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| The directional signals, but not the brake lights, worked on this Sphinx jitney I was stopped behind in Ridgefield on Saturday. During the workweek, the jitneys relieve rush-hour crowding aboard NJ Transit buses heading for Manhattan, one of the stories ignored by The Record's clueless Road Warrior. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The Record's front-page today reports on gambling "competition" between North Jersey and New York State, even though expanding casinos beyond Atlantic City won't happen until 2016, if then.
The Business front reports on another war between the states, this one over jobs.
Why doesn't Editor Martin Gottlieb revive the New Jersey-New York rivalry at the Port Authority or the war over mall shoppers?
GOP agenda
A Page 1 column dredges up the stale controversy over Benghazi, and the story below that discusses a shake-up in the president's Cabinet (A-1).
Are you bored yet?
A readable story
The most readable story on A-1 is Staff Writer Bill Ervolino's takeout on a "different world" for gay teens.
Ervolino does a far better job on this subject or when he is writing about food. So why doesn't Gottlieb pull the plug on the reporter's Better Living column?
Of course, the story on gay teens is sure to fan speculation in the newsroom about Ervolino's own sexual orientation.
Confusing figures
Almost every road or transportation construction project takes forever, but surely Road Warrior John Cichowski can find something more worthy to write about (L-1).
Also on L-1, a story on the proposed Atlantic Street Park in Hackensack carries the byline of Jennifer Vazquez, a reporter for the weekly Hackensack Chronicle.
The $585,000 cost figure in the text and sub-headline on the front confuse readers, who learn on the continuation page the city is eligible for a county grant that would reduce the price tag to less than $318,000 (L-7).
The Local front story on Woodland Park's centennial is an example of the increased coverage of the Passaic County borough since The Record moved there in 2009.
Celebrity news
Better Living delivers two boring stories:
Staff Writer Elisa Ung's column on "good" extra-virgin olive oils (BL-1) is almost as tedious as her Friday review of Bareli's, a restaurant on Route 3 in Secaucus that requires customers to sit in Lincoln Tunnel traffic for the privilege of paying $55 for a 2-pound lobster.
For that hefty tariff, the restaurant doesn't even remove the meat from the shell and claws.
The larger element on BL-1 is devoted to an endorsement of an Edgewater bagel store and Starbucks Coffee in Englewood by Daphne Oz, the spoiled daughter of multimillionaire Dr. Mehmet Oz of Cliffside Park.
Paterson mansions
Given the negative coverage of Paterson in the past decade, a Real Estate front story on the city's Eastside mansions is an eye opener (R-1).
The Opinion front is a snoozer, with a second long column on the 9/11 museum by Mike Kelly, and another in the endless string of stories and columns speculating on Governor Christie's political future (O-1).
Sinking feeling
Travel Editor Jill Schensul's cover story on "tempting cruises" ignores the hassles of using Cape Liberty in Bayonne, where departing or arriving passengers face a long, winding, slow-moving traffic jam of vehicles (T-1).
After a recent cruise to Bermuda, one passenger complained she had been waiting 90 minutes for her taxi.
The large, open area next to the ship is unusable, because it is filled with construction debris.
Passengers are directed to a long, tented shed many hundreds of yards away, requiring them to use shuttle buses to board the ship.
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