In 2019, The Record's slide toward mediocrity didn't slow

CIVIC PUZZLE: On Oct. 26, a business district group and the borough of Fort Lee unveiled this nonsensical sign, which they called an "arts installation," near the massive Hudson Lights development, leaving hundreds of residents to scratch their heads on its meaning and wonder just how they can "be" Fort Lee. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- After lunch at Hiura, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Fort Lee, my friend Arthur drove us to a small park in the massive Hudson Lights development.

He pulled over and I opened the window to make a couple of photos of a sign he told me about a few weeks earlier:

"Be FORT LEE."

"What does that mean?" Arthur had said over and over again.

I couldn't shed any light on its meaning or how one could "be" Fort Lee, but when I got home, I Googled "Be Fort Lee" and found a statement from a business district group and the borough labeling the sign an "arts installation."

Then, I read this:

"The iconic installation signals the Borough's recent renaissance and serves as an aspirational invitation, to residents and visitors alike, to fully experience its enlightened cosmopolitan lifestyle so uniquely situated in a friendly community environment."

What idiocy.

The Record

Did The Record, the once-great local newspaper in Hackensack, report installation of the sign at the controversial high-rise/retail development or ask business and borough officials what the hell it means?

I no longer subscribe to the print edition or NorthJersey.com, which you cannot search unless you do.

But I do see the paper at least once a week, and the local news from Paterson and other towns in Passaic County continues to dominate the Local section, to the chagrin of readers in Bergen County, the heart of the circulation area.

The Sports section usually is twice the size of the Local news section, and both are filled with typos, errors and tortured writing.

The Borg family sold The Record to Gannett on July 6, 2016 -- a date that will live in infamy -- for nearly $40 million in cash, and laughed all the way to the bank.

The Sasson Report 

Here are posts from my omnibus blog, The Sasson Report, on The Record, (201) magazine and the Borg family: 

READ: The Record, North Jersey.com

 lost more readers in 2018

READ: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers

READ: Readers must pay for news, editor says

READ: Tombstones for great local journalism

READ: The best hamburgers in Bergen County?

READ: Repairs on USS Ling

 appear to have been successful

The following post on redevelopment of downtown Hackensack includes details about the Borg family's plans for nearly 20 acres at 150 River St., where The Record's headquarters once stood:

READ: New restaurants and apartments,

 but where do you park?

First Record pink slips reportedly will be issued on Oct. 15

The Record is reporting a proposal to move the USS Ling to Paterson presents cost and engineering challenges, but not that the World War II-era sub is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River and listing, as this photo from April shows.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Gannett, which has owned The Record for less than two months, will be issuing pink slips to copy editors, page designers and other so-called production workers on Oct. 15, a New York tabloid says.

Those employees were summoned to an Aug. 22 meeting and told production would be moved from Woodland Park to Neptune, where six other Gannett dailies are put out, Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post reported.

Gannett paid the Borg family "an estimated $40 million for the 121-year-old paper and sister titles and websites," says Kelly, the first reporter to disclose the selling price.

The Borgs held onto about 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack, where The Record was headquartered until 2009, and the land may fetch $20 million to $30 million when sold to an apartment developer.

Kelly says Gannett executives told copy editors, designers and other production workers they would have to apply for new jobs -- the same process former Publisher Stephen A. Borg used during a major newsroom downsizing in 2008.

"They will learn on Oct. 15 if they have jobs," Kelly reported on Saturday. "No word on how many will be getting pink slips."

One of those who is expected to go is six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who earned the title of "Queen of Errors" when she ran the features copy desk.

Kelly's story has reporters and other newsroom staffers anxiously wondering when the Gannett ax will fall on them.

The Record lost four veteran copy editors in the 2008 downsizing, as well as the co-supervisor of the copy desk who single-handedly upheld standards of accuracy, grammar and news writing.

See: Borgs take money and run

Today's paper

For the second day in a row, Governor Christie's conservative policies dominate Page 1 -- this time his explanation for why he vetoed, as expected, raising New Jersey's minimum wage to $15 by 2021 (A-1).

And for the second day in a row, State House Bureau reporter Dustin Racioppi turns out another slanted report, calling the proposal "a Democratic effort to join the nascent but politically divisive effort to mandate increased pay for entry and lower-level workers."

(Yes. The clunky, wordy first paragraph actually includes the word "effort" twice.)

Why is Racioppi politicizing the minimum-wage hike rather than reporting Christie's veto is a rebuke to tens of thousands low-wage workers in the state, including Walmart employees who are paid so little they have to apply for food stamps to feed their families?

More politics

And an editorial criticizing Democrats also supports Christie (A-8).

The editorial notes Democrats plan to put a constitutional amendment on the 2017 ballot, but urges them to try to override the veto instead.

But amending the constitution worked in 2013, when the minimum wage was raised to $8.25 an hour and tied to inflation, and will likely work again -- most voters are in favor of a higher minimum wage, and two other states already have enacted it.

Stuck with Christie?

Despite Gannett's purchase of The Record, reporters, columnists and editorial writers continue to side with the GOP bully, despite his more than 500 vetoes and his endorsement of wacko racist Donald J. Trump for president.

Yet months ago, six other New Jersey dailies owned by Gannett, as well as The Star-Ledger, called on him to resign.

The Record is alone is refusing to do so, and hasn't even reported those calls for Christie's resignation. 

USS Ling

"The Ling is looking to move from its location beside the Hackensack River on property slated for redevelopment by the former owner[s] of The Record," according to today's Local front.

But Paterson Press reporter Joe Malinconico forgot to call the Borgs, the former owners, and ask them why they don't help finance the move (L-1).

After all, they are cash rich after reaping $40 million from the sale of The Record, and are expecting another huge windfall from sale of the land along River Street in Hackensack where the sub is stuck in the mud.

Page 1 goes tabloid on robbery of builder tied to Borgs

Hackensack will lose Costco Wholesale on South River Street after a bigger warehouse store opens next month in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center. This is how the Teterboro Costco looked last Friday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Would you look at the hysterical woman in the photo centerpiece on Page 1 of The Record today.

That's not all, as readers find out if they turn to the full story and more photos of the suspects and their lawyers (L-1 and L-6).

The woman and two men, including the father of her son, are being held in the 2013 home invasion and robbery of Fred Daibes in his luxury Edgewater penthouse.

"Tuesday was the plea cutoff date for the four defendants in the case," which is alleged to have been an inside job, Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson reports.

Why is this procedural court hearing on A-1 today?

That may have something to do with Daibes, a developer who once proposed to build apartments on 19.7 acres North Jersey Media Group owns in Hackensack, site of The Record's old headquarters.

Of course, the story is silent on Daibes' relationship to the Borg family, which controls NJMG.

Woman hit by car

Another front-page story today seems to gloss over the actions of the driver who struck Jo-Ann Hans, 60, a Bergenfield crossing guard who was helping worshipers around 8 a.m. on the second day of the Jewish new year (A-1).

"On Tuesday night, she was unconscious and on life support in a hospital bed," The Record reports.

But the identity of driver and the charges against him don't appear until deep on the continuation page (A-8).

That's also where readers find complaints about speeders, the reason a crossing guard was needed in the first place on New Bridge Road and Westminster Avenue.

"Pedestrians mean nothing," Shimmy Stein is quoted as saying.

Stein, chairman of Bergenfield's zoning board, was referring to drivers, but his observation also can be applied to local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Editors acquit, condemn Christie in court of public opinion

No plans have been announced for this vacant land and shuttered business, above and below, across the street from the first residential project in Hackensack's ambitious downtown redevelopment. The 222-unit rental building is scheduled to open in the fall.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Depending on which page of The Record you read today, federal investigations are a minor annoyance to Governor Christie or they could eventually end his "presidential aspirations."

A news story leading the front page puts a positive spin on the resignation of United Airlines' CEO in an investigation of the Port Authority related to the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

The headline -- "Scandal still taking a toll" -- is clear enough, but the caption under Christie's photo says:

"Two years after the George Washington Bridge scandal, Governor Christie has never been accused of wrongdoing" (A-1).

A better, more accurate caption would have been that many questions remain about Christie's role in the scandal.

And those questions may finally be answered by the upcoming testimony of ally David Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to helping plot and cover up the Fort Lee lane closures two years ago (A-10).

Darker editorial

"This is not good news" for Christie, according to an editorial on the shake-up at United Airlines and questions surrounding a special flight for Christie mentor David Samson, when he was chairman of the Port Authority (A-20).

Christie nominated Samson, his former campaign counsel, to the board of the bi-state transportation agency, which runs the bridge and Newark Liberty International Airport.

"If Samson, known as 'The General,' is linked to a deal trading flavors for a non-stop fight to South Carolina [where he has a vacation home], the political damage to Christie will be monumental.

"Just the reemergence of the Port Authority narrative at this point in Christie's struggling presidential campaign inflicts damage."

How many years?

Editor Martin Gottlieb couldn't resist sensationalizing the front page today with a big photo of Monica Mogg, who was sentenced to consecutive life terms for the murder of her ex-lover and his new girlfriend in a bedroom.

The A-1 photo sends readers to the full story on the Local front, plus two more photos, but all of those elements contain so many different descriptions of the sentence readers can't be blamed for being confused.

The A-1 photo overline says, "Two life terms for double homicide."

But the big, black headline on L-1 says, "166 years for 2 murders," forcing readers to wonder how that number was arrived at.

Doesn't "life" in prison mean until you die? Apparently not.

Finally, the lead paragraph of the story contains this awkward, hard-to-read phrase:

"A former preschool teacher was sentenced Wednesday to two back-to-back life terms in prison .... [italics added]."

That's too many to's or two's.

Hackensack news

Also on the Local front, The Record announces that plans for North Jersey Media Group's 19.7 acres on River Street in Hackensack have received preliminary approval from the city Planning Board (L-1).

Publisher Stephen A. Borg is quoted as saying the hotel-residential-retail project includes a "connection" to downtown, but no details are provided.

In all the years The Record operated at 150 River St., employees were forced to take their chances with fast-moving traffic as they tried to cross River Street to reach Main Street restaurant and shops.

If a hotel and 700 apartments are built there, a footbridge over River Street would be the only way to guarantee pedestrian safety.

The Record prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years and its departure in 2009 sped up the decline of Main Street. 

Ode to crap

On the Better Living front, chief restaurant critic Elisa Ung celebrates "North Jersey's most classic, old-time hot dogs," but doesn't tell readers they are full of harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and preservatives (BL-1).

Three of the photos show fried hot dogs from Rutt's Hut in Clifton, Hot Grill in Clifton and Hiram's in Fort Lee covered in what looks like vomit. 

How appetizing.

Editors unearth new Hackensack crisis: Too much sewage

When I saw two police cruisers and several dump trucks blocking Cedar Lane in Teaneck on Wednesday, I thought potholes or the bridge were being repaired. But the real reason was snow removal. Meanwhile, in Hackensack, no move was being made to finally get rid of snow crews couldn't clear because residents ignored instructions to move their cars. Higher temperatures may melt the snow, allowing two cars to pass safely on many streets.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's local news editors have finally broken their weeks-long silence on Hackensack with momentous news of another crisis.

Staff Writer Todd South reports that city officials have responded firmly to an expected record flow of sewage from more than 1,000 downtown apartments that are under construction or planned (L-3 on Wednesday).

Flushing might reach a crescendo in coming years, but the city is more than doubling the one-time sewer connection fee on new construction to help pay for renewal of century old sewer pipes and continue separation "of the city's combined sanitary sewer and storm-water system."

South writes this story completely from the viewpoint of developers, and doesn't even raise the probability they will pass along the hike (to $2,500 per unit from $1,000) simply by raising rents.

The story also contains a major error, a photo of the 222-unit Meridia-Metro building at 94 State St. with a caption that doesn't make clear the project will be exempted from the higher fee because it is nearing completion, as the story says.

Today's paper

The Local section today doesn't have a follow-up to Wednesday's L-1 story on a 64-year-old Hackensack woman who was killed by a car driven by John Straniero, an off-duty detective sergeant with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

The story, by Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio, doesn't say whether there is a crosswalk on Kennedy Street, near Jackson Avenue, where pedestrian Hue Dang was struck by the unmarked car, which was turning, and whether she was in it.

It's likely the reporter did the story by telephone on instructions from her lazy editors, Deirde Sykes and Dan Sforza, who don't grasp the value of traditional legwork.

They have shown contempt for pedestrians who were struck and injured or killed in recent years, and still haven't reported whether New Jersey will follow New York City in filing criminal charges against drivers who strike pedestrians in crosswalks. 

The Record site

But Local today does carry a story on redevelopment of the 19.7-acres on River Street that North Jersey Media Group abandoned in 2009, moving the headquarters of The Record and the publishing company to an office building in Woodland Park (L-3).

NJMG President Stephen A. Borg called the city's designation of the parcel as "an area in need of redevelopment" a "vote of confidence ... supporting what we want to be a great development for Hackensack."

Neither Borg nor city officials mention the land is in a notorious flood zone.

And Borg doesn't pledge that any luxury apartment developer will be required to provide gondola shuttles to the bus station and Main Street stores that suffered after NJMG pulled hundreds of employees out of the city where it had prospered for more than 110 years.

One thing is for sure: Development of the old The Record site will generate even more sewage than flowed out of the Hackensack newsroom on a regular basis. 

Let's hope the city's infrastructure is ready to handle it.

Borg family's interests trump civility at public meetings

Richard E. Salkin speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Salkin doesn't identify himself as the attorney for the city's Board of Education, which is allied with the Zisa family and the local Democratic Party that lost the 2013 municipal election. A frequent critic of the current council, he is usually quoted in The Record without that title, the same "anonymity" the paper accords to members of the losing council slate.

The five-member City Council with City Attorney Thomas P. Scrivo, left, and City Manager David R. Troast, front.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's progress on selling 19.7 acres near downtown Hackensack to a developer dominates The Record's Local news section today.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered Tuesday night's City Council meeting, wrote a story that ignores unanimous passage of an ordinance governing public comment.

The "Rules of Order" were introduced on Nov. 25 after critics of the council -- principally those who lost the 2013 municipal election -- launched one abrasive attack after another against officials for just about every hire and proposal they made, including a downtown performance space.

Many of the attacks were reported in The Record without identifying the critics as Zisa family allies and members of the local Democratic Party, which lost the 2013 municipal election to a slate of reformers led by John P. Labrosse Jr., who is now mayor.

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle reported what happened at a Nov. 10 council meeting The Record didn't cover:

"Another incident in which the First Amendment right was brought into question took place at the Nov. 10 council meeting, when resident [and Board of Education Attorney] Richard Salkin, who is a vocal critic of a number of the council members, in particular of councilwoman Rose Greenman, referred to her as a "sociopath."

"This allegation drove Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of the mayor -- to say she will not tolerate name calling.

"I'm not going to tolerate that," she said. "Address people with respect, that's all I ask. We are respecting you, respect us back."

Profit motive

The 150 River St.  parcel and adjacent property is the former headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily newspaper, The Record, which prospered in Hackensack for more than 110 years.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned Hackensack in 2009, moving The Record's newsroom to a nondescript office building overlooking Route 80 in Woodand Park.

A few years earlier, Borg moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008. 

Those two decisions seemed to set into motion a precipitous decline in the quality of editing and reporting at a newspaper still referred to as "The Bergen Record."

The 19.7 Hackensack acres are expected to fetch $20 million or more.

City study

On Tuesday night, the City Council approved a study to determine whether the NJMG parcel should be declared as an "area in need of redevelopment," a designation that could entitle any developer to tax breaks for up to 30 years, The Record reports (L-1).

The lead paragraph of the story says the property, two blocks east of Main St. in Hackensack, is 20 acres, but the second paragraph calls it a "19.7-acre site."

Labrosse, the mayor, said any development would have to include a walkway along the Hackensack River and a park where the USS Ling submarine is tied up on NJMG property.

Hackensack's Venice

A Walmart Super Center was rumored for the 19.7 acres a couple of years ago, and then gazillionaire Fred Daibes of Edgewater proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development, but that fell through.

Apartments wouldn't seem suitable for what former employees recall as a property prone to frequent flooding that claimed the cars of more than one staffer.

I can recall one storm that surrounded the 150 River St. building with so much water the managers pressed into service newspaper delivery trucks to pick up employees from higher ground a block away.

See a previous post:

Borgs prepare to screw Hackensack again

CIA torture

It's hard to tell who is more upset by the CIA's "brutal interrogation program" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America (A-1).

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the harsh interrogation techniques a "stain on the nation's history."

But the media are playing up incidents that occurred more than a decade ago before reforms instituted by President Obama.

Could CNN and other media outlets really be upset they've been denied sensational YouTube videos of CIA operatives decapitating suspected terrorists?

The year 2013 in photos from "Eye on The Record"

The Great Falls in Paterson is the place to visit after a heavy rainfall.

The Record's old headquarters at 150 River St. in Hackensack remained an eyesore for much of 2013 -- four years after the Borg publishing family abandoned the city. Meanwhile, Staff Writer Kibret Markos covers the Bergen County Courthouse full time, but his smoking breaks outside the main entrance are so frequent little of that coverage actually appears in the paper.

The first luxury apartments built in Hackensack in many years went up between two shopping centers on Hackensack Avenue, near Route 4, as the city pursued a policy of encouraging apartment development and an influx of new residents as a way to revive its downtown.

Tin Alley in  Hackensack, where auto dealers line River Street. The Record on Saturday is stuffed with several sections of car-dealer advertising, which may be one reason the error-prone Road Warrior writes obsessively about driving and hardly anything about the overstretched mass-transit system.

A fence at a railroad station in Pennsylvania prevents pedestrians from crossing the tracks, a safety measure that is scarce at NJ Transit stations.

Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, where the elementary and middle schools remain segregated, a story The Record doesn't touch.

One Friday night in Manhattan, the line to board NJ Transit buses stretched down the escalator to the level below the platforms.

Increasing traffic congestion was a big story in 2013, but one The Record didn't bother covering.

To handle greater demand, NJ Transit used longer trains, but often platforms were too short. Above, the New Brunswick station. Passengers would be told to run forward to exit the train.

Penn Station in Manhattan is owned by Amtrak, which assigns track numbers to NJ Transit trains 10 minutes before departure, setting off a stampede by passengers scrambling for a seat.

A firehouse on Main Street in Hackensack.

Record Publisher Stephen A. Borg's $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly.

Part of a display in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in Manhattan.

Yours truly ran as an independent candidate for the Hackensack City Council, above and below.

The Record mocked then-Governor Corzine's plan to monetize the New Jersey Turnpike, but saw nothing wrong with charging Bergen County hundreds of thousands of dollars for parking spaces at the old Hackensack headquarters. The Borgs also announced a luxury apartment developer agreed to buy about 20 River Street acres in a flood zone, and would be using gondolas to carry residents to the bus station across the street.

The New World Trade Center is the latest jewel in the Manhattan skyline.

Jerome S. Some, 87, founder and owner of a uniform company in Hackensack, above, was struck and killed by a car after he left his building, below, and started walking across Prospect Avenue to reach Bel Posto Restaurant. 

Governor Christie -- the GOP bully, the Portly Authority and the Elephant Man of national politics, won a second term on Nov. 5 -- in what turned out to be the lowest turnout ever for a gubernatorial election.

The first of two 47-story residential towers was nearing completion in Fort Lee. But The Modern's glass facade reflected sunlight and blinded some drivers heading for the George Washington Bridge.

Recycled copies of The Record are destined to return as toilet paper.

A winter scene on Englewood's East Hill.

In 2013, we saw many lows at our local daily newspaper

A Bogota fire truck on a rainy day in Hackensack. These words appear on the back of the truck, under the painted American flag: "All Gave Some ... Some Gave All. 9-11-01." All gave some? Not sure what that means, but the tribute shows why the world needs more copy editors.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Echoing the theme of sections in today's Sunday edition, The Record of Woodland Park tried mightily under a former Times editor to hit highs in 2013.

But the sad reality is Editor Marty Gottlieb, who traded Paris for Paramus, continued to be weighed down by the dysfunctional local-news operation he inherited.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who is on a prolonged sick leave, and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza are two lifers who bungled just about every breaking news story that came their way, as well as routine local coverage.

Decline in quality

And the quality of reporting, writing and fact-checking -- in news stories and columns, headlines and photo captions -- declined drastically.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg's decision to downsize the staff and abandon Hackensack several years ago led to the merger of The Record and Herald News staffs in a smaller Woodland Park newsroom.

The Herald News contributed some accomplished reporters and writers, but the editors and copy editors from the smaller daily have been uniformly mediocre and they have dumbed down content.

Houlton factor

Borg's economy moves also led to the dismissal of four veteran copy editors and the departure of Nancy Cherry, who alone upheld standards of writing, grammar and fact-checking as co-chief of The Record's news copy desk.

With the elevation of Liz Houlton to production editor from head of the features copy desk, where she had earned the title of "Queen of Errors," the sad outcome was predictable -- an unprecedented decline in quality.

Hackensack news

As a resident of Hackensack and an independent City Council candidate in the May election, I welcomed a dramatic improvement in news coverage that began in June after a reform slate defeated allies of the ruling Zisa family.

But I still haven't seen any meaningful coverage of many other towns or their struggling downtowns, and The Record's transportation reporters continue to ignore increasing traffic congestion and officials' refusal to expand mass transit.

Today's paper

Today's front page is typical, with another couple of thousands of words about who knew what and when they knew it during the politically inspired closure of Fort Lee access lanes to the George Washington Bridge more than three months ago (A-1).

A Page 1 story on whether it will snow on Feb. 2, the date of the Super Bowl, includes a photo caption noting "cars" struggled with snow and ice in Englewood on Feb. 2, 2011.

They must have been some of those Google cars, which drive themselves (A-1).

The first paragraph of the lead Page 1 story on the Gallo family tragedy in Washington Township seems sloppily written, beginning with "soon."

The reporter also says Dr. James Gallo has "a eulogy to script." Does anyone "script" a eulogy? What is wrong with "write"?

Copping out

On the Local front, a photo of a police assault team at Westfield Garden State Plaza highlights the irresponsible lack of security at the Paramus mall -- a story the local staff refused to tackle (L-1).

Of course, the cops got there too late on Nov. 4 to prevent a troubled Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck from invading the mall with a rifle, firing random shots that panicked shoppers and store employees, and then committing suicide (L-3).

On L-2, more space is devoted to a homeless man who turned in $850 he found on Main Street than to the victory of Citizens for Change in the May Hackensack City Council election.

The dismissal of the city clerk and city manager, who were perceived as allies of the corrupt police chief, Ken Zisa, and former City Council, aren't even mentioned.

On the cheap

On the Business front, the Your Money's Worth column on food prices and the related North Jersey Marketbasket Survey on B-7 continue to ignore the organic revolution.

Similarly, Elisa Ung's The Corner Table column on "dining blessings of 2013," includes heart-stopping food photos and nary a reference to whether restaurants are serving more naturally raised or grown food (BL-1 and BL-11).

Forgotten Main Streets

On the Real Estate front, a story on "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time," a book written by a city planner, could run in any newspaper across America.

There is not a single reference to North Jersey or to cities like Englewood and Hackensack that have encouraged the construction of hundreds of luxury apartments in or near their downtowns.

Judging by the number of empty storefronts on Englewood's Palisade Avenue and Dean and Engle streets, the influx of hundreds of new apartment dwellers in recent years have made little difference in that city's "walkable" downtown.

Uncomfortable truths

Of course, The Record has ignored that story, just as it has never reported the impact on Main Street of North Jersey Media's Group decision to pull out more than 1,000 employees from 150 River St. in Hackensack in 2009.

On the Opinion front, Columnist Brigid Harrison calls Governor Christie one of 2013's "political winners" and a potential candidate who can win the White House for Republicans in 2016.

But she and just about everyone else who writes about the results on Nov. 5 fail to say it also saw the lowest turnout of any gubernatorial election in the state's history -- a testament to voter apathy.

Voter apathy and campaign finance reform are two more stories The Record didn't cover in 2013.

Footnote

My paper was delivered in a plastic bag advertising ShopRite's Super Can-Can Sale and P&G products, including bathroom tissue.

On one side, a Charmin ad notes:

"We all have to go. Why not enjoy the go?"

Sounds like something written on The Record's copy desk and approved by Houlton.

Footnote No. 2

For the first time in decades, the masthead today reads:

The Sunday Record

The new style means the weather no longer appears below the masthead on Page 1.