Editors testing readers' patience for unlimited holiday cheer

"Refugees" is from cartoonist John Cole. The Record and many other news outlets continue to ignore the carnage of the Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011; the role of Russia in keeping the regime in power and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Donald J. Trump win the U.S. presidential election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We have much to celebrate during Christmas and Hanukkah, but the holidays aren't easing our nationwide anxiety with a Trump presidency just 26 days away.

Meanwhile, the Sunday edition of The Record is laying on the holiday cheer with upbeat columns and stories on nearly every section front, even though many of them are flawed.

For example, on Page 1, the enormous amount of space devoted to Nora Renzulli, a Wayne woman who volunteers to serve meals at Eva's Village in Paterson, ignores thousands of others who are just as dedicated (1A).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski so-called Wish List for Santa is so heavily focused on drivers that he becomes a Road Scrooge for the tens of thousands who commute by train or bus (1L).

His lone reference to the midtown Manhattan Port Authority Bus Terminal as "a sardine-can relic" is inaccurate.

Nor does he know enough to call for more exclusive bus lanes to the Lincoln Tunnel as a way of providing immediate relief until a new terminal is built.

2016 election

An Associated Press story reports that polling after the November election found that "nearly two-thirds of voters described the [strong] economy as 'not so good' or 'poor' (16A).

But the AP ignores whether racism and misogyny were among the real reasons they voted for Trump.

On the Opinion front, a long piece by Merrill Brown, director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, argues a Trump administration will test news organizations as never before (1O).

However, Brown doesn't discuss how the news media's intense focus on state and national politics -- as opposed to policies, issues and what's good for the state or country -- is the biggest possible disservice to voters.  

Favoring polluters, bi-state transit war, 'unique' restaurant

This New York Times image from 2007 shows Paul Eugene VanDunk with granddaughter Alexis Dennison holding a photo of her mother, a cancer victim. VanDunk and other residents of Upper Ringwood blame many cases of sickness and death on toxic paint sludge and other waste dumped in their neighborhood by Ford Motor Co., which operated an assembly plant in nearby Mahwah until the late 1970s.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today is promoting a controversial plan to pave over toxic soil in several North Jersey towns that would save Ford, DuPont and other wealthy corporate polluters tens of millions of dollars.

Assurances that capping 166,000 tons of paint sludge is safe are falling on the deaf ears of Upper Ringwood residents a few months before a referendum that would force Ford Motor Co. and borough officials to remove the pollutants (A-1).

The Environmental Protection Agency would allow the waste to stay in the ground even though North Jersey's drinking-water reservoirs are nearby.

What remains unclear is what motivates Editor Deirdre Sykes and Staff Writer Scott Fallon to turn their backs on long-suffering residents, and to forcefully promote an unpopular solution to decades of corporate pollution.

With capping, Ford and the borough of Ringwood's insurers would see their cleanup costs drop to $5.4 million from $32.6 million (A-8).

At a Superfund site in Edgewater, Honeywell and other wealthy companies held responsible for the pollution would pay only $72 million, compared to $205 million for excavation.

Drop in enforcement

One story you've never seen in The Record is a dramatic decline in the enforcement of speeding laws on state highways -- even as the Road Warrior columnist obsesses over lines at the Motor Vehicle Commission and traffic jams at MetLife Stadium (L-1).

Today's front-page story should have reported Christopher Boes, 20, of West Milford might be alive, if Butler police did a better job of patrolling Route 23 and stopped such racers as the friend driving the car in which he was a passenger (A-1).

Bi-state transit war

Check out the hysteria over the war between New Jersey and New York on replacing the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan (L-1).

The two states have been arguing for decades over which one gets the most from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Originally, the agency was called the Port of New York Authority.

We're probably going to see many more stories on where a new Manhattan bus terminal should be located.

But The Record won't be asking the bi-state agency why it doesn't expand bus service by adding one or two more exclusive bus lanes into the Lincoln Tunnel.

'Unique' BYO

Staff Writer Elisa Ung is so excited about Turtle + The Wolf in Montclair, she calls the New American BYO "unique," and rates it as Excellent to Outstanding (a half-star shy of the top rating of 4 stars).

And although she praises the "quality" of the food, only the brisket she sampled was naturally raised at Painted Hills Farm in Oregon (BL-14).

So, are readers to assume the $72-a-person roasted pig and the $45-a-person fried chicken dinners are conventionally raised with harmful antibiotics?

The money you save on wine will be blown on tolls and gasoline to get there and back. And does the place serve any seafood except octopus?

Misspells name

She might have been able to provide more details on the food, if she didn't feel compelled to report details of the chef-owner's resume and identify his business partner, whose last name she misspells.

Ung calls him "Matt Greneven," but today's correction says he is "Matt Trevenen."

That's not even close. 

Maybe she drank too much of the wine she brought or was overly giddy about eating hundreds of dollars of food -- plus dessert -- paid for by Gannett, The Record's owner.

Corrections usually run on A-2 the day after the error is made, but today's notes the review "was produced in advance."

Turns out the rave review appeared online on Thursday, almost a full day before the print edition.

PA big again dupes reporter on new Manhattan bus hub

At mid-afternoon on Tuesday, an NJ Transit 165 local bus to Hackensack flew through the Lincoln Tunnel. The round-trip senior fare is only $4.10.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's transportation reporter is proving to be as gullible as his predecessors on Lincoln Tunnel congestion and plans for a new bus terminal in Manhattan.

Today, Port Authority Vice Chairman Scott Rechler duped Staff Writer Paul Berger into writing an elaborate Page 1 argument for a new bus hub in New Jersey (A-1).

That would mean commuters from Ridgewood, Hackensack and other towns would have to transfer to a city-bound train, which won't be built for a decade or more.

What incredible nonsense. 

Of course, the Lincoln Tunnel is congested -- the Port Authority operates an exclusive bus lane only in the morning, and buses parked in New Jersey during the day have to fight rush-hour traffic to pick up commuters at the antiquated midtown Manhattan terminal.

Rechler and everyone else at the Port Authority fear the easiest and quickest solution to that congestion -- more exclusive bus lanes operated weekday mornings and afternoons.

They would be a victory for bus riders, but anger thousands of drivers whose toll money keeps the bi-state agency afloat.

On Wednesday, Hackensack senior citizens gathered for a St. Patrick Day's Luncheon of corned beef and cabbage at the city recreation center on Holt Street.

The buffet luncheon included entertainment.

Mayor John P. Labrosse Jr., second from left, and other City Council members posed for a photo.

Tax-exempt hospitals

Residents of Hackensack, Englewood and other towns with non-profit, tax-exempt hospitals are chagrined Governor Christie is seeking a moratorium on lawsuits that seek more money from them (A-1).

In Hackensack, officials settled tax appeals by agreeing Hackensack University Medical Center will pay the city $4.5 million over three years.

If medical center property was taxed fully, Hackensack would receive more than $10 million a year in new revenue, stabilizing or reducing taxes paid by homeowners and commercial property owners.

Local news?

A long story on Teaneck approving a preliminary school budget on Wednesday has Hackensack readers wondering why they haven't seen anything in The Record on their school budget plan, which was approved on March 1 (L-3).

If you're watching your cholesterol, be sure to steer clear of Axton's by Chef Anton Testino in far-off Pompton Lakes (Better Living).

The "huge" scallops come with bacon, pasta with crab meat is topped with pork, and cheese flows like lava out of the open kitchen (BL-16).

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung doesn't say whether Chef Anton Testino will broil fish for a customer or hold the meat in his other dishes.

And despite her lukewarm, 2-star revue, she raves over the "luscious cannoli cream" in a totally superfluous dessert.

Editors still ignore need for more bus lanes to Manhattan

At the midtown Manhattan bus terminal, The Port Authority provides several large touch screens that make easy work of finding the departure platform for your North Jersey-bound bus, above. But once you get there, you might find a long line of fellow commuters and too few seats, photos below, as I did in late January.

Today, The Record runs a so-called analysis on Page 1 that brings expanded bus service between northern New Jersey and Manhattan no closer to reality, just like the last long story on proposals for a new terminal. 

In mid-afternoon, there were more than 50 commuters on this line to Door 1, where I boarded the No. 165 bus to Hackensack and Westwood, and others boarded the No. 166 to Englewood and Cresskill.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

During the morning rush hour, it's standing room only on NJ Transit buses carrying North Jersey commuters to their jobs in Manhattan, and in the evening, riders face delays as buses bog down in traffic jams around the midtown terminal.

Yet, long-suffering commuters know the solution would require no great expenditure of money, and could be implemented in a matter of days -- instead of the 10-year, $10 billion plan for a new terminal:

Two express bus lanes to and from the Lincoln Tunnel -- operated weekdays during both the morning and evening rush hours -- would provide more seats, and speed buses back to the terminal from parking lots in New Jersey.

The single exclusive bus lane, which operates only from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., was opened more than 45 years ago.

Us v. them

Today, The Record's car-loving editors run another long, so-called analysis on the split among Port Authority officials on whether a new bus terminal should be built in New York or New Jersey (A-1).

This story, like the last one The Record ran on a new bus terminal, doesn't advance the debate or the cause of bus riders.

Staff Writer Paul Berger, who is assigned to cover the behemoth bi-state transportation agency, likely has never ridden an NJ Transit bus to or from the city.

If he did, he could tell his office-bound editors about the promise of adding express bus lanes.

Of course, they would be opposed by the Port Authority, because new bus lanes would anger and displace toll-paying drivers, cutting the revenue the agency depends on to cover cost overruns in such projects as the new World Trade Center.

Sloppy editing

The lead paragraph refers to the Manhattan bus terminal as "depressing and overcapacity," but shouldn't "overcapacity" be written as two words, "over capacity"?

And "depressing" might be the wrong word for a terminal where bathrooms have been or are being completely renovated, touch terminals help you find your platform quickly and new concessions are being added.

On the continuation page today, a photo shows lines of commuters at Coach USA gates, not the NJ Transit gates that are used by the vast majority of readers (A-5).

Ford contamination

Today's lead front-page story on a Superfund site in Ringwood is further testament to the abject failure of Ford Motor Co., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the media, especially The Record, to protect the lives of a mixed-race people (A-1).

Ford dumped paint sludge and other industrial waste into Upper Ringwood mines for about four years, beginning in 1967, near a reservoir that provides drinking water for millions of people, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports (A-5).

That's nearly 50 years ago, and now, the EPA has ordered Ford to conduct more tests on whether the reservoir, and nearby creeks and ponds, have been contaminated with high levels of benzene, arsenic and heavy metals.

The Weeknd

On TV, I watched a singer who calls himself The Weeknd (without an "e"), and looks like he is wearing a black wolf pelt on his head.

So, I am glad to see The Record's front page focus on singer Tony Bennett and jazz pianist Bill Charlap as Grammy winners on Monday night (A-1).

Local news?

There has been so little Hackensack news in The Record in recent weeks the chairman of a business group in the city had to write a letter to the editor on a big development (A-6).

Hackensack, which already has two train stations and a bus terminal, has been designated a Transit Village by the state, and that brings "high priority for state funding of transportation and planning initiatives."

The Local section delivered to Hackensack and other parts of Bergen County today continues to overemphasize news from Paterson (L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Inexplicably, the lead story on the Local front today is about a rabbi in Franklin Lakes who recited the Gettysburg Address in Hebrew (L-1).

Monday's paper

An editorial on Monday threw cold water on Republicans who want to delay the nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace the late (though not lamented) Antonin Scalia.

But The Record should have gone further and suggested none of the GOP clowns left in the campaign have a ghost of a chance of beating the Democratic nominee in November.

As usual, there was little Hackensack news in Monday's paper, but an inspirational front-page obituary on a woman who lived in the city helped readers overlook that.

Staff Writer Jay Levin called Rosemarie Kasper, who was under 4 feet tall, "an indefatigable advocate on behalf of the physically challenged" (Monday's A-1).

On Monday's L-2, a story reported traffic across the Anderson Street Bridge between Hackensack and Teaneck will be "restricted" from today through June 28.

So does that mean the work will close the single lane?

The story didn't say.

On Page 1, editors make big deal out of small transit story

In downtown Englewood, this North Dean Street storefront has been vacant forever, perhaps a testament to the exorbitant rent demanded by the landlord.

Syros Taverna on Palisade Avenue in Englewood was virtually empty on Thursday around 6 p.m., as were many other nearby restaurant.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record has had a long line of reporters too lazy to ride NJ Transit buses and trains, and report on the quality of service, as did top journalists who wrote subway columns for the New York City papers.

That may be why the Woodland Park daily ignored for months, if not years, long delays faced by North Jersey commuters who board buses for home at the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

And that's why The Record hasn't reported commuters from Bergen and Passaic counties often can't find seats on buses and trains during the morning rush.

Off the rails

Now, Christopher Maag, the latest in a long line of mediocre transportation reporters, goes on and on today about a decidedly minor transit story, the AirTrain at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The big-black headline is so wrong it's criminal:

AirTrain's demise

comes as no surprise

Few readers will plow through this history lesson to find out the AirTrain's "demise" or death isn't coming until at least 2022 (A-6).

The Port Authority may have squandered millions or billions of dollars on the monorail, but this bi-state agency isn't, after all, supported by taxes.

Patronage mill

What can you expect from an agency famous for cost overruns, one that is little more than a patronage mill for the governors of New York and New Jersey?

That's why Governor Christie apparently was able to get his cronies to shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge, using the span to retaliate against Democrats who refused to endorse him for reelection.

Maag and the editors who give him his marching orders continue to ignore the biggest transportation stories of all:

The fallout from Christie's 2010 decision to pull the plug on Hudson River rail tunnels, and his refusal to back a higher gasoline tax to fund road and bridge repairs, and transit improvements.

Muslims, Syrians

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is so eager to breath life into Christie's dying campaign for the White House he completely forgets to mention the GOP bully wanted to bar all Syrians, even orphans, from entering New Jersey (A-9).

And he made that statement long before Donald Trump said he would bar all Muslims from entering the United States.

Local news?

Today's Local section carries two stories about Teaneck (L-1), and one on Englewood (L-3), but nothing from Hackensack, biggest of the three.

Staff Writer Stephanie Noda's piece on cleanup of the old police pistol range doesn't mention how the noise of early morning gunfire awakened hundreds of Englewood residents for years, especially those who worked at night in hospitals or on the copy desk of The Record.  

Hackensack is paying new attorney as much as Christie

During a spirited discussion of tax breaks for downtown apartment developers on Monday night, Hackensack Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin was uncharacteristically deferential when he addressed City Council members; City Manager David R. Troast, left front; and Alexander H. Carver III, right front, the new city attorney, a job Salkin once held.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Alexander H. Carver III, who is Hackensack's new city attorney, is being paid a flat rate of $175,000 a year -- or $10,000 more than his salary when he left the Superior Court bench in 2013.

He also is making as much as Governor Christie, who picked the last Hackensack city attorney, Thomas Scrivo, to be his chief counsel in Trenton.

In addition to the maximum of $175,000 a year, Carver and his firm, Harwood Lloyd, will be paid legal fees associated with litigation, according to The Record.

Three-quarters of The Record's story today is filled with Carver's exploits as a Superior Court judge "who pulled no punches," but doesn't mention the city will pay him and his firm at a rate of $150 an hour (L-1).

When Scrivo was city attorney in 2014, Hackensack removed two city managers and a public relations consultant, running up legal bills topping $200,000 in six months.

During the Zisa years, Hackensack routinely paid its city attorney more than $250,000 a year, one official said.

COW

Do you hear mooing?

Most of the discussion and debate on the appointment of Carver, as well as tax abatements for downtown apartment developers, occurred on Monday during the Committee of the Whole meeting, which started at 6:30 p.m.

When City Council members convened for the regular meeting at 8 p.m., they ran through more than two dozen resolutions read off in rapid-fire fashion by the city clerk before they were open to public discussion and then a council vote.

Members of the public, such as City Council candidate Richard Cerbo, were limited to 5 minutes each, but could have spoken longer at the COW session.

City tax breaks

On Monday, the Hackensack City Council approved the introduction of two resolutions designating the redevelopers of 150-170 Main St. and 210 Main St.

Other resolutions were introduced to grant the apartment and retail developers tax abatements of 30 years and 25 years, respectively.

Cerbo, son of a former mayor, addressed the council, saying "10 years [of tax breaks] is plenty."

But Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said the apartment and retail projects would never get built without the longer abatements, also referred to as payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT).

Canestrino noted the land and buildings at 150-170 Main St. are paying tax revenue of $228,277 a year, compared to the first-year payment of $802,605 after the project is completed.

Meanwhile, the city's annual street festival is set for Saturday from 10 a.m. t0 6 p.m., rain or shine.

Among the entertainment is Village People. 

Today's paper

Nearly six years after he took office, Christie says he is open to raising the gas tax and creating a stable source of funding for the Transportation Trust Fund (A-1).

His refusal to raise the second-lowest gas tax in the nation helped drivers, even though logically they should pay for repairing the roads and bridges they use.

But the GOP dictator moved decidedly against mass-transit users by killing the Hudson River rail tunnels, and stood by when the Port Authority refused to expand bus operations into Manhattan.

He also cut state subsidies to NJ Transit, forcing the agency to raise fares and cut service.

The Record's coverage of mass transit is so sophisticated a reporter today refers to NJ Transit's sleek, electrified light-rail system as "trolleys" (L-3).

And, like Christie, the Woodland Park daily has paid far more attention to drivers and driving, as evidenced by a dozen years of Road Warrior columns largely devoted to no other topics.

Hackensack Costco

The Record today is reporting Costco Wholesale is planning to convert its Hackensack warehouse to "a more specialized business center" after the store closes Oct. 13.

A bigger Costco is scheduled to open in Teterboro on Oct. 14.

In October 2014, the same reporter said the Hackensack Costco would be closing permanently, making the 14.8-acre parcel available for redevelopment.

So much for the reliability of The Record's business reporting.

Touting bacon, editors ignore abuse of pigs, health issues

The W-brand of uncured bacon sold at Trader Joe's in Paramus comes from pigs raised without antibiotics that have proven harmful to humans. Today, The Record urges readers to eat as much bacon as possible, even if it is pumped full of additives and preservatives.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're a big fan of the Mets or some of the unhealthiest food on the planet, you'll find a couple of alternatives to the 10th straight day of Pope Francis coverage on the front page of The Record.

Francis did accomplish a minor miracle:

Coverage of his Philadelphia appearances seems to have completely pushed mention of Governor Christie out of the paper today.

New bus depot

An editorial on A-12 today criticizes the Port Authority for delaying a decision on a new bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

The editors continue to ignore a short- and long-term solution to delays at the antiquated depot, as outlined by commuter Richard Scala of River Edge:

"Unless the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey commits to dedicating an entire Lincoln Tunnel tube (not lane) for buses and installs a westbound exclusive bus lane in the evening rush hour ... future generations will endure the same commuter woes as their parents and grandparents," Scala said in a letter to the editor (Saturday's A-13).

Bacon obsession

The mistreatment of pigs on factory farms is well-known, but freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River could care less.

Today, on the Better Living cover, she is back with more unhealthy recipes, this time for artery clogging bacon, one of the foods blamed for sudden heart attacks (BL-1 and BL-2).

"I'm glad bacon is getting so much love and attention," the clueless Jackson says of pork industry promotions, "but as far as I am concerned, every day is bacon day."

Click on the following link to see a shocking video from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

Bacon in 60 Seconds Flat

Pope's visit won't change poverty, immigration and politics

Construction workers adding hundreds of apartments overlooking traffic on Route 4 east in Englewood. Meanwhile, the city's downtown merchants haven't been helped much by the thousands of people who already live in buildings on both sides of the highway.

This storefront on North Dean Street, near Palisade Avenue, Englewood's main business street, has been vacant for months.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With Governor Christie running New Jersey and other uncharitable Republicans controlling Congress, Pope Francis' message of hope and unity will fall on deaf ears.

You have to wonder why The Record and other media have been publishing hundreds of thousands of words and images for a full week now on Francis' first visit to the United States (A-1, A-6, L-7).

A big break in that coverage is the death of Yogi Berra, but you won't find the best story about the Yankees legend on the front page or in the Sports section today (A-1 and S-1).

On Page 1, sports Columnist Bob Klapisch's first line is an instant turnoff:

"This was way back in the early 2000s...."

On the Sports front, Columnist Tara Sullivan can't wait to tell readers about "my few, if memorable, intersections with Yogi...."

For the most moving story about Yogi, see Jay Levin's piece on his Montclair neighbors, who recall Berra as a regular guy.

The story is on the front of the Local section under a great headline:

"His home field since 1958"

Other news

Also on Page 1 today, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg is telling NJ Transit bus riders a new Manhattan terminal one block west of the current hub will take 13 years to build and cost $9 billion (A-1).

But there's not a single word in his long account about the easiest way to ease delays at the antiquated terminal now -- running two express bus lanes into the Lincoln Tunnel during the morning and afternoon rush hours. 

In the years Boburg has been covering the Port Authority, he has written little about the bi-state agency's rail and bus operations. 

Ken Zisa

On the Local front, Staff Writer Todd South is reporting a judge is giving the lawyer for Ken Zisa and an assistant prosecutor four months to prepare for a motion to dismiss the remaining charge of official misconduct against the former Hackensack police chief and state assemblyman (L-1).

Four months?

Our glacial legal system is a national disgrace that seems designed to line the pockets of defense attorneys, impoverish defendants and deny many others access to the courts.

More clueless reporting and editing on local bias, buses

Paramus police have asked drivers on Route 4 east to try and avoid having a medical emergency until CITYMD opens a walk-in urgent care center next to a Popeyes fried-chicken restaurant, above and below. The sign went up weeks ago, before the building with Dos Cubanos, a shuttered Cuban restaurant, was renovated and repainted.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record finally is giving Calvin Spann, an African-American veteran who lived in Rutherford and Englewood, the recognition he deserves with a front-page story on his memorial service today.

You might remember the editors literally buried Spann's obituary deep in the Local section last Tuesday.

That's the same day Page 1 was dominated by the photo and story of a hospitalized white pilot who crashed his crippled small plane in a Cresskill field, and had been the subject of two previous stories.

Spann, 90, was one of "the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the black World War II pilots who broke through racism to fight combat missions and escort American bombers across Europe," Staff Writer Todd South reports in a stirring salute to a fellow veteran.

Bias against blacks

Spann and other Turkegee Airmen "helped inspire the effort to racially integrate the U.S. military and, early on, set in motion the pent-up forces that would lead to the civil rights movement," South continues.

But the reporter and his editors are silent on the discrimination Spann may have faced after the war when he began "a career in pharmaceutical sales" and settled in Englewood, where he lived until 2006 (A-1).

That's no surprise 

Assignment Editors Deirdre Dykes and Dan Sforza, familiar with Englewood from the years they worked as reporters there, have taken a vow of silence on discrimination in the small city -- in the heart of The Record's circulation area -- where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has lived for decades.

At one time, the only jobs blacks could aspire to were as chauffeurs and maids to the wealthy mansion dwellers on Englewood's East Hill.

In recent years, county and local officials have been working to integrate Dwight Morrow High School, but the lower grades remain 99% black and Hispanic.

The Record spends far more time reporting about the premier private school in Englewood, Dwight-Englewood, attended by three generations of the Borg family, which owns North Jersey Media Group and The Record.

Bias in layout?

Is it merely a coincidence that a large photo of Spann at a Tuskegee Airmen convention appears on the continuation page next to the photo of a black Rutgers football player who was suspended "after a Saturday night incident" (A-6)?

That reminds readers that for decades the only way blacks could get on the front page of The Record was to break the law or be mentioned in a column on Black History Week.

Forced busing

In an editorial called "Buses over PATH," Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin tries mightily to stop the $1.5 billion commuter rail extension to Newark Liberty International Airport (A-9).

But Doblin seems unaware that until the antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal is replaced, officials could easily solve massive rush-hour delays by adding another dedicated bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Now, a single, reverse lane operates in the morning, funneling buses against traffic on Route 495, but no such lane is set up in the afternoon, when hundreds of buses parked in New Jersey during the day have to return to pick up riders at the midtown terminal.

No to drivers

Operating two dedicated lanes into the tunnel both morning and afternoon would ease bus delays, but the Port Authority fears angering motorists, many of whom drive alone into the city on commutes subsidized by their employers.

What other choice would these morons have but to sit in even worse congestion than now, finally giving long-suffering bus riders some relief?

Are the drivers going to try using the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge to reach their free midtown parking garages?

Who cares? Let them take the ferry or swim.

Local news?

You know there isn't much local news today when Sykes and Sforza lead their section with yet another story on a proposed public parking garage in downtown Ridgewood (L-1).

Staff Writer Chris Harris has probably written more stories about this single project than The Record has about a new bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

Another lame story from editors who ditched Hackensack

The Record's front-page story on the redevelopment of Hackensack doesn't discuss inadequate indoor parking in the 222-unit Meridia Metro apartment building under construction on State Street, and whether this empty lot across the street could be turned into additional parking spaces.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I doubt "the face of the new Hackensack" is an apartment building under construction on State Street, although that's what The Record's front page claims today.

But you could find the new Hackensack a couple of blocks away at the recently completed Atlantic Street Park or in Art of Spice, one of the downtown restaurants that opened in the past few months.

Today's story is about a debate over how to market a redeveloping Hackensack (A-1), but there is so much missing from this account it is hardly worthy of Page 1.

Will it work?

And the biggest question of all isn't even asked: 

Will apartment development in downtown Hackensack revive Main Street, once the shopping and entertainment hub of Bergen County?

In Englewood, which has seen intensive apartment development on its main street, Palisade Avenue, as well as along Route 4, empty storefronts are commonplace, and restaurants come and go.

The story incorrectly calls the Meridia Metro building shown on A-1 and A-8 (five floors of apartments over a parking garage) a "residential tower." 

And it doesn't mention the appeal of its location for people who work in New York -- across the street from an NJ Transit express-bus stop and not far from the Essex Street rail station.

'The Sack'

If you want a good laugh, take a look at marketing themes proposed by two professional firms, Axiom of Secaucus, and Words and Pictures of Park Ridge:

"Hackensack: Bergen County's Main Street."

"The Sack: Not Your Mother's Main Street."

"The Sack"? LOL. 

As a taxpayer, I hope the city doesn't turn out to be a "Sack of Woe."

How about sacking that firm, which isn't identified? 

Left Hackensack

This superficial story comes from the same editors who abandoned Hackensack in 2009 on orders from Publisher Stephen A. Borg.

He closed the River Street headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily paper.

A year before, Borg's newsroom downsizing set off a precipitous slide in accuracy and the quality of local reporting that continues today.

On the the land across the street from the Meridia Metro project, passers-by can see what looks like jet skis on a trailer, above; and shuttered businesses, below.

Does the landlord own the expensive Porsche parked behind this building?

Two sides of Christie

The Record's reporters continue to cover Governor Christie's fading campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, months after the paper's editorial writers started to criticize him in harsh terms.

Today, an editorial says replacement of the antiquated Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan is more important than a new La Guardia Airport (A-16).

"As for Christie, he is more concerned about a few hundred thousand Republican voters in the early presidential primaries and caucuses than he is about the millions of passengers who use the Port Authority Bus Terminal annually.

"A midtown bus terminal is not a Christie priority. Perhaps if the Port Authority were to build it in Iowa, he would come."

Local news?

In Local, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza relied on nearly two pages of police news and a long Dean's List to fill the municipal-news holes in their thin section (L-2, L-3 and L-6).