Editions are as dreary as days without sun

Hackensack is offering a 30-year tax break to attract a West New York apartment developer who promises to build 222 units over a parking garage on land at 86-94 State St. and 31 Warren St., above and below, with completion scheduled for 2015. Tenants will be able to hop on a Manhattan-bound bus across the street or file for unemployment in the beige-colored building, above right.

 

Everything about Governor Christie is so big it's a miracle he can still get his foot into his mouth, as he did at a Paterson church on Tuesday.

But why did Editor Marty Gottlieb put the story on Page A-3 of Friday's paper, instead of out front, where readers were hit with more about Superstorm Sandy and Pope Francis for the second day in a row?

The pastor of St. Luke Baptist Church has asked the GOP bully to apologize for referring to Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver as "an African-American female speaker of the Assembly who represents ... East Orange and Orange, where there are failing schools all over."

No surprise. One of the first things Christie did in 2010 was dismiss John E. Wallace Jr., the state Supreme Court's only African-American member.

Friday's paper is dreary from Page 1 to the classifieds.

Out of focus

Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi appears to be losing his chops after chasing so many ambulances and capturing so many rollover accidents for head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

What's duller than his A-1 photo on Friday at Ridgewood High, with its blurry images of students' backs and a bunch of parked cars in front of a brick wall with the hard-to-read name of the school? 

Out of gas 

Instead of just listing gasoline stations that charge the same for cash or credit -- such as the Shell station on Cedar Lane in Teaneck -- Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to froth at the mouth over credit-card surcharges (L-1).

Out of excuses

On L-3, Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely reports Councilman John Labrosse has belatedly raised an objection to the city's plan to pay $500,000 in legal bills for two police officers, even though he voted to approve the deal.

City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. told Eye on The Record he is recommending the city pay the bills, and won't ask a judge to rule on how reasonable the fees are.

Labrosse, who is seeking another term in the May 14 election, changed his mind after candidate Victor E. Sasson noted the councilman's own campaign literature is silent on what he has accomplished in the past four years.

The Record's editors still haven't published a story about Sasson's independent candidacy, but did do stories about the Labrosse slate and another organized group in the Hackensack contest in late January and early February.

Out of local news

How long have North Jersey Media Group and The Record been promoting "The Big Book Drive" for Paterson children (L-1)?

Could this be the Borg family's way of distracting readers from the precipitous decline in local news in the past 10 years?

Why is Better Living defending smokers "frustrated" by outdoor bans on their filthy habit (BL-1)?

Even when non-smokers aren't choking on cigarette smoke they still have to live with the disgusting nicotine stench from smokers' clothing and drivers who toss lit butts out of their cars.

Time to call Christie's bluff?

Image via Wikipedia

In the last paragraph of today's Page 1 story on NJ Transit fare hikes, Staff Writer Tom Davis quotes Governor Christie as calling the agency "a political patronage mill." Well, if that's true and if that's part of Christie's justification for cutting state transit aid, why hasn't Davis given us any details?

Instead, Davis cobbled together an elaborate but ultimately inaccurate front-page story yesterday in The Record of Woodland Park alleging that since NJ Transit receives government assistance, it is taking taxpayers for a ride

Today, this ink-stained wretch reports a proposed 25 percent fare hike and service cuts drew outrage from mass-transit advocates who fear bus and rail service will become unaffordable and "force people to choose their cars over trains and buses."

Hey, Tom, what about the thousands of poor schmucks who have no choice but to ride crappy local NJ Transit buses, because they can't even afford cars? Do you even know they exist?

And when is the former Hackensack daily going to ask the governor about promised property tax cuts? When is Christie going to be asked for details on reigning in the grossly inefficient home-rule system? He loves to issue executive orders, so why not order consolidation of school districts and such municipal agencies as police and fire?  

How is cutting school, municipal, mass-transit and environmental aid going to help the middle class?

Yesterday's Hacknsack Chronicle led with a story on city schools, where the hiring of minority teachers lags behind the percentage of Africa-American and Hispanic students. A second story, on Page 2, contained the Hackensack schools superintendent's reaction to state aid cuts.

Neither of these stories appeared in The Record, which has virtually ignored Hackensack schools in the past few years, while running numerous stories about schools in other North Jersey towns, as part of Publisher Stephen A. Borg's "every day" education coverage (suspended during the summers).

It's a good thing the Hackensack Chronicle is another publication of the Borgs' all-seeing, all-knowing North Jersey Media Group, and is delivered with The Record on Fridays, apparently in recognition the daily has abandoned the city where it prospered for 110 years -- both physically and editorially.