Editors taunt Hackensack with medical center's success

One of NJ Transit's roomy double-decker trains pulling into the Clifton station last Monday. Clifton is one of the few stations with a free parking lot for commuters.

Upper deck or lower? Avoid the train's poorly designed upper deck, with its low, head-cracking metal luggage rack. The lower deck, shown here, is a far better bet.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's breathless front-page account today of another Hackensack University Medical Center expansion examines the deal from every angle except the one that means the most to residents of its host city.

"The new organization ... will employ 23,400 people and have more than $3.4 billion in revenues ...," the story reports in the second paragraph (A-1).

The medical center's building boom in Hackensack fundamentally changed the residential character of the neighborhood, and the city has little to show in terms of property tax revenue.

HUMC is non-profit, and hasn't returned anything in lieu of the tens of millions of dollars in taxes denied to the city.

Businesses and homeowners pay more as a result.

Yet, The Record's coverage of HUMC resembles boosterism, perhaps a legacy of the years North Jersey Media Group Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg spent on the medical center board.

Localizing Ebola

The local assignment editors sent Staff Writer Christopher Maag to Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday, the first day of "targeted health screenings for the Ebola virus" (A-6).

But someone, likely as editor, screwed up Maag's lead paragraph:

"The first day of targeted health screenings ... was quiet Thursday ...."

Instead, this is how it should have read:

"Thursday, the first day of targeted health screenings ..., was quiet ...."

Why send Maag and not a medical writer? 

The reporter covers NJ Transit and other transportation issues, and the airport presumably is part of his beat, according to the assignment editors' tortured reasoning.

Back to the story. Let's hope Nana Smith of Hackensack doesn't suffer any fallout from being photographed at the airport "waiting for a friend from Ghana" (A-6).

More Garrett lies

Diane Callaghan of River Vale, a letter writer, says a TV ad promoting another term for Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, claims the six-termer hits the ground running every morning "to create better economic opportunities for women and their families" (A-18).

Callaghan notes Garrett voted against the Violence Against Women Act, which would have passed tougher sentences for those who commit crimes against women, as well as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthened laws against wage discrimination.

Add women to Superstorm Sandy aid, both of which the Garrett campaign claims the conservative Tea Party icon favored, contrary to the truth.

Garrett will say anything to win another term in the 5th Congressional District -- getting elected is his main concern.

Roy Cho advances

Meanwhile, Democratic challenger Roy Cho of Hackenack says two recent polls show he has "vaulted into a very competitive position within single digits" of Garrett.

Compared to Garrett, who is against anything that will help the middle class, Cho has a lot going for him, including his making his first bid for elective office.

Redistricting of the 5th District in 2011 added several heavily Democratic communities, including Hackensack.

Seventy percent of the voters in the district live in Bergen County. 

The boomerang-shaped district stretches from the Delaware to the Hudson rivers.

Stomach turning

Flies not only stand on poop, they eat it, so word that Staff Writer Elisa Ung "repeatedly waved away flies in the dining room" of S. Egidio in Ridgewood is an instant turnoff (BL-16).

Only an overweight restaurant reviewer who tops off full meals with a Nutella-stuffed calzone and cheesecake could love this Neapolitan pizzeria, on which she bestows 2.5 stars.

Restaurant names continue to puzzle me. 

This joint is named after saint I never heard of. What about the Indian restaurant called Dhoom?

Are Trenton reporter, columnist covering same event?

The NJ Transit transfer station in Secaucus is a pleasant place to wait for a train, but it loses points for not having one of those grand railroad clocks. Instead, small, hard-to-read digital time displays appear in the corners of four boards displaying train schedules and tracks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Readers who plowed through two versions of Governor Christie's first town meeting in a while may have thought they were at two different events.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and Columnist Charles Stile of The Record were assigned to "a town-hall-style" meeting in Middletown, where Christie was blasted by residents who have so far been screwed out of Superstorm Sandy aid.

Sloppy editing

But Friday's news story and column clashed on important details and left out the best Christie quote -- on his seemingly slow weight loss since lap-band surgery a year ago (A-1 and A-6). 

Hayes' news stories on Christie read like columns -- where a reporter is encouraged to express a point of view -- and she has shown herself to be an unabashed admirer of the GOP bully.

Her Page 1 story on Friday begins like a column, and in the third paragraph, she asserts Christie was welcomed in Middletown "with a standing ovation and applause."

Stile, the columnist, sounds more like a reporter writing a news story, always careful to put criticism of Christie in someone else's mouth, beginning his report this way:

"Recast by scandal as a bully whose aides closed off part of the George Washington Bridge as a political revenge plot...." 

Recast by scandal, not by Stile (Friday's A-6).

Hearing problems

But later Stile completely contradicts fellow staffer Hayes, reporting:

"Christie was given a warm applause, but not the rousing ovations he normally receives."

"A warm applause"???

Earlier, Stile said, "The crowd lustily applauded" a Sea Bright man who confronted Christie about his use of private contractors to handle storm recovery, "not Christie."

Do we attribute this factual contradiction to The Record's famously inept editing -- on the assignment, news and copy desks?

If you are going to assign a reporter and columnist to the same event, make sure the same set of editors go over the results, if for no other reason than to get the two staffers to at least agree on basic facts.

Assignment problem?

And maybe Editor Marty Gottlieb should rethink his practice of sending columnists to cover news stories and spin endless pieces on Christie's image, presidential potential and politics, while ignoring the impact of his policies on state residents.

The GOP governor's corrosive politics reach into high places, including the Port Authority and NJ Transit, and hurt residents in myriad ways; Christie's politics shouldn't intrude into the Woodland Park newsroom.

And what's the explanation for Friday's news story and column omitting Christie's answer to why he doesn't seem to be losing that much weight:

"Rome wasn't unbuilt in a day," the governor answered, according to HBO satirist Bill Maher.

Christie comparing himself to Rome? That's rich.

Silver Spoon factor

You know multimillionaire Publisher Stephen A. Borg is running things on the Editorial  Page when the paper reacts to the state's record $40 billion debt by calling on legislators and Christie "to put away the credit card."

There is no mention in Friday's editorial on A-18 about a tax surcharge on millionaires -- which Christie has vetoed time and again -- or raising the state's low gasoline tax to pay for road repairs and mass transit.

The editorial notes Christie has borrowed "about $875 million" for transportation projects.

More snow jobs

A letter to the editor Friday praised Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin for operating a plow and clearing a resident's driveway after last week's nor'easter.

Residents of Hackensack and many other North Jersey communities could have used the help of their mayors, but instead were left at the mercy of incompetent Departments of Public Works.

The editors, who have short attention spans, quickly ended their focus on uncleared sidewalks, crosswalks, bus stops, streets and highways -- which endanger drivers and pedestrians.

Today's paper carries a Page 1 story on uncleared fire hydrants.

Today's front page also is dominated by Ukrainians in North Jersey (A-1) -- hardly a local story, when compared to residents who pay high property taxes and get such shoddy service from their so-called public servants during snowstorms.

Wrong editor

On Friday's A-2, the correction of a wrong phone number published in the paper shows six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton has failed to drill a basic lesson into her copy editors:

If a story includes a phone number -- such as the Wednesday's elaborate Better Living piece on the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Bergen Community College -- the copy editor should call the number to make sure it is correct.

When I worked as a copy editor at The Record, I caught a wrong phone number in a restaurant review filed by a freelancer, and she was fired by the food editor.

Given the hundreds of errors that have appeared in The Record under Houlton's watch -- including in the famously flawed Road Warrior column -- she should be the one fired now.

Unappetizing

Dhoom in Secaucus, an Indian restaurant on that speedway called Route 3, is, well, doomed to failure.

I continue to wonder how Staff Writer Elisa Ung can give a "good" rating to a kitchen that prepared a $36 order of tandoori lamb chops and served them "mushy" and "almost unrecognizable as meat," or a $36 lobster dish that "emerged tough and stringy" (Friday's BL-14).

She also accomplishes nothing by telling readers the lamb chops are from Colorado, when she should be saying whether they were naturally raised.

And you'll forgive me for noting that photos of two dishes she liked, cooked spinach with cheese and lentil stew, look more like something you'd encounter in a public toilet, not at a pricey restaurant.

Will we get rid of Governor Christie sooner or later?

Except for a long article on how NJ Transit track assignments are made at Amtrak's Penn Station in Manhattan, above, The Record's transportation reporters apparently have never set foot on a train or bus during the rush-hour and reported on the quality of service, in contrast to the endless drivel and clueless advice for drivers from the paper's so-called Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski, also known as The Addled Commuter for all of the errors he makes.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record's front page today keeps up the drumbeat for Governor Christie as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016, leading many New Jersey residents to speculate on just when they will get rid of him.

The Woodland Park daily insists on calling the GOP bully's victory over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono a "landslide" (A-1), though fewer than four of every 10 registered voters actually cast ballots, according to APP.com.

It may be more accurate to say "partial landslide" or "rock slide."

The Asbury Park Press Web site reports "turnout was expected to be well below 40 percent."

Mall cops

There isn't much else on Page 1 today except for the reopening of Garden State Plaza after an armed Teaneck man committed suicide there, and another silly column from Tara Sullivan, the Woodland Park daily's Vagina Monologue.

The big A-1 photo of two Paramus cops patrolling Garden State Plaza is an unintentional sight gag.

Are shoppers at the state's biggest mall supposed to feel safer with two police officers walking the beat? 

The officer with his hands in his pockets looks especially benign. Where are the automatic weapons and body armor?

Three embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Hackensack news

The Hackensack City Council and Board of Education continue their negotiations and war of words over a resource officer at the high school (L-3).

Council members have frozen out Richard Salkin, the board's attorney. The Record's story today incorrectly identifies Salkin as "city attorney."

Salkin also was the city's municipal prosecutor until a council reform slate booted him out of the job this year.

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza needed another gee-whiz photo of an overturned car to pad today's local news report (L-3).

Spice route

Better Living brings us just what we need -- an Indian restaurant in Secaucus that has imported Manhattan's sky high prices (BL-1 and BL-3).

Not only that, but you have to drive on Route 3, competing for space with maniacal speeders and tailgaters.

There is no pronunciation guide for the restaurant's name, Dhoom, but I'm guessing this place is doomed.

Second look

On Wednesday's Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski reported on an accident four years ago in which a speeding driver nearly killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

The pickup truck driver was caught, thanks to a red-light camera, which Cichowski has repeatedly demonized in previous columns.

His Sunday column on a driver who complained of high towing charges failed to note the poor schmuck could have avoided the alleged ripoff by having his car jump-started at a nearby service area gas station.

The column, which broke a two-week silence, was filled with errors, says the concerned reader who set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Wednesday's column also misleads readers about pedestrian safety, which is improving in New Jersey.