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| Weehawken's 9/11 memorial provides welcome respite from all of the construction noise along the Palisades south of the George Washington Bridge. |
Today's front-page story on a U.S. senator scolding a senior Port Authority executive won't lessen the sting of scheduled Hudson River toll and fare hikes -- a year after they skyrocketed.
Commuters look to The Record for word on whether Governors Christie and Cuomo will stop the next round of hikes, but all they get is a lot of political theater, some of it rehashing an April hearing in Washington (A-1).
Tunnel vision
Am I the only one who thinks the Port's executive director, Bill Baroni, had a point when he accused U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., of taking decades of toll-free trips across the Hudson?
After all, the senior senator's name is emblazoned in huge letters all over that gazillion-dollar rail-transfer station in the Meadowlands, so why isn't Lautenberg using and promoting mass transit?
Page 1 today presents a "GOLDEN MOMENT ... "
On Monday, the main element on A-1 appeared under the words: "Golden opportunity."
One was a play on an Olympic gold medal, the other a play on New Jersey's Gold Coast. Enough already.
Taxing policies
On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today, a story reports thousands of Orthodox Jews in North Jersey are burying their heads in the Talmud to help them forget the high property taxes they pay (L-1).
You can just hear them muttering during morning prayer, "Oy gevalt! Why do I have to pay taxes for lousy public schools I don't send my kids to?"
The Orthodox in Englewood and Teaneck are especially upset, because their attempt to open a Hebrew immersion charter school in September was shot down by the state, and those largely minority districts won't have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars toward its operation.
Today's Local also contains a rare Hackensack story that has nothing to do with former Police Chief Ken Zisa or the many lawsuits he still faces (L-3).
I got my property tax bill a few days ago, so I no longer have to wonder when The Record is going to report on approval of the Hackensack city budget and tax rate.
Monday's paper
Monday's Page 1 takeout on the tension between preservation and development on the Palisades south of the George Washington Bridge buries the lede.
The inefficient home-rule system of government's insatiable hunger for ratables has thwarted any regional consensus on saving the cliffs from greedy developers.
Today, most of the land south of the bridge is one big construction zone.
The story doesn't even mention the costly duplication of town services that demand more and more tax money to support them.
Olympics in the news
If you're wondering why there is no local news in the paper, consider this:
The big element on Sykes' Local section on Monday reported a Pascack Valley memorial service for the 11 Israeli athletes killed by terrorists 40 years ago at the Munich Olympic Games.
Readers who thought they had seen that before were correct: The big element on Saturday's L-1 was Teaneck's service for the same athletes.
