Editors allow Tenafly to demonize mass transit

Rush hour at the Lincoln Tunnel, above; Manhattan's Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, below, show North Jersey needs more mass transit, not less.

NJ Transit rail waiting hall at Penn Station in Manhattan.

NJ Transit commuters slowly making their way to an escalator that takes them to upper-level platforms and buses to Hackensack, Cresskill and other North Jersey towns.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

NJ Transit's fully electrified light-rail system takes cars off the road, eases traffic congestion, cuts pollution and saves gasoline. 

Yet, The Record has allowed Tenafly officials to turn those positives into negatives, culminating in NJ Transit's decision to scrap a plan to extend light rail to the wealthy community, which counts Publisher Stephen A. Borg as a resident (A-1 and L-1).

Mass transit can't catch a break in North Jersey, where two new Hudson River rail tunnels were scrapped by SUV-riding Governor Christie in October 2010.

NJ Transit Newark Light Rail cars crossing Broad Street to enter the Newark-Broad St. Station. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 

Tom Davis is remembered fondly by Hackensack residents as a muckraking journalist who wrote a series of hard-hitting stories when he covered the city.

But when Davis was promoted to transportation reporter, he wrote negative stories about the extension of light rail to Englewood and other towns.

That tradition was carried on after Davis left the paper, which this year and last reported the wild claims of Tenafly officials without rebuttal from NJ Transit and light-rail commuters.

One explanation is that the current deputy local-news assignment editor, Dan Sforza, wrote at least two "highways of the future" takeouts when he was a transportation reporter.

Sforza did his best to ignore mass transit, even refusing to report on defective NJ Transit buses with screeching rear brakes that ruined the sleep of people living along such bus routes as Grand Avenue in Englewood.

Today's Local section has no news from Hackensack or many other communities, but readers will find three more engaging local obituaries on L-6.

Alliance strikes back

A public-private partnership called the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance, also known as the Upper Main Alliance, is striking back at Eye on The Record and Victor E. Sasson.

Sasson reported in Wednesday's post he could not find the names of any Main Street restaurants taking part in Sunday's food-centered fund-raiser at The Shops at Riverside.

Sasson checked again today, and no Main Street restaurants are listed on any Web site connected to the event nor are they mentioned on The Record's Second Helpings blog.

On Hackensack Now.org, Editor Albert H. Dib, a city employee who is the alliance's executive director, wrote:

"Vsasson stated very inaccurately that the Alliance was not participating in the upcoming "Taste of Hackensack" [The correct name is  "The Taste in Hackensack"].  He made no attempt to check with the Alliance about its participation. The Alliance is participating in the event.   

"Vsasson has clearly violated this site's Registration Agreement terms not to post false or inaccurate statements. As a result, all of vsasson's future posts will be screened. For the record: This is the practice he currently uses on his own blog, wherein he screens all posts for content. [Eye on The Record screens all comments for content, not 'posts.']

 "Also, this 'Eye on the Record' topic thread has overstayed its welcome on this site and will likely be deleted in the near future. I am closing posting for this thread now." 

Albert [H.] Dib
Editor, Hackenacknow.org

Dib says on Hackensack Now that "four eateries from the Business Improvement District" are participating in the fund-raiser for the Hackensack Blue & Gold Scholarship Fund, which benefits Hackensack High School students, but he does not name them.

The alliance represents only Main Street restaurants and businesses between Atlantic Street and Clinton Place in Hackensack, and apparently does nothing for eating places or businesses in other parts of the 4-square-mile city.

Its work and half of Dib's city salary of roughly $64,000 is funded through an assessment on property owners, who must pay a property tax surcharge to the city.

One businessman calls the assessment "a grand ripoff," arguing the alliance provides services that the city properly should be supplying to residents and property owners.

Editors black out Hackensack election campaign

North Jersey Media Group, the Borg family's publishing company, hasn't disclosed whether the U.S.S. Ling, above, and a naval museum will be able to stay after it redevelops about 20 acres along River Street, including the old headquarters of The Record, below, empty since mid-2009.

The tallest part of the building at 150 River St., right, is an elevator shaft and stairs that would have accommodated the addition of a 5th floor. At least one editor arranged trysts with a secretary in the staircase above the 4th-floor newsroom, where no secret was safe.

Judging from coverage in The Record, readers outside Hackensack -- and thousands who live here -- might not know 11 candidates are involved in one of the most important municipal elections in city history.

The struggle between reformers and powerful allies of the ruling Zisa family is being played out in forums sponsored by the Prospect Avenue Coalition, Bergen County NAACP and others.

All 5 seats on the City Council will be decided on May 14 -- in an election that historically has never engaged voters, despite rising property taxes, declining city services and insider deals with a select group of lawyers that have looted the city treasury.

No campaign coverage

The Record hasn't covered any of the forums, and likely will publish a prefunctory pre-election story that will amount to little more than he said/she said.

That contrasts with more than 3 years of intense coverage of the city Police Department.

Starting in 2009, the paper printed a series of stories about Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, the former police chief and state Assemblyman, culminating in coverage of his trial and May 2012 conviction for official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Long, detailed stories about state and federal lawsuits filed against Zisa by police officers -- and administrative hearings for cops brought up on charges -- filled The Record, to the exclusion of routine coverage of the proposed city budget, school board election campaign and other news.

That pattern continued through 2012.

Since then, routine coverage of Hackensack has been hit or miss, even though it is the county seat, the most populous community in Bergen County and the city where The Record prospered for more than 110 years.

Ignoring change

Mike Mordaga, who became the city's first civilian police director on Feb. 4, stepped up patrols to fight street crime and started a crackdown on moving violations by drivers, among several other, sweeping  changes.

Mordaga also has asked the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center and Bergen County to give back to the city in lieu of paying property taxes.

Today, Hackensack readers will search The Record's Local news section for that story or anything else about the city, as they have on so many previous days. 

They're responsible

So, get up from your computers and put down your mobile devices and give a big round of applause to Deirdre Sykes, the six-figure head assignment editor who apparently spends more time planning her next meal than she does the next day's Local news section. 

And don't forget to cheer Steve McCarthy, the assistant assignment editor who supervises Hackensack news coverage.

Two restaurants on Main Street in Hackensack are outside the zone represented by the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership that was set up in 2004 to promote the struggling shopping district.

Main Street boycott?

No restaurants on Main Street in Hackensack will be taking part in "The Taste in Hackensack 2013," a food-centered fund-raiser set for Sunday at The Shops at Riverside.

Two restaurants from outside Hackensack and the Stony Hill Inn, the lone city representative, will join shopping-center restaurants in serving samples of signature dishes to raise funds for a Hackensack High School scholarship fund.

The event is named cleverly. It's "The Taste in Hackensack," not "The Taste of Hackensack."

The lack of Main Street participation raises a question about the effectiveness of the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2004 to promote the city's struggling downtown.

Should editors, columnists 'come out,' too?

This sign greets drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians who cross the newly reopened Dillard Memorial Bridge from Bogota.

Objectivity in journalism died a quiet death decades ago.

Now, you have editors, columnists and others developing their "voice" and expressing a strong point of view on the issues of the day, including legalizing gay marriage.

The front page of The Record today reports that by announcing he is gay, Jason Collins has become a hero on and off the basketball court (A-1).

I've never heard of Collins, and could care less about him and his sexual orientation.

But I think it's hilarious how sports columnist Tara Sullivan tries mightily to show readers how "normal" Collins appeared to a coach and other players before his big revelation.

I don't care about Sullivan's sexual orientation, either, but wonder whether editors and columnists who advocate legalizing gay marriage or write about other issues affecting homosexuals should also "come out"?

Christie's agenda

The Record long ago lost any objectivity it might have had about Governor Christie, and today, it continues to promote his re-election agenda with a Page 1 story on $1.3 billion in "publicly funded higher education projects" (A-1).

Little attention is being paid to how he has mismanaged the state's economy since he took office in January 2010, leaving New Jersey with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

Page A-2 today carries an embarrassing correction of a photo caption that ran on Sunday with one of Editor Marty Gottlieb's pet stories -- the alleged reverse migration of New Jersey residents to New York City.

Living or dead?

Local-news coverage of the living in Hackensack and other towns continues to decline, but Staff Writer Jay Levin is doing a bang-up job of giving the dead a royal sendoff.

Today, three of his local obituaries appear on L-1 and L-6.

Get a load of the editing in the lead story on the Local front about the Rev. Michael Fugee, a Catholic priest "who served probation on allegations he groped a boy in his Wyckoff home in 2001" (L-1).

The second paragraph refers oddly to "weekend press revelations." How 19th century that sounds.

Then, the paragraph sails on for another 60 or so words before ending. I'm out of breath.
  

An opponent's alleged crime involving the removal of campaign signs from in front of Hackensack Market on Passaic Street, above, has given hope to some City Council candidates, who are trying to oust the Zisa family regime that has dominated the city for so long.

Honestly, folks

Another forum for candidates in the May 14 Hackensack City Council election was held Monday night at the Camelot, a condominium building on Prospect Avenue.

A resident's question referred to the upcoming trial of retired police Detective Kenneth Martin, who heads the Coalition for Open Government slate, which is backed by city Democratic boss Lynne Hurwitz.

Hurwitz was the power behind former state Assemblyman and Police Chief Ken "I Am the Law" Zisa, who was convicted nearly a year ago of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Martin didn't respond to allegations that he took four signs put up by the opposing Citizens for Change slate, allowing running-mate Joseph Barreto to defend him.

Barreto said Martin "had a right to be there," but the rest of his answer was incomprehensible.

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson has faced delays in designing and financing his own lawn signs, which he hopes will be mounted on I-beams and planted deep into the ground with a pile driver to prevent a similar theft.

13 errors in one Road Warrior column

The Dillard Memorial Bridge on Feb. 5, 2013.

Road Warrior John Cichowski's short attention span for facts has been well-known for years, especially on The Record's copy desk.

Five years ago, copy editors caught a fair number of errors, and fixed them before publication.

However, in recent years, Production Editor Liz Houlton's incompetent leadership of the sleep-deprived copy editors has resulted in mistake after mistake slipping by their cursors, getting into the paper and embarrassing The Record. 

In last Friday's column on the Dillard Memorial Bridge in Hackensack, 13 Cichowski errors were published, according to a concerned reader.

Here is an excerpt from his e-mail to management:

"How does The Record allow the Road Warrior to stumble and bumble through his mistake-ridden columns, and across the bridges of New Jersey in his April 26 column, without any corrections???

"The Road Warrior broke his own record with 13 mistakes in a single column.

"[He] appeared to be more clueless and lost than usual -- unable to read maps and street signs to correctly report where local bridges are located.

"John Cichowski brings dishonor to a Vietnam war hero from Hackensack with misleading, insulting comments and name-calling about the beautifully renovated Dillard Memorial Bridge (also known as the Court Street Bridge), which is named for first Hackensack resident to die in the Vietnam War.

"John owes an apology to friends and family of Lance Corporal Harold J. Dillard for failing to mention the bridge has been renamed in his honor, as every other reputable Record reporter has done in their articles. He owes an apology for maligning the integrity of the renovated bridge by falsely indicating it is a 'pothole-pocked swing span' and insulting Dillard's memory by calling it the 'Good News-Bad News' bridge.

"John continues to frequently employ sick humor that only he thinks is funny, at the expense of others, and continues to embellish already sad, mistake-pocked columns."

The full e-mail can be read on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, likely the only Facebook page devoted to tracking the repeated screw-ups of a single reporter:

Road Warrior loses another battle with the truth