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| The Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe in Queensbury, N.Y., on July Fourth. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The front page of The Record today carries another so-called ANALYSIS, reporting the sad state of the New Jersey economy:
Governor Christie's "latest state budget," Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports, contains more borrowing and more business tax breaks; higher property tax bills and no money for "transportation upgrades and open-space preservation" (A-1).
Why didn't this frank discussion of the mess Christie has made of the Garden State -- while catering to the rich -- appear before he vetoed the Democrats' budget proposal on June 30?
In a familiar story, Christie cut funding for women's health care, a tax-credit for low-wage workers and legal services for the poor, and delayed property tax relief to next year, according to a front-page story on July 1.
Silent endorsement
Yet the editorials that ran July 2 and 3 make no mention of the GOP bully's mean-spirited balancing of the state budget for the fifth year in a row.
Similarly, today's lead story on the woes of North Jerseyans struggling to rebuild their shore homes doesn't even attempt to assess whether Christie bungled federal Sandy aid, just as he tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey (A-1).
Editor on vacation?
I've been on vacation out of state, but what is Editor Martin Gottlieb's excuse?
The onetime cub reporter for The Record went on to a stellar career at The New York Times, including a Paris posting, before he was hand-picked by the Borg publishing family to run their flagship daily paper in early 2012.
Not much has changed
The Brooklyn-born Gottlieb, 66, has been running the Woodland Park newsroom for nearly three years, but readers could be forgiven if the only changes they notice are longer stories, a relentless focus on politics and an even greater emphasis on front-page sports than his incompetent predecessor.
Readers are still ill-informed by a local-assignment desk filled with the same old, lazy sub-editors and stale, burned-out columnists that have been around for decades.
More lazy reporting
One of those lazy columnists appears on Page 1 today, trying to peddle a commuting story that affects only a few hundred people, if that (The Road Warrior, A-1).
Road Warrior John Cichowski and the paper's other transportation reporter, Karen Rouse, have labored in recent years to ignore growing mass-transit congestion, including a lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and the delays faced by commuters trying to return to their North Jersey homes from the antiquated midtown-Manhattan bus terminal.
How does today's column on "a cheaper commute" over the George Washington Bridge benefit the vast majority of commuters, who are victims of Port Authority toll increases that amount to highway robbery?
Out of whole cloth
Cichowski is so lazy he will grasp at any straw as an excuse to write a column, such as his lame Page 1 effort on June 27 to tie the deaths of three men trying to fix a disabled truck on Route 287 to the average motorist whose car breaks down on a busy highway.
I pity the driver and passengers who follow his advice to stay inside a car with their seat belts on as trucks and other traffic flies by -- instead of getting the hell out of there.
The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers notes that advice is definitely not posted on the AAA web site, aaa.com, as Cichowski claimed.
Bankrupt section
Today's Business front story on mergers and acquisitions among community banks (B-1) makes no mention of Spencer Savings Bank assuming NJM Bank's deposits and loans, according to a letter sent to customers in late June.
The Business editors presumably are waiting for a press release.
The SMALL BUSINESS story today focuses on a restaurant in Conshohoken, Pa., not one in North Jersey (B-7).
Bring lots of dough
In Better Living today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continue their breathless promotion of expensive restaurants -- in a form of payback to those big advertisers (BL-2).
Food coverage has gone decidedly upscale in recent years, with no attempt to report on casual restaurants where four can eat for $50.
Lame local reporting
Today's Local front carries a story on Fort Lee trying to prepare for a steep rise in school enrollment (L-1), but no one has reported that Hackensack faces the same problem.
With hundreds of new apartments already built, under construction or proposed, the Hackensack City Council and Board of Education have yet to address the issue.
Dissing Hackensack
Looking through the papers I missed since I left Hackensack on June 26 is a chore I'm trying to avoid, but the lead front-page element on June 29 caught my eye:
"Change isn't easy for Hackensack"
One look at his dated column photo -- with the same unflattering, shit-eating grin -- shows change doesn't come easy at The Record.
Negative spin
I saw Kelly at a Hackensack City Council meeting last month, and he has a nice head of gray hair.
Isn't it time for The Record's editors to update his column photo, just as they did for TV critic Ginnie Rohan (BL-1)?
Kelly's column criticizing Hackensack's "unseasoned newcomers" is inaccurate and inflammatory, but it is typical of The Record's overwhelmingly negative coverage of the city it once called home.
Why should commuters be reduced to some type of vagrancy by hitching a ride across the GWB? Increased tolls and congestion due to Christie's political ideology needs to be addressed as well as the actions-or is it may be inaction- of the Port Authority. These issues need to be addressed. I don't blame people for "hitchhiking" but isn't that illegal? I think if I were to stick my thumb out on the side of the road farther west on Rt 4, the authorities would be quick to put me in the back of a squad car.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I don't think it is illegal to hitchhike.
DeleteBut the hitchhikers must hold really low-wage jobs if they can't afford bus and subway fare.
Their desperation is matched by drivers who don't want to lower themselves by taking mass transit and scramble to cut the exorbitant tolls by "car pooling."
And, yes, The Record is not about to reprise Governor Christie's anti-mass transit policies or refusal to raise the gas tax as one way of getting commuters to leave their cars at home.
DeleteAfter all, the Borg family's real constituency includes all those car dealers whose ad revenues have made the publishing family wealthy.
The Kelly piece on Hackensack was long overdue and on the money. It was not unkind nor was it an attack on the administration. the city council was expecting something in the form of state directed aid and funding from the team they assembled via Trenton and it was dy late and a dollar short. Nothing happened. The people they put in place did some very incorrect things; members of the council did some very incorrect things. They are inexperienced and in over their respective heads. In light of the redevelopment in the city, this is a bad situation, regardless of how you characterize some as being wealthy fat cats and so forth, without development, the city of Hackensack will not survive. And the city needs more than just one or two rental projects to get on its feet. So please stop playing holier than thou. The administration does not have a clue and it shows. Maybe things now will turn around and they can justify their words through proper actions.
ReplyDeleteThere is one large complex finished, one under construction and two or three in the planning stages.
DeleteAny criticism of the current council has to mention the deep hole they were left by many years of fiscal mismanagemt. And we have a Board of Education from hell ...
The completed rental property is by Riverside Square, certainly not in walking distance from the downtown of Hackensack. The other rental property on State Street is crawling like a snail toward completion. The other projects with closed deals are a year or so away from development and then more time before the rental offices are leasing the apartments. The city in motion needs some motion. To continue to point a finger at the prior administration, when it was entirely the prior administration that got the rehabilitation plan off the ground after 30 or more years of trying is a naive position to take. This current council ran on a platform of clean government. Over the past year it has been realized it is anything but clean. The lawsuit initiated by the so called former city manager will eclipse anything you are pointing fingers at. Aside from that there was never any vetting process for this individual who had ties to the Republican machine apparently in Trenton. And other ties as well, apparently. Even though he seemed to have lost a race or two himself in certain circles. Not completely well liked. This council was sold a bag of goods which points to their ineptitude and lack of a quality decision making process. They do not have a clue; it is apparent. Other than 2 x a week garbage collection. The city is in such close proximity to NYC that this latest saga is laughable. The city needs development. Developers need a reason to develop/hence incentives need to be adopted to attract developers. There is no gold rush on Main Street for properties despite what you think. Properties are overpriced and the incentives the city is granting are paltry. By comparison to other developer friendly communities Hackensack finishes behind the pack. Without development the city will continue to decline. That is a fact. The latest shenanigans illustrate a dysfunctional group of individuals who have absolutely nothing to say other than they are the second coming. It is tiresome, and now worrisome. The development community wants to see a development friendly council, not a bunch of controversial figures who seemingly cannot make the right decisions. The schools will improve with development. The overcrowding you consistently mention can be addressed by expansion of the schools It is done, believe it or not; but in this city a simple decision turns into an act of Congress. The other issue that is troublesome is that this group got into their positions with a small percentage of the city's population voting. Again, laughable, but scary. If guys like you keep pointing fingers at the prior administration, well then, that is all you are doing. It is akin to the governor criticizing the President while he does not have one single idea of his own. Keep doing it. The city will surely suffer. Try to think of what will attract further development other than from a couple of projects. How will there be a vibrant downtown with what we call, foot traffic? What you often refer to as fat cats in the realm of developers should be changed or modified to reflect the name lifesavers. Without further development the city will continue to sink. And development can only commence vigorously with an enlightened council, which the city does not seem to have as proven by their actions. That is my opinion and apparently the opinion of many others. Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot to say and a lot of criticism, but you are hiding behind an Anonymous tag and not telling us whether you were part of previous administrations, which I suspect.
DeleteCouncil meetings are filled with bellyaching by the losers in the last election and the Democrats who were thrown out of power or jobs or both.
I am a lifelong Democrat, but cringe over the greed of those in Hackensack and Bergen County.
Not part of the former administration at all. But I am someone who knows a smart individual when I see one, and there is no one smart in that group at all. My family has had a place in this city for over 70 years. Long gone the stores downtown. We had a family business on Main Street. I have been involved with NY real estate and NJ real estate. The disconnect between a 10023 zip code and an 07601 is as wide as the Grand Canyon. Entirely different worlds. This city is becoming the gang that cannot shoot straight. Your reformers need reform, and more than reform. Remember the word in the Graduate, the movie? The mantra now should be Incentives. To bring in a bunch of hacks as they did who do not have any ties to this city was a desperate act. What development did the interim city manager bring also as head of so called redevelopment? Again, they have nothing to say. The only losers I/we see are the ones on the council presently. If this city does not attract further development it will be in dire straights. That is a fact. Again absolutely no ties to anybody or any entity other than the pride I have in the legacy of my family who like many other merchants were the fabric and backbone of this city. Go take a walk down Main Street now. Look forward to your report. Count the foot traffic on one hand.
DeleteI've run numerous photos of empty storefronts on Main Street, and criticized The Record and the Borg family for not acknowledging the impact they had when they abandoned the city they literally transformed.
DeleteThe high-rises lining Prospect Avenue have their seed in the decision of a Borg to sell his mansion on the street to an apartment developer, the first one to do so, setting into motion all the construction of apartments, condos and co-ops.
That is correct what you say. The Whitehall was one of the first developments as such. Without the Prospect Avenue development the city was going to go bankrupt or at least be in a place called dire straights. The growth downtown needs to accelerate. And yes, the HUMC can certainly play a key role in many ways. That needs to change as well. The problem with the empty storefronts is that hen they do get leased, the tenants last only so long. It is a miserable situation and quite shameful. I have always wondered why some of the larger owners of multiple properties on Main Street do not lead the charge by example and develop their own properties. The answer is apparent. They are a bunch of inept participants as well, waiting for a free ride. They have access to the banks, and they all know the score. But nothing. The stores continue to get leased up to people who are destined to go out of business. There is not one retailer on Main Street who is making money.
Delete