Editors rediscover North Jersey's remarkable diversity

This 222-unit apartment building on State Street, a few blocks from Hackensack City Hall, is scheduled to open this year, becoming the first to test officials' belief that such residential development will revive Main Street businesses.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb, Columnist Mike Kelly and others at The Record continue to try readers' patience with their repeated attempts to make something out of nothing. 

On Page 1 today, behold the second part of "AFTER THE FIRE," a series in search of a coherent theme.

Today, The Record celebrates "a remarkable diversity of people at the Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex" (A-1).

And, below that story, you'd think Kelly was writing about the Colosseum in Rome when he declares "an era had passed" with the closing of the Izod Center (A-1).

The wonder isn't that the burned-out word pusher had nothing else to write about, but that Gottlieb continues to give this kind of drivel front-page play.

From dream to nightmare

Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese studied at the American University in Dubai and played pro soccer in Afghanistan.

So, I guess it's appropriate he was chosen to tell the story of the many educated immigrants displaced by the Jan. 21 fire at the Avalon apartment complex in Edgewater that exposed the danger of cheap, all-wood construction in a so-called luxury building.

But you wouldn't know that from his first half-dozen paragraphs -- yet another retelling of the American dream playing out in North Jersey, a really old story not worthy of all this flag waving (A-1).

The headline calls the Avalon tenants "a complex community," but that is certainly the wrong word. 

The text declares "its tenants hailed from nearly every corner of the globe," but names only four of them, including California.

What escapes Pugliese and whoever edited his overlong story into a parody of immigration to America is that tenants like those at the Avalon aren't invested in their community and few of them vote in local elections.

So, I'm glad none of them died, but really, the story of the Avalon inferno is how it exposed the inadequacy of state fire codes to protect apartment tenants from a fast-spreading, potentially deadly fire.

More road kill

Citing numerous mathematical errors in the March 15 Road Warrior column, the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers has a suggestion for the editors of The Record.

Buy Staff Writer John Cichowski a calculator.

And in his March 10 column, Cichowski more than tripled the number of potholes state officials said they were going to repair, according to the Bloopers editor:

"Road Warrior is once again frequently delusional, incompetent or memory impaired while continuing his misinformed and clueless trek for worst potholes.

"Road Warrior indicated that the New Jersey Department of Transportation will have filled 1 million potholes after completing their repair work from this winter based on what he heard at a DOT press conference.

"Yet, every other news report from that press conference indicated that the DOT commissioner had stated that the DOT will have filled 300,000 potholes after completing their repair work.

"While reporting about the number of potholes on Route 4, he indicated that this highway was also 'newly paved.'

"Route 4 has not been newly paved and readers are constantly complaining to the Road Warrior, who publishes their complaints, asking him when the pothole plagued Route 4 will be repaved."

Editors help do-nothing Republicans fortify partisan divide

Cyclone fences have become signs of renewal in downtown Hackensack. A residential high-rise with 382 apartments and retail on the ground floor is slated to replace buildings at 150-170 Main St., above. 

What is being called the Atlantic Street Open Air Venue will replace metered parking lots, above, and include 45 angled and on-street parking spaces, an outdoor stage, seating and landscaping.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'd think the minor media flap over Hillary Clinton's private email account would have died already, given the sorry group of Republican alternatives in the 2016 presidential race.

But The Record's all-seeing and all-knowing editor, Martin Gottlieb, put it on the front page today, fortifying the partisan divide that threatens to bring the country to a standstill (A-1).

There is something else remarkable about A-1 today: 

A Record reporter actually interviewed people who might be affected by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on federal health-care subsidies, and Gottlieb ran the story across the top of Page 1.

But when it comes to Governor Christie, The Record feels more comfortable interviewing so-called experts, pollsters and spin doctors, and using its editorial staff to polish his image.

That's why the front-page story on the Izod Center and interviews with fans of Maroon 5 seems like such a misplaced effort today (A-1).

Dining-out quiz

Better Living today offers guidance to 12 year olds and anyone else who has never ordered food in a restaurant (BL-1).

The story by Staff Writer Steve Janoski answers such compelling questions as, "Should I order the special?"

I'm not sure if it's the time change or today's paper that has me feeling drowsy.

Second look

The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers says that if legislators tried to use revenue from roof-snow fines for "pet projects," as Staff Writer John Cichowski urged in his Sunday column, they would be breaking the law. 

See the full entry:

Road Warrior errors continue to pile up

Train station opus raises more questions than it answers

New Jersey-bound commuters in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in Manhattan. The Record's Sunday story on a new train station seemed to have a big hole in it -- about the size of two more Hudson River rail tunnels.

When an NJ Transit train is assigned a track in the Amtrak-owned station 10 minutes before its scheduled departure, commuters scramble to get a seat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Thousands upon thousands of words on the potential expense of Amtrak buying land for a new midtown Manhattan rail station ran under a big, black headline on Sunday:

The $1B question

But the story on new trans-Hudson rail tunnels for New Jersey commuters by transportation reporter Christopher Maag of The Record raised its own $2 billion question.

Why is there no mention of the Moynihan Station Project, billed as the new Manhattan home for Amtrak and now under construction across the street from Penn Station in Manhattan? 

According to the Moynihan Station Development Corp. Web site:

"This project will create access to the Penn Station tracks and platforms through the James A. Farley Post Office Building for the first time.  The new entrances at the corners of 8^thAvenue and 31^st and 33^rd Streets will provide commuters with access to an expanded and ADA-compliant concourse underneath the Farley Building that will serve tracks 5 – 21 and serve as the commuter concourse for Moynihan Station."

It's also difficult to find a point of view in Maag's story on whether new Hudson River rail tunnels and a new station are essential to help relieve increasing traffic congestion -- no matter what they cost.

In the past decade, The Record's editors and reporters also have ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit.

Consumer news?

If Maag's front-page opus on Sunday didn't put you to sleep, a story on the Business front should do the trick:

Retail's brave new world

Inside Business, there is not one but two stories on the Detroit Auto Show (B-2 and B-6).

Izod Center

If you missed two front-page stories on the Izod Center last week, take a look at Columnist Mike Kelly's rewrite on Sunday's Opinion front (O-1).

Is there anything new here? Fresh? No. 

That shit-eating grin in his thumbnail photo is the reporter's way of saying he's pulled another fast on his editors and readers.

Angelo's Ristorante

Sunday's The Corner Table column from Staff Writer Elisa Ung reports Angelo's Ristorante hasn't changed much in 60 years (BL-1).

Waiters still wear tuxedos, a classy touch, but the montage on the Better Living front has readers doing a double take at the photo of founder Angelo Piccirillo, especially around his shirt collar.

Juxtaposed with his white collar is a triangular piece of white tablecloth from the dining room photo. That's pretty weird -- and sloppy.

Today's paper

As property taxes have increased, The Record has ignored the stubborn lack of consolidation in the nearly 90 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties.

Any possible move toward greater efficiency gets the editors so exited they run the speculation on Page 1, as you can see in today's report on a third town joining the Becton Regional High School District.

Second look

Staff Writer John Cichowski clearly didn't spend his vacation trying to make his so-called commuting column more accurate, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Jan. 11 column, the Road Warrior awakened from his comatose state of not publishing for four weeks and reached new lows with an unsubstantiated exaggerated claim that current falling gas prices below $2 will kill 9,000 more people annually in the United States due to more driving based on lower gas prices.

"Road Warrior reported on this claim of a sociology professor from South Dakota based on a minor study, which was also not in any way representative of the entire U.S., as admitted by the professor, that was disputed by every demographer and traffic safety expert that the Road Warrior referenced.

"This Road Warrior column repeatedly gave 'false' credence and ended with this claptrap claim, even though the Road Warrior completely forgot that he was working on a column published two days later that showed NJ road fatalities for drivers and passengers reached new historical lows in 2014, even though gas prices have plummeted from near $4 per gallon in 2013 to around $2 per gallon. 

See: Road Warrior poses a danger to credibility

Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. 

You'll find more interesting reading in the flier from the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi (one of today's inserts).

A story on A-3 today reports overnight PATH service won't be cut, but The Record has ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit to ease increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Readers speak out

Two letters to the editor reacted negatively to Governor Christie's State of the State address (A-10).

But the only opinion piece on the speech is from Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who went on to work as the mouthpiece for two of Christie's Republican predecessors (A-11).

Clifford Hamblen, a retired Ridgefield Park police officer, objected to Christie calling pensions an entitlement or "something that is given to you, such as a welfare payment or a grant" (A-10).

Hamblen said he "earned" his pension over 30 years, and paid "a larger percentage of my salary into it over time."

An entitlement, he wrote, is Christie spending millions of taxpayer dollars to insulate himself from blame in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

Andrew Abraham of Teaneck calls Christie "an ambitious bully who cares only for himself and little for the people he is supposed to serve" (A-10).

Weak editorials

The Record's editorials, on the other hand, have been only mildly critical of Christie and have barely taken notice of what probably is his record number of vetoes since he took office five years ago, including killing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Could the Woodland Park daily's editorials be influenced by North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friendship with the governor's chief fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson?

A fund sponsored by Hanson's Hampshire Cos. just made a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Brain teasers

A follow-up to the minor accident involving Bergen County Executive James Tedesco leave at least one question unanswered (L-3).

Tedesco was driving a county owned vehicle and dropping off his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, at her car Tuesday evening when the official was involved in a 4-vehicle crash on Route 17 in Rochelle Park.

Why didn't DiIorgi meet Tedesco at the county offices in Hackensack, and car pool to Trenton from there?

On the same page today, readers must fill in the blanks left by a caption for a photo showing a six-car crash on Route 208 in Fair Lawn.

The local assignment editors have devised this method of brain teasing -- incomplete stories and photo captions -- to help readers avoid dementia.

Unfortunately, that hasn't worked with at least one staffer, Road Warrior John Cichowski.