Readers are scratching their heads

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If part of Grand Avenue in Englewood is one way and another section carries two-way traffic,  readers need to know that right away, especially if you cover much of the front page with a big photo showing a collision between a bus and a cop car. Instead, with this story and others today, The Record of Woodland Park leaves many scratching their heads.

Well, you can search the A-1 caption and read the story and caption on L-1, and unless you are familiar with Englewood, it's all very confusing, as the former Hackensack daily bobbles yet another routine story, leaving readers to fill in the blanks for themselves. 

Here's what the three reporters who worked on this epic tale don't tell you. The Bergen County police officer's car crossed over the double-yellow line before the collision in front of Sonny's Pizzeria -- on the two-way stretch of Grand Avenue south of Route 4. North of Route 4, Grand Avenue is one way until Palisade Avenue, where it becomes Engle Street. 

The A-1 photo shows the police car straddling the double-yellow line and angled toward the front of the Red & Tan bus, but the story never addresses that. Was the cop on his cell phone or was there a mechanical failure in the Ford Crown Victoria, which many police departments continue to use despite safety problems and fatal crashes involving officers? Did the officer have a seizure or other health problem? Your guess is as good as mine.

Yet the story contains a lot of unnecessary information, such as interviews that reveal "it is not uncommon to see police pursue vehicles on Grand Avenue." Huh? The officer in the collision wasn't involved in a chase, his superior told the paper. And one of the reporters uses a quote on a save-get key: "It sounded like a bomb." Where are the weekend assignment editor and the news copy desk on a story this bad?


If the officer was at fault, it's the second black mark against county police, who reportedly shot at burglary suspects during a chase the other day. The county prosecutor is investigating the gunfire. But with nearly 70 police departments in the county, why do we need this county force?

Back on A-1, Staff Writer Michael Gartland continues his excellent work covering Bergen County government with an expose of the huge debt rolled up by the county Improvement Authority. But below the fold, two Business reporters bore us with a long story about a builder of multimillion dollar homes who foundered during the recession, and who owes creditors $11 million.

Does anyone feel sorry for this man, who was at the center of artificially inflating the values of homes that frustrated many first-time home buyers? And is it really fair to readers to portray greedy investors -- who gave him money to help build these monstrosities in hope of a big profit -- as victims? Why is this story on A-1?

In the A-section, Teaneck reporter Joseph Ax has a story about the township's Muslim mayor visiting the White House, but there is no Hackensack or Englewood municipal news in the paper, or news of many other towns. 

The L-1 story on "green" burials is fascinating, but it makes no mention that Orthodox Jews and other groups have been burying their dead in this fashion for eons.

 If it wasn't for Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais, the paper would have little consumer reporting. Today, on the Business front, he tackles the hidden fees that are so difficult to learn about when you're trying to compare airline fares. 

Of course, the real question is why this issue hasn't been covered extensively in the Travel section, where klutzy Editor Jill Schensul today celebrates hugely wasteful and polluting RVs.


The Borgs can rest easy tonight, knowing Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes and their minions are doing such a great job.

(Photo: The infamous Ford Crown Victoria police interceptor.)