LG deal in Englewood Cliffs exposes big flaw of home rule

On a busy street near Palisade Avenue in wealthy Englewood Cliffs, domestic workers have to walk on the pavement, close to speeding cars, because the borough never installed sidewalks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is Englewood Cliffs anything like Hackensack, once known derisively as "Zisaville" for the decades-long political dominance of a single family?

On the front page of The Record today, a photo shows Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi applauding a deal between LG Electronics and environmentalists (A-1).

But the upbeat coverage sounds more like public relations than objective reporting (A-1 and A-8).

And it doesn't explore the decades-long rule of the Parisi family in the Cliffs, just as The Record hasn't done any probing in Cliffside Park, dominated for more than 50 years by the Calabreses.

Home-rule communities like Englewood Cliffs resist consolidating services with neighboring towns, and are desperate for ratables to cover the resulting inefficiences.

Englewood Cliffs fought a "racially tinged legal battle" to remove its students from Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School that began in 1985 and dragged on for years, The Record has reported.

Then, in October 2014, the state decided to cut nearly $600,000 in aid for 33 students from the Cliffs who were attending Dwight Morrow's Academies, a magnet program.

Hungry for ratables

More tax revenue was likely the motive for the borough to throw out its 35-foot height restriction, and approve the Korean company's plan for a 143-foot-high building on 27 acres between Sylvan Avenue and the Hudson River.

Now, the height will be reduced to 69 feet or five stories, but that still will be the biggest building ever approved for the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge.

And in return for despoiling the majestic cliffs, Parisi and other borough officials will be celebrating an additional $2.5 million in property tax revenue every year.

Cliffs resident Donald Rizzo, who favored the higher LG headquarters, put it succinctly in a sidebar with a sub-headline reading, "Residents will benefit from revenue."

"A bigger building means more tax revenue. I'm all for it. I was never worried about the height of the building. I was worried about letting LG go" (A-8).

Maybe, the town can now afford to put in sidewalks on Summit Street to protect pedestrians and dog walkers.

In the county seat

In Hackensack, dozens of lawsuits filed against Ken Zisa, the former police chief and state assemblyman, cost the city so many millions to settle that one block of Euclid Avenue hasn't been paved for 30 years.

Prospect Avenue, lined with high-rises, and many other streets are in such poor condition one resident at Tuesday night's City Council meeting compared them to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land."

Hackensack's school board spends more money per pupil than Ridgewood's, yet feeds high school students food of such low quality that many race out to Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill and other lunch spots.

Hackensack's property tax payers are so shell shocked they even objected to the city spending public funds on a downtown park and arts space as part of the redevelopment of Main Street.

Hackensack news?

On the front of Local today, Teaneck residents find two stories on Monday night's Township Council meeting (L-1).

But there is nothing about Tuesday night's council meeting in Hackensack.

As Police Director Mike Mordaga and Capt. Timothy Lloyd listened, clergy from Mount Olive Baptist Church and other churches commented on the killing of two suspects by city police officers in recent weeks.

They urged Hackensack to find money to buy Tasers or non-fatal stun guns.

As a result of the shootings, five police officers are "on leave," city officials acknowledged, but they insisted the department is not "understaffed."

HUMC pact

A lawyer hired by the city reported a federal anti-kickback law prohibits Hackensack from continuing to ask Hackensack University Medical Center to provide ambulance services to residents for free up to $140,000 a year. 

Still, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin rose and rambled on about the lawsuit he has filed to enforce the original 2008 pact with HUMC that he negotiated for the city.

New Page 1 errors, bird shit and drug-filled ham

Hackensack residents awoke on Wednesday morning to find a crusty layer of snow covering their solar panels, above, and car windshields.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Page 1 is often considered the most important in a newspaper, but at The Record, you're as likely to find serious errors there as on any other page.

Today, a front-page photo caption contains a boneheaded mistake, and Mike Kelly's Page 1 column on the Boston Marathon bombing brings a dead cop back to life. (A-1 and A-7).

Wrecking a story

The A-1 photo caption claims "demolition began Tuesday on LG Electronics buildings in Englewood Cliffs" (A-1).

That's ridiculous. 

The demolition -- to make way for a new, taller headquarters on the east side of Sylvan Avenue, atop the Palisades -- was of vacant buildings "where LG plans to build its new North American headquarters," as the story on L-1 reports in the first paragraph.

The Record's reporters and editors have written so many stories about LG's controversial plan they don't even bother to say precisely where the new building will be located or what was there before, leading to the kind of serious error that appears on Page 1 today.

And, it appears, six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton no longer has her staff proof Page 1 before it goes to press or after the paper is printed.  

Readers' marathon

Readers can only hope Kelly stays in Boston after covering the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing (A-1).

Forget about his monotonous first paragraph, where he uses the verb "gaze" for perhaps the thousandth time.

On the continuation page, Kelly reports "relatives of the three spectators who perished ... and a police officer who was fatally shot later in a confrontation with the alleged bombers visited the finish line" (A-7).

Of course, the dead cop is still in his grave. 

But no one caught this mistake -- not the assignment editor who read it first or the news editor who made up the page or the copy editor who supposedly edited the story or the supervisor of the copy desk who supposedly went over his or her work, and approved it for publication.

Parking-lot news

What are two photos showing a man with homing pigeons, all from Stony Point, N.Y., doing on L-3 today, in the Local news section?

They happen to be in the parking lot of 1 Garret Mountain Plaza, and in the background, readers can see the nondescript office building the Woodland Park daily has called home since leaving Hackensack in 2009.

Gee whiz. I guess Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza didn't have any legitimate municipal news for his section today. 

Did that lazy editor send a photographer to the parking lot for a shitty "story" about flying birds?

Shameless plug

A day after Better Living editors debuted a "health page" with a strong focus on food, a story on Easter Brunch today recommends readers buy a smoked ham that is apparently filled with harmful preservatives and animal antibiotics (BL-1).

The piece, by a free-lancer, is a shameless plug for a single pork store in Fair Lawn, and doesn't mention readers can buy uncured, naturally raised hams at Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's and other stores that would be a lot better for them.

Do readers have all the time in the world?

A week after a fatal crash, The Record presents the full story.

The Sunday edition of The Record is perfect -- if you have nothing better to to do than read long, winding stories in excruciating detail.

It took the editors nearly a full week to determine the relationship of a passenger to the driver in a road-rage accident on the Garden State Parkway last Sunday.

And you'll need almost that much time to digest the front-page story, which goes on and on under the big, black headline: 

LIVES COLLIDE

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes or her deputy, Dan Sforza, assigned Staff Writer Shawn Boburg to churn out the pathos, forcing him to neglect his Port Authority beat.

At the bottom of Page 1, readers learn about a major rock slide on the Palisades that occurred on May 12 -- nearly 2 months ago -- then have to plow through a geology lesson.

The lead A-1 story on flood insurance affects about 800 homeowners. Now, that's relevant news for the hundreds of thousands of readers.

Go shopping

Publisher Stephen A. Borg and the Advertising Department thought so much of Editor Marty Gottlieb's front page, it wrapped a Can Can Sale ad from ShopRite around part of A-1.

How many readers threw the paper aside and raced to their nearest ShopRite to take advantage of the first day of the sale?

One man was heard shouting, "It's time to stock up on Adirondack Seltzer!"  

Road worrier

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to neglect his commuting column to bore readers with the hard-luck story of a 63-year-old Hackensack widow who never received her registration renewal in the mail (L-1).

OK. We're appalled. But what does this have to do with inadequate bus and train service, massive rush-hour traffic jams and exorbitant tolls? 

If you're looking for Hackensack news today, Cichowski's column is as close as you'll get.

Loving young people

Most of Sykes' Local front is dominated by another glowing story about a young person with autism. 

Where are the upbeat stories about old people who accomplish great things despite age and infirmity? Now, we read about them only after they die.

Another story on L-1 quotes Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen without noting he is the Democratic candidate in the 5th Congressional District race.

Hating old people

On Friday, the Road Warrior column revisited the issue of older drivers and blind spots -- again without mentioning many new cars come with blind-spot warning systems (L-1).

Cichowski seems to have contempt for older drivers, referring to "arthritic groaning and neck cracking,"  and suggesting a driver who can't glance out "the passenger side window from time to time" consider taking a cab or a bus.

When is the last time he did his job by riding a local bus and reporting on the quality of service?