Even when Christie is traveling, his many failures haunt us

After burying us in thousands of words about a blizzard that never materialized, The Record hasn't reported on the challenges this week's snowfall poses for drivers and pedestrians. At Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, parking was especially tight around noon on Wednesday, but one visitor in an all-wheel-drive Toyota SUV wasn't going to be denied, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie's three-day trip to London helped take the focus off of his many failures at home.

This morning, WNYC radio -- not The Record of Woodland Park -- reported "less than 5 percent of the 8,000 New Jersey Sandy victims eligible for aid through the state's largest grant program have received funding to finish rebuilding their homes."

True, The Record's columnists have been fretting over how New Jersey is going to extend the state fund for road, bridge and rail improvements.

But the editors haven't blasted Christie for bringing the crisis to a head by refusing to raise the gasoline tax, which is the second-lowest in the nation.

And an editorial today focuses instead on ethical questions raised by the corporate group that pays for Christie's foreign travels in pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination (A-8).

Tracking Christie

WNYC is the New Jersey and New York Public Radio Station that started "The Christie Tracker" to tell listeners where the GOP bully is hanging his proverbial hat.

Today, for a change, Christie is in New Jersey, where he is scheduled to meet with the Canadian premier.

But the Web page also lists Bridgegate costs of $9,965,449.89 as of Dec. 9, 2014 -- $7.2 million of that racked up by the Governor's Office.

See: The Christie Tracker

Property taxes

The Record often uses the front page to promote Christie's White House ambitions, but buries the governor's excuses for why New Jersey is so screwed up since he took office in 2010.

Today, an e-mail from a Christie spokesman blames steep increases in troubled Atlantic City for why the average property tax bill in New Jersey went up by 2.16 percent in 2014 despite the 2 percent cap enacted in 2010 (A-4).

When is the last time The Record reported Christie actually promised to lower property taxes when he ran for governor in 2009?

A pedestrian struggling to cross the uncleared corner of Euclid Avenue and Main Street in Hackensack on Wednesday morning. A few blocks away, a snowbank continued to block the bus stop on Anderson Street, between River and Main streets.

On Cedar Lane in Teaneck on Wednesday, I saw two police officers on duty where traffic was funneled into one lane, but neither was directing traffic.

Potholes and more

Road Warrior John Cichowski has been so busy chasing phantom cracks in bridge supporting columns, he's completely oblivious to all of the potholes that have appeared on streets and highways such as Route 4.

On top of the potholes, last summer's utility work in Hackensack and other towns left crudely patched trenches that produce a rough ride for motorists, including a stretch of River Street in front of The Record's old headquarters.

These editors again fail to deliver hometown news

The quality of life in North Jersey -- including aircraft noise over Hackensack and other towns near Teterboro and Newark airports, above, or gaping potholes that damage car tires and wheels -- are of no interest to the editors of The Record's Local news section who appear to spend most of their time reading tabloids in the newsroom toilet.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm shocked by the amount of Law & Order news in The Record's Local section today and Friday.

Police, fire, accident and court news and photos dominate almost every page.

But readers also find stories about the police, including Friday's report on raises for the Pal Park chief and today's solemn piece on a vigil for Daniel Breslin, the hospitalized Bergen County police officer who was severely injured by an allegedly drunk driver (A-1 and L-1).

Sforza stumbles

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza was so desperate to fill his pages today he ran a freelance shot of a Route 80 accident in Hackensack from inside the photographer's car (L-3).

Now that's chintzy hometown news coverage. Still, Sforza stands proud, shouting, Who says we don't cover Hackensack? 

Sforza's stumbling around for the last several months would seem to call for the return of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes after a prolonged convalescence.

On vacation?

When is the last time readers saw Hannan Adely's byline on a Hackensack story? Has she been reassigned, sent to cover the Syrian civil war or what?

On Friday, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported the City Council on Monday night approved a $760,000 bond ordinance to repave streets and perform related work.

After the meeting, resident Steven Gelber's Hackensack Scoop blog reported that Mayor John Labrosse announced former campaign manager Thom Ammirato will no longer be writing press releases for the mayor or Deputy Mayor Katherine Canestrino.

But Labrosse said Ammirato's salary of $6,500 a month wouldn't be adjusted at this time, Gelber reported.

Following Gelber's lead, Adely of The Record has reported that Ammirato also has a full-time position with Bergen County, and serves as public relations consultant to at least three Republicans in the state Legislature.

But the Woodland Park daily hasn't reported on this latest wrinkle in the Ammirato story or approval of the street-paving bond ordinance.

The woefully short list of streets listed in the Chronicle story continues to omit Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, a potholed block that hasn't been repaved for decades. 

Euclid Avenue potholes, above and below.

Friday's Record

Editor Marty Gottlieb led Friday's paper with a long report on the incredible mess Governor Christie has made of road, highway and mass-transit improvements by refusing to hike the low gasoline tax to fund them.

This is basically a four-year-old story The Record has ignored until now, especially increasingly congested traffic, and crowded trains and buses.

Barf bags

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung pans Port of Call American Fusion Buffet and Sushi in Hackensack.

Still, she feels it necessary to tell readers the all-you-can eat format "would be good for people with big appetites."

The data box on Friday's BL-18 lists only four recommended dishes, two of them desserts, but omits other dishes Ung praised in the text. 

Did anyone edit the piece?

Today's paper

Gottlieb's Page 1 today includes another story on the agonizingly slow investigative and legal process in the wake of January's explosive revelations in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Since members of the GOP bully's inner circle in Trenton and at the Port Authority admitted they orchestrated four days of gridlock in Democratic Fort Lee, all readers have seen are firings and resignations, and targets lawyering up and taking the Fifth.

Christie himself hired a friendly law firm at taxpayers' expense to produce a whitewash declaring the governor had no knowledge or involvement in the lane closures.

Other stories and columns appear designed to help Christie repair his battered image (A-3).

The slow legal process is designed to ensure greedy lawyers who charge exorbitant hourly rates will walk away with literally millions of dollars in fees no matter who is found to be at fault for an apparent pattern of political retribution.

Paramus woes

Today's front page also includes a story on a "big change for Paramus," which has eased rules on retail signs along Routes 4 and 17.

This piece continues The Record's ad-fueled focus on major retail chains over Main Street merchants.

The last story on local merchants reported on a few record stores, as in those selling vinyl recordings, and continued to ignore struggling downtowns in Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other towns.

Local obit writer expands beat to the living

On Monday afternoon, the light was green at Passaic Street and Summit Avenue, a busy intersection in Hackensack without turn lanes, but no one moved, because they were stuck behind a turning vehicle. Good luck trying to reach the Bergen County department that could do something to fix the notorious bottleneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The New York World's Fair opened 50 years ago today in Queens? Who cares?

In a testament to how much newspapers love anniversaries as a way of ignoring current events, The Record's front page today carries a story about a New Milford man who is called  "a prominent collector of memorabilia from the 1964-65 exposition" (A-1).

But there's more: A long editorial on A-8 that waxes nostalgic over the smell of Belgian waffles.

The story is written by Jay Levin, whose regular beat is crafting obituaries -- life stories of local residents who have died.

Mayor for the birds

Another front-page story quotes Fair Lawn Mayor John Cosgrove complaining it will cost $20,000 to delay painting an aging water tower until "baby ravens hatch and fly away" (A-1).

But the story makes no attempt to explain why the job "already has been put off for more than two years" or say how much that cost taxpayers.

Sounds like Fair Lawn is another town that raises and collects property taxes and then shortchanges residents on services, whether it is repainting a water tower or repairing potholes.

If you car hasn't hit any potholes, you must be a shut-in like Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose premature pothole columns ran several weeks ago with no follow-up.

Big Hackensack news

Don't miss today's big local news -- a photo of a three-vehicle accident on Route 4 west in Hackensack that injured four, including a baby -- on the front of Local (L-1).

Two SUVs and a car were involved, but the caption doesn't say whether drivers of the gas guzzlers were speeding or tailgating or both.

The accident photo gets better play than a group of mayors pushing for extension of NJ Transit light-rail service to Englewood (L-1).

Streets in Fort Lee, above, and Leonia were closed Monday, but none of the work was to repair numerous potholes on Fort Lee's Main Street or Fort Lee Road in Leonia. See L-3 in The Record today. Other potholes have drivers cursing on Routes 4 and 17, and just about everywhere else.

Anti-light rail editors

The Record has run anti-light rail coverage for years, and the paper rolled over and played dead when Tenafly officials killed a plan to extend the electrified line to the borough, where wealthy residents believe they have a constitutional right to drive wasteful SUVs into the city. 

It's unclear whether Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who lives in a $3.65 million Tenafly McMansion, had anything to do with The Record's lukewarm support for light rail.

Even though Englewood officials say they will build new parking garages for light-rail users, the plan might be doomed by a required 50% state match for the $1 billion project.

As commuters know, Governor Christie hates mass transit, but he may be out of office when the extension from Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen is ready to be built (L-7). 

Greed isn't good

Hackensack residents who lived under the yoke of the Zisa family for decades might get a kick out of another Zisa, this one an author.

The Better Living cover reports Mike Zisa will sign his book, "The Early Investor: How Teens & Young Adults Can Become Wealthy," at the Ramsey Public Library on Wednesday night (BL-1).

That's refreshing: A Zisa who wants to help others become wealthy.

Our bankrupt state, towns can't fix potholes

All of the pothole photos on today's post were taken on Tuesday on one block of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Drivers who took the George Washington Bridge exit for the Palisades Interstate Parkway on Tuesday encountered a minefield of potholes between the bridge and Exit 1 in Englewood Cliffs that were so numerous, they could not steer around them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Our state and our towns appear to be so broke they cannot afford to fix potholes -- nasty reminders of the bitter winter we barely survived.

After a flurry of columns and stories, The Record has been ignoring the increasing number of potholes and the rising chorus of curses from drivers, as well as the lack of repairs.

Up close and personal on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

The front page today carries another story on the state's severe financial problems under Governor Christie, the GOP bully who refuses to raise taxes on millionaires and throws away hundreds of millions more on tax breaks for wealthy business owners (A-1).

Christie also has refused to raise the low gasoline tax, which could revive the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to repair potholes on Route 4, Route 17 and other state highways.

Zisa Family Memorial Potholes on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Members of the current City Council argue they can't afford fix streets because of all of the financial problems caused by the former administration, allied with the Zisas, who ruled Hackensack for decades. Those problems range from millions of dollars lost because bills were never sent out to many more millions of dollars spent to defend and settle lawsuits against Ken Zisa, the former police chief who was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Today's paper

President Obama says 7.1 million Americans signed up for health coverage, and that "doesn't include enrollments through 14 state exchanges or people who started the process and weren't able to finish because of technical problems," according to today's Page 1 story.

"The Affordable Health Care Act is here to stay," Obama said.

Let's hope The Record's negative coverage isn't here to stay.

The Woodland Park daily and its medical writers virtually ignored any success stories, including reporting on people who saved money by signing up for federal health care.

The federal program is expected to lower health-care costs, as well as depress the profits of the insurance companies who have donated millions of dollars to the GOP's disinformation and repeal campaign.

Exploding cars

Readers who remember exploding Ford Pintos and Crown Victoria Police Interceptors or Toyota vehicles that accelerated out of control aren't surprised by today's front-page report on cost-cutting at General Motors that killed at least 13 people (A-1).

On A-2 today, the editors correct two of the many reporting, grammatical and other screw-ups that appeared in the paper recently.

Bridgegate costs

A story on A-3 reports state officials don't know how much they will be billed for the self-serving whitewash Governor Christie commissioned to clear him of wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Last week, news stories and columns put the damage to taxpayers at $1 million or more. What were they based on?

Christie was skewered on the Bridgegate scandal and his weight at a 90th-birthday roast of Brendan Byrne, a former governor (A-3). 

Of course, as with anything involving Christie, the joke is really on middle-class taxpayers, especially those who gave him a second term in November.

Local news?

On the Local front, an accident photo carries a caption that is unusually complete, including the name of a driver killed by a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike (L-1).

But Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to rely too heavily on police and court news to flesh out his thin local-news report.

He still hasn't answered a nagging question on the mind of residents:

Why is no one fixing thousands of annoying and dangerous potholes? 

Will Hackensack's DPW ever fill these potholes?

This morning, on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, between Central Avenue and American Legion Drive, there are potholes galore, including what looks like a tire impression from a hit-and-run investigation.

A minefield of potholes at Prospect and Euclid avenues, above and below.

A river of ice and potholes on Prospect Avenue, near Camelot and The Blair House, high-rises at 245 Prospect and 235 Prospect, respectively, above and three photos below.

Add caption

Editors, reporters get lost in La La Land

As further evidence of haphazard snow removal in Hackensack, high school hurdlers may use a blockaded crosswalk across the street from City Hall on State Street for their workouts, above. At the post office, below, there is only one opening to the sidewalk for drivers parked at the four meters.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Today's paper carries better coverage of the Oscars than many local stories.

The Record's big Page 1 photo shows a beaming Lupita Nyong'o, a Kenyan, accepting the award for best supporting actress on Sunday night.

More photos from the Los Angeles ceremonies appear on the front of Better Living, which includes a surprisingly harsh assessment of host Ellen DeGeneres' performance (B-3).

Does anybody but Staff Writer Virginia Rohan feel sorry for the hideous Liza Minnelli or klutzy actress Jennifer Lawrence, who were the targets of DeGeneres' "mean" jokes?

All of this coverage overlooked one thing:

Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave") is probably the first actress without breast augmentation to win an award in a couple of decades.

Snow jobs

I'm still waiting for The Record's editors to send out reporters to speak to ordinary residents about how their lives were disrupted in small and big ways by a seemingly endless series of snowstorms this winter.

On Sunday, the Business front carried a story on how the storms affected the bottom line, but the human element has been missing from much the coverage since early January.

Today, residents of Bergen County awoke to barely a dusting from the latest storm.

But in Hackensack and other towns, haphazard snow removal has left obstacles that continue to block crosswalks, bus stops and the view of oncoming traffic on streets and highways.

And drivers still have to dodge potholes that haven't been repaired in the past few weeks.

What are officials waiting for? Are they really blameless, as Sunday's lame editorial claims?

Road Warrior should drive off into sunset

These potholes on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack were finally patched two days ago.

Staff Writer John Cichowski continues to peddle misinformation in his Road Warrior column, but his errors are rarely corrected.

The mistakes are bad enough, but his exaggerations and his publication of his fans' unverified claims have long grated on readers' nerves.

Clearly, Cichowski is burned out. 

He has missed three deadlines recently, and his column was missing without explanation. 

It's time for The Record to end this disservice, and find a fresh voice to report on commuting problems -- both driving and mass transit.

Here is an excerpt from a concerned reader's e-mail to management on the last two Road Warrior columns.

"Keeping the Road Warrior continues to be a liability for The Record as his problems continue to escalate when misreporting pothole problems, and regurgitating misinformation from studies, including a recent AAA study on annual driving costs, as reported in his April 19 column.

"Based on the AAA study, the Road Warrior reported that an increase in fuel costs last year contributed less than 2% to the overall annual increase in driving costs, and the increase was small in comparison to maintenance costs.

"Fuel cost increases were actually the number one contributing factor, adding around 45% to the overall annual cost increase.

"Based on past columns, including his recent April 5 column, the Road Warrior frequently over-exaggerates or accepts outright tall tales from local residents about many pothole areas.

"I drive though many of the reported areas and fail to see the gaping potholes and bottomless pits the Road Warrior is so fond of reporting about, along with his delusional sound effects.

"These sorry conditions are unlikely to change until somebody at The Record finds the kind of courage that it takes to zigzag between his misinformation and the actual truth and end some of New Jersey's worst reporting by the Road Warrior."

Read the complete e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Biggest holes are in reporter's head 

What the story doesn't tell you

Image via Wikipedia

Hudson County, where many Hispanics live, wasn't included in a story on how Asians and Latinos have fared in New Jersey politics. The Record once covered the county as part of North Jersey.

How does Editor Francis Scandale lead the paper with a state budget story that doesn't mention how Governor Christie blew $400 million in federal education funds and turned his back on hundreds of millions dollars from a tax surcharge on millionaires?

The Page 1 report by Staff Writer John Reitmeyer also doesn't explore the nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which could have been replenished by raising the low gasoline tax. But that would have angered Christie supporters in their gas-guzzling limos and SUVs.

In the second paragraph, Reitmeyer comes up with a euphemism for the governor's all-out assault on programs for the middle and working classes. The reporter calls them "a series of unpopular spending cuts" in Christie's first year in office. 

Now, Christie may again pander to the wealthy with cuts in business taxes.

No room on the front

There are a few other A-1 stories in the paper, but they were shut out by a large photo of a Super Bowl celebration in Wisconsin that sports-loving Scandale slapped on the front page, even though it's so yesterday.

On A-3, we learn Christie vetoed an offshore liquefied natural gas pipeline. Who knew a Republican could care about the environment? That story should have been outside, not a sports-related photo or yet another story on the clean-out of a sewerage commission.

The freeing of the young leader of the uprising in Egypt also is worthy of Page 1, but ends up on the back of the section (A-12).

Snow on the brain

Road Warrior John Cichowski's brain has been frozen by all the snow that fell. Today, he gives us another column on the state's new flying-snow law. I'm waiting for a half-dozen or so columns when the broken record discovers all the potholes that have developed in the last few weeks. He needs to get out more.

Hackensack municipal news appears in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today for the second day in a row. There are two stories on L-3, as well as a Teaneck story, but the section hasn't had any Englewood municipal news since Jan. 22.

Image via Wikipedia

Rep. Albio Sires

A second look

On Sunday's front page, the sub-headline with the census story said:

Asians, Hispanics show little gain in N.J. politics

Well, what about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Albio Sires? They are Hispanic, from Hudson County, which The Record once covered, but which wasn't included in the story for some reason.

Discriminatory journalism

Image by live w mcs via Flickr

A pothole that appeared in March 2009 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Potholes. Overgrown weeds. Damaged guardrails. Trash. These complaints from drivers -- and in the case of trash, about other drivers -- don't make for riveting news, and certainly don't belong on Page 1, except for the daily garbage can of a front page in The Record of Woodland Park.


Not only is the main headline on today's story a stupid play on words ("no brake" for "no break"), a photographer apparently couldn't find a DOT crew repairing a pothole or a guardrail, cutting down weeds or clearing trash. The headline should have read:

No break for readers

Transportation reporter Karen Rouse, who wrote the story, is stealing Desk Warrior John Cichowski's thunder in writing about potholes. He does it annually and at great length -- until readers' eyes glaze over.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes apparently won't allow Rouse to leave the office, or so it seems from all the telephone and Internet stories on surveys and reports she does. A while back, one of her Page 1 stories listed complaints about toll takers.

More troubling, Sykes, Rouse, Cichowski, Editor Francis Scandale, Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and former transportation reporter Tom Davis have for years turned their backs on minorities who can't afford cars and who have to make do with NJ Transit's fleet of decrepit, decades-old local buses -- white elephants that are literally falling apart. 

You'd think Rouse, who is African-American, would be outraged at this clear case of discrimination against local bus riders, while the transit agency routinely replaces buses on routes to Manhattan every decade or so. But no transportation reporter in memory has ever taken mass transit -- buses or trains -- and given voice to the complaints of riders.


If I didn't know better, I'd think Rouse and the others are merely doing the bidding of the advertising department, which rakes in a huge amount of revenue from ads sold to car dealers, and hardly any from NJ Transit.

Local education coverage

First, readers lost local news. Then, they lost food coverage. Now, they've apparently lost "daily" education coverage, which appeared on Page L-2 of Local during the school year, under the 2006 or 2007 edict of marketing wizard and Publisher Stephen. A. "Greedy Stevie" Borg.


Sykes has had trouble supplying enough education news to fill L-2, and has resorted to Dean's List filler, but now apparently, any old story can go on L-2, as today's page demonstrates. The layout editor even had to resort to three house ads to fill space. The "Education" bug is missing, as well.


The dominant photo on L-1 today is the aftermath of a police chase and a collision.