Upbeat story on Hackensack development ignores profits

Despite continued business failures in Englewood, above and below, where hundreds of luxury apartments were built downtown and on Route 4, Hackensack is pressing on with its plan to encourage apartment development on or near Main Street as a way of reviving the bigger city's struggling downtown.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jerome J. Lombardo, CEO of C.J. Lombardo Real Estate Co. of Hackensack, certainly seems to have the ears of The Record's editors.

Today's upbeat story on plans for hundreds of new apartments in downtown Hackensack quotes Lombardo extensively in his role as chairman of the Upper Main Alliance, the business group that is pushing redevelopment (Local front).

But nowhere does Staff Writer Todd South report whether Lombardo and other downtown property owners have positioned themselves to profit from that redevelopment, and by just how much.

This isn't The Record's and South's first story on Lombardo and the struggles of downtown Hackensack.

But like the previous ones, this account makes no reference to Englewood, a smaller city only 6 miles away, that has failed miserably to revive its downtown through apartment development.

Who wrote the optimistic headline on today's Hackensack story, and why did the copy desk supervisor approve it?

"A brand new world downtown"

That's what Lombardo and other boosters are hoping for, but it's far from the reality today.

The story by South, who took over the Hackensack beat in September, also includes factual errors, namely the boundaries of the Upper Main Alliance's special-improvement district and calling Euclid Avenue a "street."

An empty storefront on Main Street in Hackensack.

Where's the fire?

If I lived in Glen Rock, I'd question why three police officers got to a house fire before firefighters (L-1).

Does Glen Rock have a professional department or rely on volunteers? The story doesn't say.

Port Atrocity 

The Record today carries yet another front-page story citing calls for reform of the behemoth Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (A-1).

Inside, a hand-wringing editorial notes Governor Christie has done nothing to control "salary excesses" at the bi-state agency (A-11).

The editorial doesn't mention that maybe it's just cops the GOP bully won't touch -- as in all the local police chiefs in North Jersey who make more than he does, and the 13 Port Authority officers whose total compensation exceeds the $289,000 annual salary of the agency's executive director (Friday's A-1).

Patronage mill

The Record doesn't seem to recognize the Port Authority has been immune to change, because it is an enormous patronage mill for Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as it has been for their many predecessors.

And the agency is not supported by taxpayers, but rather by fees from shipping companies and airlines, and tolls and fares from commuters. 

Port Authority police officers have abused overtime pay for decades.

Instead of expressing shock, the Woodland Park daily should level with readers on the corrosive power of politics and patronage.

And The Record and other media should acknowledge their selfish interest in keeping that controversy alive to "sell papers."