Paving Euclid Avenue with good intentions

Drivers would be foolhardy to go more than 20 mph over this frequently patched stretch of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above. The first crew I've seen plugging potholes in my neighborhood appeared this morning at Clinton Place and Linden Street, below, but the two men didn't do any repairs to that pockmarked block of Euclid, between Grand Avenue and Clarendon Place.

 

At last week's City Council meeting, City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said crews were working six days a week to repair a rash of potholes left behind by winter.

Did they lose their maps of the city?

As of today, Euclid Avenue has barely been touched, but I did see repairs to Grand Avenue, in front of Fairmount School, ater its potholes rated a mention in The Record's Road Warrior column.

Dead wood

You can't say much about today's paper when just about the only must-read is a gee-whiz story about a golfer who was killed by a falling tree after he went looking for a lost ball on private property (A-1).

The story doesn't tell you much about the luckless golfer except his name, age and hometown.

But both the victim and homeowner have Korean names, and the golfer breathed his last in Alpine, one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's paper with more endless blah, blah, blah about Rutgers University (A-1).

Today's thin Local news section has two Teaneck stories on L-1, but nothing from Hackensack, suggesting no resident left the house over the weekend.   

Giving readers tabloid news

Image by artbymags via Flickr

 Hackensack readers haven't seen the details of the proposed city budget and tax hike, but the editors have seen fit to order daily coverage of the Passaic County trial of a former nanny accused of having sex with a 12-year-old boy. It's the tabloid side of The Record of Woodland Park -- the kind of sensational news these desperate editors seize on day after day in the absence of legitimate stories.


The front page today reminds me of when The Record was an afternoon paper and editors covered most of A-1 with a "patch" -- a soft-news story and photo or graphic exploring social and legal issues, and many other topics. Shocking what kids say when shielded by anonymity on a social-networking site. But no surprise when you read some of the anonymous comments on Eye on The Record.


The editors waited for a wire service story to report on Page 1 today suspicions that BP hasn't been telling the full truth about the enormity of the gushing oil well or its potential damage, and how government regulators have been hoodwinked. Still, The Record still cannot muster any editorial outrage.


Has Publisher Stephen A. Borg ordered Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and other editorial writers to confine themselves to New Jersey topics -- as he did initially with Margulies the cartoonist?


There is no Hackensack or Englewood news in Local today. It's no-food-coverage Thursday in Better Living.

Turning off readers with sports

Image via Wikipedia

If you're not a sports fan, seeing a good two-thirds of today's front page devoted to baseball, basketball and golf may make you wonder what you're missing -- and what The Record of Woodland Park missed. It's the second day in a row sports has eaten up a large part of Page 1.

The lead story on A-1 is about the continuing controversy over state aid to schools, but it's all downhill from there, and I'm not referring to skiing.

In Local, you won't find any news of Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or many other Bergen County towns. Yet on the Business page, you will find a second story about the new iPad. Wasn't the first enough free advertising?