.

Now, his motive in suing Hackensack and the county prosecutor for damages may be an attempt to recoup the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees he paid Prezioso to defend him on criminal charges.

San Bernardino

Today's front page carries a story about another Rutgers University athletic team, showing just how cavalierly Editor Martin Gottlieb is acting just two days after one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history (A-1).

Meawhile, in New Jersey and the nation, the political stalemate over gun control doesn't appear to be easing (A-1).

Governor Christie must have had too much kosher wine to drink at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum in Washington on Thursday.

"We need to come to grips with the idea that we are in the midst of the next world war," said Christie, who focused on his years as U.S. attorney, not his terrible record as governor of New Jersey (A-3). 

Yamagata

The one time I tried to eat at Yamagata in Fort Lee, I walked into a crowded, noisy restaurant, and was repelled (BL-16).

Then as now, I could retreat to a quiet, family run Japanese restaurant less than a mile away with a large menu of high-end sushi and cooked dishes that seems to have escaped Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's notice.

Her 2.5-star review of Yamagata, which has new chefs and owners, includes a photo of a 20-piece shushi platter for $60.50.

But some of the pieces must be very small, because I counted and re-counted and can't find 20 items.

Editors to blame for the voter apathy they are bemoaning

HOMEOWNER, NOT POLITICIAN: Richard L. Cerbo is the only sensible choice in Tuesday's special Hackensack City Council election, if you are interested in electing someone whose main goal is to reverse rising property taxes and give city residents jobs on downtown renewal projects. An unexpired term is at stake.

The sample ballot mailed to Hackensack residents shows a horizontal column of candidates, as opposed to the usual vertical one. Cerbo's name appears first, in "Column 1."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record and other news media do a terrible job of covering elections.

At the Woodland Park daily, the bored, burned-out editors -- who have been pounding keyboards for decades -- actually reduced coverage of local elections, especially those for school board members and budget approvals.

Much of the other election coverage focuses on boring politics, fund-raising and spending by special interest groups -- but hardly ever on issues and what is good for a town, the state or the country.

Today, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin has the balls to lecture readers on the importance of voting, even in an off-year election like the one on Tuesday.

Voter apathy

An editorial, "Voting matters," says, "... The truth is that all elections are important, from town council to freeholder to the State House" (A-11).

"Tuesday is the time to show your representatives how you feel. It's also an opportunity to maintain control of your community."

Yet, the editorial doesn't mention the special election to fill a City Council seat in Hackensack, the most populous community in Bergen County.

Voter apathy is high in a city once derided as "Zisaville" after decades of rule by a single family.

School spending

Although Hackensack boasts about 20,000 registered voters, fewer than 1,000 of them voted in April's school board election, and this year, they approved an irresponsible $106.88 million budget, one that exceeds the council's own.

Hackensack spends more per pupil than Ridgewood, where schools are considered far superior.

Despite this, school board President Jason S. Nunnermacker has the chutzpah to run as a fiscal conservative in his second bid for a council seat, while hardly mentioning his affiliation with the schools.

Another candidate, Jason S. Some of Some's Uniforms on Main Street is only 25, yet he was appointed in April to the council seat that is now up for grabs on Tuesday.

Young Some is backed by powerful forces, including the Main Street Business Alliance, business and property owners pushing the city's ambitious downtown rehabilitation plan.

I received two comments in reaction to Sunday's post on the special interests behind Nunnermacker and Some:

peanutNovember 2, 2015 at 10:53 AM

Very sketchy on your facts Victor. Some & Geddis are both backed by Zisas, Geddis is NOT backed by union. Current political climate is strange bedfellows - current council & a Zisa both back Some. Nunnermacker is not backed by a Zisa but by quite a few of former "reformer" supporters. A council meeting is not the place for BOE issues, although you keep bringing the subject up there. Go to a BOE meeting to discuss education. Check NJ ELEC for donor reports.

Steven GelberNovember 1, 2015 at 10:26 PM

Gaddis received no such endorsement.... In fact the union President said so.... http://hackensackscoop.blogspot.com/2015/10/council-candidate-receives-endorsement.html

It is unfortunate that you can take to a keyboard with how off base you are with the actual political climate in this town. You do know that there are 2 Zisa candidates? That the Zisa's themselves are divided? That Nunnermacker is fractured from both Zisa factions? Or was the relevance of "double chins" as far as you got into the issues? 

If true, Hackensack really is in deep doo-doo with more political factions muddying the waters than before.

Hackensack news

The Record's Local section today leads with a story on a new executive director at the Main Street Business Alliance, which despite the name doesn't represent the entire street.

Patrice Foresman of Ridgewood is being paid $75,000 a year by a group that only reluctantly contributed money to the Atlantic Street Park, a downtown amenity for which the alliance lobbied hard (L-1).

Her last position was at Community Blood Services in Montvale, which might be relevant in view of how Hackensack taxpayers have been bled mercilessly by litigation against onetime Police Chief Ken Zisa, who also was a Democratic state assemblyman.

Redevelopment

Today's story by Todd South notes:

"The group has been the driving force and partners with the city administration in promoting redevelopment," which would add thousands of new residents in downtown apartments (L-1).

"Those new residents, business owners hope, will bring new retail and restaurant options to the city's rehabilitation zone, which ... spreads outward to include State and River streets" [and 19.7 acres owned by the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group, publishers of The Record].

"The total number of residential units among the five projects already approved for redevelopment is 1,880," including up 700 on the old Record property (L-2). 

Holes in story

There is much missing from South's story.

For one thing, the strategy of building many hundreds of apartments to revive a downtown has already failed miserably in Englewood.

For another, South and previous Hackensack reporters have shirked their responsibility to identify the members of the Main Street Business Alliance who are profiting from redevelopment.

Finally, South doesn't address statements by Richard L. Cerbo, a homeowner seeking the City Council seat in Tuesday's election, that Hackensack could have attracted developers with 10-year tax abatements, instead of those lasting 25 and 30 years.

Cerbo also has criticized the council for not getting guarantees from developers to provide a good percentage of construction and other jobs for city residents.