Cops won't release fatality report without OPRA request

Hue Dang, 64, the woman killed crossing the street in Hackensack on March 9, lived alone in an apartment at 340 Hudson St., above and below, only a few blocks away from where she was fatally injured by an unmarked car. The driver, Detective Sgt. John Straniero of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, has not been charged in her death.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack police asked Eye on The Record to file an Open Public Records Act Request Form to obtain the report on the accident that took the life of Hue Dang, 64, who lived alone in a nearby apartment.

The woman was carrying plastic grocery bags and crossing the street at Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street about 4:45 p.m. March 9 when she was struck by an unmarked lawman's car.

Her blood stained the pavement near the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the car's right rear tire came to rest in the crosswalk.

Police said Bergen County prosecutor's Detective Sgt. John Straniero, 49, of Wayne was making a right turn onto Kennedy, which leads to the entrance ramp for Route 80 west, when his car struck the woman.

She died less than a hour later at Hackensack University Medical Center. 

Straniero hasn't been charged in her death.

No witnesses?

Hackensack police Capt. Nicole Foley was quoted by The Record last Wedneday as saying "it's unclear where Dang was standing," and that "there were no witnesses," even though Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street are usually full of rush-hour traffic at that time of the day.

The Record's story didn't mention the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the reporter apparently never asked Foley if the pedestrian was in it.

The Woodland Park daily hasn't done a follow.

Today's paper

One look at today's Page 1 headlines tells readers Editor Martin Gottlieb didn't bother finding any real news in North Jersey.

"Haggling ahead for a divided Isreal" bores even Jewish readers.

The photo on the re-opening of the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus is a non-event for the vast majority of humans in North Jersey.

"Tax breaks being tightened for farms" is another snoozer.

"New furor over tests" is of absolutely no interest to the baby boomers who make up the majority of the readership and whose children are in college or already working

Finally, who the hell is "Borland"?

College cops

The editors let slide hundreds of errors in Road Warrior columns, but take the trouble to correct a story on Monday's L-1 and give credit to Montclair State cops for the arrest of a "driver in the drill" held at the college (A-2).

PABT correction

Back-pedaling furiously, Staff Writer Christopher Maag now reports the Port Authority's chairman believes selling or leasing bi-state agency real estate could help finance a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal (A-3).

And Maag found a board member who said the $7.5 billion to $10.5 billion cost reported on Tuesday's Page 1 was exaggerated, and the actual cost of the building would be $4 billion.

Publisher backs use of accident photos to fill gaps in news

Pat Kinney, a freelancer who wrote the Neighbors from Japan column that appeared in The Record, is offering her services as an English teacher. This notice is on a bulletin board at Mitsuwa Marketplace, the Japanese supermarket and food court in Edgewater.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's lazy local-news editors continue to fill gaps in coverage with non-fatal accidents and other minor incidents on North Jersey's highways and byways.

Today, none other than Publisher Stephen A. Borg contributed a photo of a humdrum van fire on Route 80 east on Friday afternoon, and earned a credit line: "STEPHEN A. BORG/STAFF" (L-3).

Of course, the big news on Routes 80 east, 46 east and 4 east on Friday afternoon was massive traffic congestion approaching the George Washington Bridge, partly due to the lack of mass-transit alternatives.

In fact, the lead story in today's Local section reports Democratic lawmakers are urging the $1 billion extension of NJ Transit's electrified light-rail system to downtown Englewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center (L-1).

Federal officials quoted in the story estimate that every $1 billion spent on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs.

But non-polluting light rail also takes cars off the road, a benefit lost on Tenafly officials who opposed extending the service to their town.

The Record ran stories quoting borough officials who demonized light rail, and never published an editorial criticizing those officials for their opposition.

At least when it comes to mass transit, Borg, who lives in a Tenafly McMansion, is following in the footsteps of his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood, in not bothering to be a force for positive change in his community. 

Living v. dead

We get it. It's a miracle that two young women survived on Feb. 13, when their Toyota RAV4 left a Route 80 bridge over the Hackensack River and fell 60 feet, landing on a tree (A-1).

But why is their reunion with the firefighters who rescued them on the front page today? 

On Wednesday, a story reported that on Monday, a 64-year-old pedestrian was fatally injured by a car turning onto Kennedy Street in Hackensack, near Route 80, and except for her name and age, The Record didn't bother finding out anything about her.

Did Hue Dang live in the neighborhood? Was she a mother and grandmother? Was she treated like chopped liver because she was a senior?

Is her family planning to sue the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and John Straniero of Wayne, the detective sergeant behind the wheel of the unmarked Ford Crown Victoria that struck her?

Sewage v. taxes

Whose decision was it to run a story on higher sewer-connection fees for Hackensack developers on Thursday?

That was a day before belatedly informing residents a budget the City Council introduced on Tuesday night would hike property taxes by $115 for the average homeowner (Friday's L-2).

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.