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.

Finally, editors are focusing on the uninsured

Signs provide plenty of reading along River Street in Hackensack, where The Record prospered for more than 110 years before the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city for the sticks, precipitating a slide in local-news coverage that persists to this day.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Marty Gottlieb drops the filter of politics to focus on the people who have been living without health insurance.

For the first time since selfish Republicans again tried to derail the Affordable Care Act, the paper carries profiles of North Jersey residents who hope to find affordable health care. 

Now, where are the stories about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by health insurance company lobbyists, and the millions of dollars in contributions flowing into the campaign accounts of Tea Party radicals and other conservative Republicans?

Lazy reporting

But lazy journalism still dominates the front page in another column citing polls that claim Democrat Cory Booker now holds only a 13-point lead over Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan in the U.S. Senate race.

Lonegan, you may recall, recently kept a straight face when he compared governing Newark to his years running tiny, dysfunctional Bogota. 

And what about all those polls predicting a close race between President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney last November, when, in fact, the Mormon was blown out of the water?

Politics are the refuge of scoundrels like Staff Writers Charles Stile and Herb Jackson, who don't have the stomach for covering the issues that affect voters.

Errors pile up

Staff Writer John Cichowski is another so-called journalist who refuses to do the legwork to cover the issues of most concern to commuters in his Road Warrior column.

On the Local front today, Cichowski acknowledges the column started 23 years ago this week, written by a different reporter, Jeff Page, but doesn't admit he's no Jeff Page, despite 10 years of trying.

Cichowski's laziness is well-known, including his refusal to cover mass transit or report on declining enforcement by the state police of speeding, tailgating and other reckless driving.

Morons define issues

The addled Cichowski also allows drivers to hijack the Road Warrior column, and spin exaggerated tales of problems -- from highway detours to glare to red-light cameras.

And Cichowski has committed so many errors and given so much inaccurate advice on road rules, toll discounts and other subjects that a reader in Hackensack started a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Local news? Nothing from Hackensack and Teaneck for yet another day.

More failures

On the Opinion front today, another failed columnist claims the health-care exchanges "flopped" after they went online last week -- even though consumers have three months to buy coverage (O-1).

Of course, it's Staff Writer Mike Kelly who flops, especially with the shit-eating grin evident in his dated column photo.

On the Better Living front today, the imbalance in food coverage is evident -- the challenges of feeding a family on assistance shares the page with Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsession with dessert (BL-1).

Ung again goes far afield in The Corner Table column, which is supposed to be devoted to restaurant issues, by stuffing her pudgy face with a new line of scones, muffins and croissants at Starbucks.

Hotel promoter

What are readers to make of Travel Editor Jill Schensul's gushing cover story today on new hotel "amenities" (T-1)?

Here's another major travel piece without prices, suggesting Schensul was comped by the big hotel chains or she agreed to write the lavishly promotional copy to land more advertising for her pathetically thin, 4-page section.

A Sunday paper full of more niche reporting

Answering the prayers of New Jersey commuters, Starbucks has opened a cafe on the ground level of the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Now, they won't fall asleep waiting on long lines to board NJ Transit buses.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record should cast a wider net and run stories of general interest or even report on the issues in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

Instead, Editor Marty Gottlieb fills today's front page with stories of limited interest to most readers.

Parents of young athletes, political junkies and commuters who use jitneys are well-served, but the majority of readers have far more pressing issues to deal with.

For example, the success of what many call "the Spanish bus" is directly related to NJ Transit's inability to provide enough bus seats for commuters.

When is The Record going to cover that story?

Real legwork

It's good to see Staff Writer John Cichowski is actually leaving the office to do reporting for his Road Warrior column (A-1).

This cuts down on his frequent misquoting of driving rules and regulation; statistics and other data; inaccurate advice to readers who send in questions and general incompetence as he approaches the 10th anniversary of taking over the column from Jeff Page.

Of course, he also left the office recently to report on the NY Waterway Ferry, but still managed to make so many mistakes in describing the service, fares and other details.


Horses and football
 
The front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is dominated today by two Meadowlands stories, not local news.

Sykes must think readers have been on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the Feb. 2, 2014, Super Toilet Bowl at MetLife Stadium (L-1).

Baby stroller news

Staff Writer Elisa Ung has returned from her second maternity leave with a fresh perspective on what she calls good service at "burger joints, diners or order-at-the-counter eateries" (The Corner Table, BL-1).

Although the majority of her readers are in their 50s or older and can no longer relate to dining with kids, at least her column today has a strong focus on customers -- not restaurant owners and chefs.

Prickly commentary

One prick writes about another.

That was my first thought when I saw that Staff Writer Mike Kelly is devoting his first column after a break to sex-addicted candidate Anthony Weiner -- a story that has been totally over-reported by the bored media (O-4).

But then it occurred to me that Kelly on Weiner is appropriate in another way: 

Both men need to find something else to do.

Meanwhile, why does The Record continue to use an outdated thumbnail photo of the columnist, complete with his shit-eating grin?

Travel New Jersey

Congrats to Travel Editor Jill Schensul, whose cover story on short trips today describes 3 great New Jersey towns (T-1).

Last week, readers searched in vain for information about New Jersey rest stops.
 

The sad state of democracy in Hackensack

This noble sentiment hangs next to the front door of a registered voter on Clinton Place in Hackensack. Unfortunately, he wasn't at home on Sunday when I came calling with a petition I wanted him to sign to help me get on the ballot for the City Council election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

This afternoon, I filed 280 official nominating petitions that I hope will get me on the ballot for the May 14 election, when Hackensack voters will choose five at-large City Council members.

In the past 5 weeks, I have been ringing bells, knocking on doors and approaching people on the street and in coffee shops, markets and even in a bar.

I wore a large red name tag and carried petitions and a 1-page green platform with the goal of improving residents' quality of life while holding the line on property taxes.

The apathy level is high and in many cases, the intelligence level is low. And now that it's over, I'm exhausted.

Go away

People were "not interested" or said, "I don't get involved in that." 

A man who lives in the house on the corner opened his door around noon on Sunday, said he was busy and slammed the door in my face before I could get a word out.

Others said they didn't have time to look at my petition or platform. 

Even though it is a non-partisan election, many people wanted to know if I was a Democrat or a Republican. 

"I don't sign anything," "I never sign anything" and "I'm not signing anything" were frequent responses when I asked for a voter's street address, signature and printed name.

Others took my platform and said they wanted to study it before signing a petition, and that I should come back later.   

Shallow reporting

Even though I spent 29 years at The Record as a reporter, copy editor and food writer, I knew nothing about the process when I picked up the petitions from City Clerk Debra Heck.

She said I need a minimum of 210 individual petitions or 1% of the 21,000 registered voters in Hackensack at the last general election, but that I should gather at least 250, because people who sign may not be registered or be registered in another town. 

An official petition of nomination.

I'm not 'organized'

Under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, The Record covers municipal and school elections reluctantly, boiling them down into so-called boxes of several paragraphs unless they are contested.

In recent years, The Record has never followed a candidate who was trying to get nominating petitions signed.

A few weeks ago, I e-mailed my platform to Staff Writer Hannan Adely.

Her byline had appeared over  9- and 10-paragraph stories about two groups of 5 candidates in the Hackensack election that were published on Jan. 25 and Feb. 3 -- before either slate had filed petitions.

But she said she wouldn't be writing a story about my candidacy before today's filing deadline, because I am not part of an "organized slate." 

She gave me the phone number of her assignment editor, Steve McCarthy, but he never returned my calls.  

I love Hackensack

I met a lot of nice people, and some of them took extra petitions and got them signed by other registered voters. 

Many voters signed my petition without hesitation, because, as one women said, "Everyone deserves a chance to run."

And I saw more of Hackensack and its quiet neighborhoods than in all the years I worked and lived here, including many beautiful, well-kept homes.

A 491-page list of voters by ward and district under a 30-page key that shows which streets are in which wards and districts. The registered-voters list is a confusing jumble of names, addresses and apartment numbers, with voters' names alphabetized by ward and district. But each side of a street can be in a different ward and district, and Prospect Avenue and many other streets also are divided. In Hackensack, there is a Poor Street and a Pink Street, and one voter's address is on Route 17. I know two people named Ross, but they don't live on Ross Avenue. 



I started gathering signatures in early February by going to the ShopRite in Hackensack, where I found only 7 city residents among 40 shoppers I approached.

At the Giant Farmers Market between Main and River streets, only one woman said she lived in Hackensack, and this was after approaching a couple of dozen other people.

At Lazy Lanigan's, a bar on Main Street, I couldn't find anyone from Hackensack a few hours before the Super Bowl began, and Bel Posto on Prospect Avenue wouldn't allow me to solicit signatures from its brunch customers that Sunday.

One morning, I got several signatures at the Dunkin' Donuts on University Place, but an employee asked me to leave, claiming customers said I was bothering them.

On Saturday, at the Dunkin' Donuts on Passaic Street, my petitions were signed by four people I later couldn't find on the registered-voters list, and one man who asked to read my platform before signing left while I was in the bathroom.

I saw him driving away in a large, black SUV With Texas plates.

 

   

The candidate in a reflective moment last Tuesday across the street from the Johnson Public Library on Main Street, where he couldn't find anyone to sign his petition.

 

I stopped at the Starbucks almost every day for coffee, and it beat the Dunkin' Donuts on two scores: better brews and more signatures from registered voters.

One day I called Starbucks headquarters from the Essex Street shop, and spoke to Joshua in customer service about getting a second Starbucks on Main Street, near the Bergen County Courthouse.

He mentioned his parents live on Hamilton Place in Hackensack, and are members of the Green Party, but wouldn't give me their last names or address, even when I told him I am running for office and needed their signatures.

Then, I found out there are only 6 Green Party members in Hackensack, and gave up the idea of tracking them down. 

Jews v. Jews   

I received a warmer welcome at a Baptist church and at two mosques than I did from my fellow Jews at Temple Beth El on Summit Avenue, an aging congregation that struggles to get enough people for Saturday morning services.

A painting at Temple Beth El in Hackensack.

Rabbi Robert Schumeister and President Mark Zettler wouldn't allow me to ask for signatures at a Purim celebration I attended one Saturday night.

Zettler said, "I don't know you."

At Mount Olive Baptist Church on Central Avenue, Pastor Gregory Jackson introduced me to the congregation at two Sunday services, but asked me to stand outside to get signatures.

The powerful choir at Mount Olive Baptist Church.

  

At Minhaj-ul-Quran on Vreeland Avenue and the Bergen County Islamic Education Center on Trinity Place, managers and members welcomed me and helped me gather signatures two Fridays in a row.

During a book fair at the Nellie K. Parker Elementary School, I drove over around noon, but two employees and a man who might have been the vice principal wouldn't sign petitions.

The man told me I couldn't stand on the sidewalk, but had to cross the street, even as he conceded that restriction probably wouldn't stand up in court.  

None of the condominium or co-op high-rises that line Prospect Avenue would allow me to solicit signatures, but my wife and teenage son found a rental building that did allow them to knock on tenants' doors.

Often, a husband or wife would sign, but most of the time, the spouse was in the shower, taking a nap, away on business or didn't want to sign.

And then there were people who just wouldn't open their door. 
 

I reach my goal 
 
But I finally got the process down to a science when I paid the county superintendent of elections 5 cents a page for a second list of registered voters, this one by street.

My request for the list was delayed by about a week when the office's computers broke down.

Then, when good weather finally arrived, I was able to stroll down a street and knock on the doors of only registered voters, and my count of good petitions increased steadily.

I was even able to concentrate on homes with 3, 4, 5 and even 7 registered voters, but at most I found only two at home at the same time.

A man who lives a few blocks away left me three signed petitions in this envelope.

Where are the people?

Cover of The Talk of the Town

Day after day, the voices of residents are missing from The Record of Woodland Park. The paper is one of the few in recent decades that never adopted a time-tested journalistic form, used by other papers big and small, called "The Talk of the Town."

Sure, you'll see gadflies quoted or residents at a protest or public hearing on a quality-of-life issue that some crummy town has allowed to fester for decades, such as the closed Pompton Lakes munitions plant all over the front page yesterday. But where are the voices of the rest of us?

We read endless stories about infrastructure, such as the road repair "expose" on Page 1 today, while the voices of the poor schmucks who have to ride NJ Transit's decrepit local buses are ignored. A school official quits and it leads the Local section or a renovated borough hall is finished and the story is lavish and illustrated (both on L-1 today). But what are the people in the coffee shop saying?

Look at the three Teaneck stories that ran today and yesterday. A public hearing finally is being held on a synagogue that has held services for about two years. Two years? The other stories, which ran today, are about insurance against lawsuits and a grant to hire firefighters -- more in the mind-numbing stream of bureaucratic coverage.

If every new municipal reporter at The Record did a "Talk of the Town" -- interviewing residents at the Starbucks, supermarket and elsewhere -- they would get an instant education. They'd learn about quality of life issues and something about how well or how poorly their town is being run. It would be useful for these columns to appear at least once a year for each town. Of course, that's a lot harder than strolling over to the fax machine in the Woodland Park newsroom to fetch a press release.

I wonder what residents of Englewood have to say about the nightmarish downtown traffic -- aggravated by police foot-dragging on installing turn lanes at congested intersections. I wonder what the residents who live across the street from an open-air police firing range have to say about hearing gunshots and shotgun blasts as early as 8 a.m.?

A Record reporter named Dena Yellin did a round-up of police firing ranges some time ago, but omitted the Englewood range. This is the kind of "regional" story that has largely replaced coverage of individual towns.

Christina Joseph, who assigned the story to her, sent it along to the news copy desk without noticing the omission, even though Joseph had covered Englewood as a reporter before she was promoted. The anonymous news copy editor apparently knew nothing about  Englewood, so the story ran as is -- another slap in the face to people who live there. Isn't that pathetic? Especially from a paper that once prided itself on local coverage.

If you are going to do a "Talk of the Town," it will require good, old-fashioned legwork. For a reporter, there is no substitute for going and seeing for yourself. Reject the advice of your lazy, incompetent editor to do stories by phone.

I'm sure residents of the high-rises in Hackensack have a lot to say about the business jets screaming overhead on the way to Teterboro Airport. Some are so frightened by how close these fat cats' planes come, they don't use their terraces in good weather. Would a higher approach altitude for these jets give high-rise dwellers and their neighbors relief from the noise? Does Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado care? Does her editor care?  Does The Record care?