Bergen-Borg parking pact may cost taxpayers $1M

The dumpsters are gone, and now the cars of visitors, attorneys and jurors fill the parking lot at 150 River St. in Hackensack, former headquarters of The Record. Bergen County is paying $1,440.11 for each one of the 540 spaces it is leasing through July 2015. A 6-story Justice Center is being built on the nearby Bergen County Courthouse parking lot.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The cost of the new Bergen County Justice Center Parking Lot -- at The Record's old Hackensack headquarters -- is far higher than reported in the Woodland Park daily.

The story on Sunday's L-2 reported only that "freeholders approved $777,660 last month to lease 540 parking spaces at the River Street lot until July 2015" to clear the old lot for construction.

But Staff Writer Kibret Markos didn't include the cost of shuttle service or how much revenue from the old lot the county will lose in the next two years.

It's likely the total cost will approach or exceed $1 million.

More pollution

I saw 3 large shuttles idling at 150 River St. on Monday afternoon a little before 3, but no cars entered the lot and no one used them.

I also saw an attorney on foot, wearing a suit and lugging a heavy briefcase and files, coming from the courthouse and cutting across the Heritage Diner parking lot to reach his car.

Hidden costs

There are other costs to Hackensack taxpayers, who already shoulder the crushing burden of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt county property, and are getting more in the planned Justice Center and parking deck.

The deal between Bergen County and the wealthy Borg family -- owners of The Record -- apparently will delay development on 20 acres along River Street, as well as payment of full property taxes to the city.

Leave it to the greedy Borgs to find a sucker willing to pay so much for empty parking spaces.

Today's paper

You know Editor Marty Gottlieb has written off Democratic challenger Barbara Buono by the size and placement of the story reporting her choice of a running mate, Milly Silva, a Latina union leader (A-1).

Those bimbos, Teresa and Joe Giudice of "Real Housewives of New Jersey," actually lead Gottlieb's garbage front page today.

More on the conservative pissing match between Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and Governor Christie appears above the fold next to a big photo showing Pope Francis' airborne news conference.

Can Gottlieb craft a front page that is more irrelevant to North Jersey voters?

Women to the top

Buono's choice of another woman as her running mate is significant given Christie's abysmal record on women's issues.

Brigid Harrison, one of The Record's Opinion columnists, wrote in June:

"Apparently, though, emerging from November's election [and into] the 2016 presidential race with boasting rights of a double-digit victory is more important to Christie than saving the lives of women in New Jersey."

Slanted reporting

But in today's Page 1 story, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes barely mentions the state's women, and doesn't discuss Christie's cuts to health programs for them. 

Buono teaming with Silva gives Democratic voters one more reason to elect her.

And they'll likely be the best-looking governor and lieutenant governor the state has had in a long time.

Imagine not having to look at Christie -- a fat, mean-spirited bastard who wages war on the middle class and is the butt of jokes -- or having the GOP bully represent New Jersey.

Errors galore

The Local section usually is filled with errors, especially when the Road Warrior column runs, but a few jumped out at me today.

They are a testament to what a good job of fact-checking is being done by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the copy editors-cum-spell checkers.

Staff Writer Jay Levin's obituary of Jerlando Graceffo Sr., who ran his family's Whooppee Soda Works in Garfield, would have been fine without dragging the old guy into a modern-day controversy he had no part of (L-1).

Levin writes that Graceffo "made his living in cane-sugar-sweetened soda, the sort of drink that causes Michael Bloomberg to go apoplectic."

But that is incorrect: 

Mayor Bloomberg's campaign isn't against the few sodas still made with sugar. 

It's against drinks with the cheaper high-fructose corn syrup, a super sweetener identified as one of the causes of the obesity epidemic.

Levin's local obituary and an L-1 feature on a weekly dance held by the Widows and Widowers Club of Northern Valley are what pass for news about seniors in The Record today.

Hackensack goof

There are two Hackensack stories in Local today, a police story (L-1) and another on the City Council posting meetings online (L-3).

On L-3, Staff Writer Hannan Adely mangles the name of the city's information specialist, Albert H. Dib, calling him "Alfred Dib" and later "Dibs."

Also on L-3, a police story on a driver who overturned his car on Route 4 reports he was driving a "1998 Subaru Legend."

Subaru never made a "Legend," Acura did.

A large photo on L-3 updates readers on the latest utility pole news.

Rough road

Despite a concerned reader's numerous e-mails to Gottlieb and other top editors -- and even to Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg -- Staff Writer John Cichowski continues to fill his Road Warrior column with errors and omissions.

Here are some of the errors that appeared in his Sunday column on the NY Waterway Ferry:

• NY Waterway has many ferry routes -- and picks up passengers in Edgewater -- but Cichowski only mentions the line between Weehawken and midtown Manhattan.
• The column omits senior discounts and monthly passes that bring the daily fare to just above $6, as opposed to the $9 he cites.
• There's no mention of free bus service in Manhattan.
• The prices for parking were incorrect.
• The comparative cost of taking light rail to the dock and driving was so far off as to be ludicrous. Light rail is not "half the cost" of parking; a one-way ticket is $2.10 and $1.05 for seniors, compared to $10 to $12 a day for parking.
• There are other problems, as discussed on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior can't add, count or write