What you see when you're not driving and stuck in traffic

Glistening in the afternoon sun, VIA is a new residential building at West 57th Street and West Street in Manhattan, as seen from aboard a Hackensack-bound NJ Transit bus on Boulevard East.

After the blizzard, uncleared snow had drivers improvising a new form of angle parking along Boulevard East.

Looking from West 42nd Street, there were plenty of seats available for a sun bath last week in this Times Square pedestrian plaza in Manhattan.

At the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, the first-floor bathrooms are being renovated, and commuters can look forward to the opening of a Jamba Juice, next to Starbucks, below.

These National Guard members were carrying only sidearms on Jan. 21.

Navigating Bergen County's antiquated street system, drivers spend precious minutes stuck behind other vehicles making turns, aggravating air pollution, because turn lanes are as few and far between as competent transportation reporters and columnists at The Record of Woodland Park.

This morning on Route 4 east, thousands of insane commuters ignored mass-transit alternatives and chose the crapshoot of driving into the city, usually alone. From 50 mph, 60 mph and 70 mph, traffic came screeching to a halt near Jones Road in Englewood -- my exit.

Worst U.S. president backs N.J.'s worst governor

A rainy day in Hackensack.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie continues to tell lies about his first term -- all of which are swallowed whole by The Record of Woodland Park -- so it's no surprise he sought the endorsement of former President George W. Bush.

W, you'll remember, told some whoppers of his own to get us into the ruinous war in Iraq (A-1).

Christie and Bush have other things in common besides being Republican and telling the Big Lie: 

The GOP bully's no-tax policies have wrecked the state economy (see L-7 today), and the inept Bush pushed the nation into the recession.

On Page 1 today, The Record quotes Christie telling the media at the Republican Goobers Association meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., he will use a message of "bipartisanship" to get other GOP governors elected.

This allegedly is the same message he used to win a second term on Nov. 5, reports Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who sounds like she is already on the aspiring president's payroll.

Governor Veto

Hayes makes no mention of all of those highly partisan vetoes Christie unleashed to undo progressive legislation passed by the state Legislature's majority Democrats -- from a tax surcharge on millionaires to a hike in the minimum wage.   

What was the point of Christie, now chairman of the goobers group, inviting Bush to lunch on Thursday? According to The Record's story, the ex-president said nothing quotable (A-1 and A-4).

Kelly still gazing

Columnist Mike Kelly is back with more on the media's obsession with reporting where everyone was when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago today.

In the past few weeks, The Record has been publishing readers' recollections, and ignoring the real question:

Will such conservatives as Tea Party fanatics, financed and armed by the trigger-happy National Rifle Association, ever try to take out another liberal president?

I notice two things about Kelly's Page 1 column: 

He's sticking with that dated thumbnail photo with his unflattering, shit-eating grin, and he continues to struggle as a writer, using "gazed" again for probably the thousandth time (fifth paragraph on A-1).

A special Margulies cartoon commissioned for the 50th anniversary of JFK's murder says more than the tired, tongue-tied Kelly could ever say (A-20).

More road hype

The Road Warrior continues to use exaggeration, distortion and hype to sell his silly column, as he does today on L-1.

He calls "distracted driving the single chief cause of highway crashes and deaths," when, in fact, speeding is the chief culprit.

Staff Writer John Cichowski, the addled reporter who writes the column, continues to give a pass to speeders, who also are most likely to get caught by the red-light cameras he demonizes.

In his last column on Wednesday, Cichowski wildly exaggerated the number of rush-hour drivers who get caught in the Route 4 east bottleneck, using the larger number of people who use the eastbound roadway day and night.

According to a concerned Hackensack reader:

"Road Warrior falsely indicated that 50,000 Manhattan-bound commuters experience traffic back-ups due to the reduction in traffic lanes from three to two on Route 4 in Teaneck.

"Road Warrior confused readers since there is a TOTAL of 50,000 Manhattan bound commuters during the entire day and night. Only a smaller portion of these commuters are affected by this traffic back-up around the times of the extended morning and afternoon rush hours.

"Road Warrior went on endlessly with his misleading analysis that the primary reason for this traffic congestion was due to Teaneck’s historical efforts to prevent commercial development on Route 4.

"The sole reason for this traffic congestion was that Teaneck's previous efforts for preservation of space prevented an additional third lane for eastbound Route 4."

For a blow-by-blow of all the flaws in the column, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior is suffering mental congestion

Crash diet?

In a historic first, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung didn't order dessert at The Original Mama Angelo's in North Arlington (BL-18).

Road Warrior buries class in statistics

Image via Wikipedia

World War II agitprop from the U.S. government.

One of the first things Staff Writer John Cichowski did before speaking as the Road Warrior on Monday was to apologize.


Appearing before a class of older people at Bergen Community College in Paramus, Cichowski noted it was the fifth time he was giving the talk at the Institute for Learning in Retirement.


"I hope I don't bore you with the same old, same old."


Gee. Why has he never offered the same apology to readers of his endlessly repetitive columns in The Record of Woodland Park?


The class, part of a course called "In The Record," has heard Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and others. 


Former Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale, whose firing was announced on Halloween, was scheduled to speak on Nov. 21.


Cichowski discussed the relative health of the newspaper in an industry that has seen huge ciruclation losses and record layoffs.


He said The Record is hiring reporters, "even thinking of expanding." And he said the newsroom budget is $18 million and growing.


Cichowski also quizzed class members about the car-pool discount, the safest era for road fatalities and the county with the most traffic deaths (Ocean).


He also buried the class in statistics, just as he buries readers of his column -- everything from the number of drivers in New Jersey, miles of roads, number of crashes, injuries and deaths; their  cost per person; number of bridges, number of DOT employees, ad nauseam.


Cichowski made only a brief reference to Governor Chrisie's poor mass transit record, but acknowledged more trains and buses are the only way to solve worsening traffic congestion.


However, he never explained why he rarely writes about mass transit, commuting and related issues.


Class members asked him about the status of road improvements, including the widening of Route 4 east through Teaneck, a project he said is on hold because of state finances.


He referred to the township as a "pretty liberal Jewish community."


Scandale firing


A New Jersey political Web site called In The Lobby has speculated on the reasons for Scandale's termination, referring to a post in Eye on The Record.


Here's the link: Did dispute over story lead to ouster?