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| Late for work? On the way to the gym on Tuesday morning, I encountered this driver, who blew through a stop sign in Hackensack, and drove well over the speed limit on Spring Valley Avenue. Here, I was stopped behind the driver on Summit Avenue in Hackensack. One sticker says, "I brake for UFOs." The peace symbol obviously doesn't signal the hippie driver wants to coexist peacefully with other motorists. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The Record's Woodland Park newsroom can't seem to get its accuracy act together.
On Sunday's front page, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was portrayed as so powerful he could "make or break" a candidate seeking to become New Jersey's next governor.
But in the Opinion section, a photo of Stellato flummoxed everyone from the lowly photographer who took it to the production editor who gets paid six figures to prevent embarrassing errors from getting into the paper.
Lou who?
OK. I wouldn't know Stellato, if I sat next to him on the bus. But he doesn't look anything like James Tedesco, the Bergen County executive-elect.
Yet, the photo of Stellato ran with a caption identifying him as Tedesco, even though Tedesco was correctly identified in a photo caption on A-10 of the same edition.
The editors didn't run a correction on A-2 until Tuesday:
"A caption on Page O-4 on Sunday misidentified a man greeting supporters of Bergen County Executive-elect James Tedesco last Tuesday night. Pictured was Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato."
The problem may lie in how the lazy editors, including Production Editor Liz Houlton, have always relied on staff photographers to provide accurate spellings and identifications of the people in their photos, and have often failed to check the accuracy of the information.
More errors
A second correction on Tuesday noted the paper was wrong in identifying the type of crude oil carried by tanker cars through Bergen County.
The crude is from North Dakota, not Canada, as the L-1 story reported on Monday.
Today, A-2 corrects the misspelling of "the surname" of a high school soccer player that appeared on Nov. 4. "She is Katey Samarro," the editors note.
Bus woes ease?
A Page 1 story today reports the Port Authority has made some changes to ease the delays home-bound North Jersey commuters were facing leaving the antiquated bus terminal in midtown Manhattan during the rush hour.
But the story doesn't address the difficulty of getting to the gridlocked terminal, if you take a North Jersey bus into the city in the late afternoon.
Christie's future
Marc Schaeffer of Wyckoff is a letter writer who provides a perspective on Governor Christie's White House ambitions the editors and reporters are unable or unwilling to provide (A-10).
"Imagine the exuberance of the opposition research teams," if Christie decides to run, Schaeffer writes.
"The first vulnerability that will be exposed is the illusion of the New Jersey economic recovery Christie has advanced."
"Then, they will turn to the cesspool of patronage, cronyism and alleged financial impropriety at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey..."
You get the idea.
Schaeffer analyzes Christie's chances of success in a way you have never seen in The Record, where the GOP bully has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage since he took office in 2010 and began his war on the middle and working classes.
Dead at 57
The Record's obituary writers can't be bothered trying to explain why so many African-American men die in their 50s, as you can see in today's story on rapper Henry Jackson of Tenafly (L-1).
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| Korean War veterans passing St. Patrick's Cathedral during Tuesday's parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. |
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| Korean New Yorkers who fought in Vietnam also marched in the Veterans Day parade. |
Hackensack news
Staff Writer Todd South didn't have anything to report about this past Monday's City Council meeting.
But today, the Hackensack reporter has an upbeat story on a Veterans Day ceremony for the nearly 30 veterans who now work for Hackenack University Medical Center (L-3).
Like thousands of other residents, I thought about the hospital on Monday, when I made my quarterly property tax payment of more than $4,300 to the city of Hackenack.
How much smaller would it have been, if the non-profit but tremendously profitable hospital made payments in lieu of taxes to Hackensack or returned anything in kind, like a couple of patrol cars or paving Prospect Avenue, which is torn apart by ambulances?
If South is looking for story ideas, the hospital's not paying taxes on more than $180 million dollars in property could be it.
He certainly can't rely on his lazy local assignment editors to wake up one day and suggest the story.
So what would the property taxes be on the 180 million in assessment? And what percentage would that be as a part of the total budget raised through property taxes. Just curious.
ReplyDeleteI got the $180 million figure from the assessor in 2013. I didn't get the rest of the information, but now that you ask, I'll see if I can. I wouldn't expect my taxes to go down a lot if HUMC paid their fair share, but the hospital should contribute something to the running of the city, considering all the city services they use.
DeleteMayor John Labrosse said a few months ago discussions are going on with the hospital on the issue.
Police Director Mike Mordaga has asked for a hospital-staffed room at the homeless shelter to evaluate cases so the city doesn't have to waste so much time taking non-serious ones to HUMC.
And Mordaga said he could use a couple more patrol cars; why can't the hospital buy them?
Agreed; I never quite understood how these places get non profit status and property tax exemptions when they are making multi millions.
ReplyDeleteWhile on the subject, churches too.
In Hackensack, we also have to make up for all of the property owned by two other non-profits, Bergen County and Fairleigh Dickinson University, which has a campus in the city.
ReplyDeleteVictor, I understand what you're saying. Do you think the city would be better if Hackensack UMC moves a few blocks south to Hasbrouck Heights?
ReplyDeleteReally, how is that even possible?
DeleteThe Port Authority is one non-profit that makes payments in lieu of taxes so the hospital can follow suit.