Marty lets Francis and Sandy hog Page 1

This large, nearly empty lot at Park and Gamewell streets in Hackensack, above and below, already has trees and would make a great park for neighborhood residents, City Hall workers and worshipers at a mosque on Trinity Place. Why don't city officials ask the West New York-based developer of an apartment building on State Street to buy the land, turn it into a park and donate it to the city in return for a proposed 30-year tax break?

Editor Marty Gottlieb devotes almost all of the front page today to Pope Francis and Superstorm Sandy -- in a one-two punch that misses the vast majority of readers in North Jersey. 

Gottlieb does get some points for crowding out a sports column or story, which have become Page 1 staples since he took over The Record's Woodland Park newsroom.

For the third day in a row, A-2 carries a correction.

We miss Jimmy

As The Record's cartoonist, Jimmy Margulies had many big hits and a good number of big misses, but anything from him was better than the tripe that has been running on the Editorial Page since Gottlieb laid him off to cut expenses (A-20).

Today's Local section contains three pages of county, municipal, crime and court news, and three pages of death notices.