Editors ignore GOP attacks on minority rights

Hackensack's Main Street often resembles a ghost town, despite the efforts of a public-private partnership called the Upper Main Alliance. Curiously, some of the empty storefronts are owned by C.J. Lombardo Co., whose CEO, Jerome J. Lombardo, is chairman of the very same Upper Main Alliance. On the 200 block of Main, a welcome sign of renewal: Attili's Grill & Cafe, above, will replace Pfeiffer's/El Potrero Grill.

A few doors down, a sign promises a new Hispanic bakery.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record's elaborate coverage of the March on Washington's 50th anniversary sets up a phony comparison between President Obama's speech on Tuesday and the spellbinding "I Have a Dream" delivered by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (A-1 and A-18).

Mike Kelly's boring Page 1 column appears designed to obscure the president's basic message:

That sinister forces -- including Governor Christie, Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan (A-1) and other conservative Republicans -- are trying to dismantle the rights won by minorities over the past 5 decades.

"It was another humid August day," is the best Kelly -- aka "The Shit Eating Grin" -- can manage for his first sentence on such a momentous occasion. 

The column goes downhill from there.

The last paragraph of the A-18 editorial finally acknowledges the president's real message: 

"In the end, Obama [is] asking Americans to take up a new march for unity and equality."

Hackensack views

The victory of a reform slate in this year's Hackensack City Council election appears to have prompted head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Buffoon Dan Sforza to end the drought on Hackensack news.

But the local editors continue to ignore two big stories:

1) The failure of the public-private Upper Main Alliance to revive the fortunes of Main Street, despite years of promotion.

2) The continuing, crushing burden of three, large tax-exempt entities -- Bergen County, Hackensack University Medical Center and Fairleigh Dickinson University -- on homeowners and other property tax payers in the city.

Yo, Editor! Don't waste our time

The choice is clear in Tuesday's City Council election in Hackensack. Vote for independent candidate Victor E. Sasson and other reformers. Don't bother voting for any of the Open Government candidates, also known as "the Zisa slate."

Did anyone do more than glance at the headline and text of that huge waste of space about Prince Harry on Page 1 of The Record today?

Editor Marty Gottlieb came to the Woodland Park daily after many years at the august New York Times, and apparently threw out all his standards for good journalism.

Why trot out one of The Record's burnt-out columnists, Bill Ervolino, one of the unfunniest men around, and put his "open letter" to Harry on the front page?

If you're looking for something else to read on Page 1, try the scintillating "ANALYSIS" -- down to tenths of a mile -- about bill padding by the politically connected hauler hired to remove Superstorm Sandy debris.

Hackensack news

Rare Hackensack news appears on the front of Local today, but Editor Liz Houlton's sleepy copy editors screwed up the sub-headline (L-1).

It seems a state appeals court ruled in favor of property owners and against Hackensack's attempt to redevelop 2 blocks of Main Street, but the city has decided to appeal that unfavorable decision to the Supreme Court.

The sub-headline is bewildering, exactly the opposite of what the city is doing: 

  

"Hackensack plans to appeal redevelopment"  

The story describes the 2 blocks in question as "a high profile part of the city near the Bergen County Courthouse."

That's strange. Those 2 blocks aren't included in the zone that has been promoted since 2004 by the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership.

Second look

I'm sure I'm not the only reader who wanted to know what Governor Christie, former Gov. James E. McGreevey and an inmate were laughing about in that photo at the bottom of Page 1 on Thursday.

But there's no clue in the blurb with the photo or the complete story on A-3.

Editors black out Hackensack election campaign

North Jersey Media Group, the Borg family's publishing company, hasn't disclosed whether the U.S.S. Ling, above, and a naval museum will be able to stay after it redevelops about 20 acres along River Street, including the old headquarters of The Record, below, empty since mid-2009.

The tallest part of the building at 150 River St., right, is an elevator shaft and stairs that would have accommodated the addition of a 5th floor. At least one editor arranged trysts with a secretary in the staircase above the 4th-floor newsroom, where no secret was safe.

Judging from coverage in The Record, readers outside Hackensack -- and thousands who live here -- might not know 11 candidates are involved in one of the most important municipal elections in city history.

The struggle between reformers and powerful allies of the ruling Zisa family is being played out in forums sponsored by the Prospect Avenue Coalition, Bergen County NAACP and others.

All 5 seats on the City Council will be decided on May 14 -- in an election that historically has never engaged voters, despite rising property taxes, declining city services and insider deals with a select group of lawyers that have looted the city treasury.

No campaign coverage

The Record hasn't covered any of the forums, and likely will publish a prefunctory pre-election story that will amount to little more than he said/she said.

That contrasts with more than 3 years of intense coverage of the city Police Department.

Starting in 2009, the paper printed a series of stories about Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, the former police chief and state Assemblyman, culminating in coverage of his trial and May 2012 conviction for official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Long, detailed stories about state and federal lawsuits filed against Zisa by police officers -- and administrative hearings for cops brought up on charges -- filled The Record, to the exclusion of routine coverage of the proposed city budget, school board election campaign and other news.

That pattern continued through 2012.

Since then, routine coverage of Hackensack has been hit or miss, even though it is the county seat, the most populous community in Bergen County and the city where The Record prospered for more than 110 years.

Ignoring change

Mike Mordaga, who became the city's first civilian police director on Feb. 4, stepped up patrols to fight street crime and started a crackdown on moving violations by drivers, among several other, sweeping  changes.

Mordaga also has asked the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center and Bergen County to give back to the city in lieu of paying property taxes.

Today, Hackensack readers will search The Record's Local news section for that story or anything else about the city, as they have on so many previous days. 

They're responsible

So, get up from your computers and put down your mobile devices and give a big round of applause to Deirdre Sykes, the six-figure head assignment editor who apparently spends more time planning her next meal than she does the next day's Local news section. 

And don't forget to cheer Steve McCarthy, the assistant assignment editor who supervises Hackensack news coverage.

Two restaurants on Main Street in Hackensack are outside the zone represented by the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership that was set up in 2004 to promote the struggling shopping district.

Main Street boycott?

No restaurants on Main Street in Hackensack will be taking part in "The Taste in Hackensack 2013," a food-centered fund-raiser set for Sunday at The Shops at Riverside.

Two restaurants from outside Hackensack and the Stony Hill Inn, the lone city representative, will join shopping-center restaurants in serving samples of signature dishes to raise funds for a Hackensack High School scholarship fund.

The event is named cleverly. It's "The Taste in Hackensack," not "The Taste of Hackensack."

The lack of Main Street participation raises a question about the effectiveness of the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2004 to promote the city's struggling downtown.

Readers want less shore coverage, more local news

A former Korean bakery at 479 Main St. in Hackensack, opposite the Sears parking lot, is being converted into Daheen Wang Mandoo, which would be a branch of a popular Korean dumpling restaurant in Manhattan and the Flushing section of Queens. The renovations are being slowed by the owners' inability to get permits from the city's Building Department, and it's unclear what assistance they are receiving from the Upper Main Alliance, a public-private partnership that promotes shopping and dining out on Hackensack's struggling Main Street.

With big headlines, photos and a map, The Record's front page today reports on the slow pace of recovery at the shore from Superstorm Sandy.

But that takeout gets a lot more play than another story on the impact on Hackensack and other towns of a proposed 55-acre retail development in Teterboro being fueled by a $19 million state tax break.

And a third story on Page 1 doesn't even mention Governor Christie might have revenue to pay for new tax cuts, if he wasn't giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in such breaks to wealthy retailers and other businesses. 

This kind of coverage just plays into Christie's hands.

After mismanaging the state's economy for more than 3 years, Christie is trying to revive the shore and throwing tax breaks around like confetti in a desperate bid for a second term.

Shore is expensive 

North Jersey residents love the shore, but high property taxes here and high rents there mean most can only afford an annual two-week vacation by the sea.

And second homes are out of reach for anyone but multimillionaires like the Borgs, with shacks at the shore going for $500,000 or more. 

Give us a break

Why did The Record omit mention of the $19 million state tax break in last Thursday's front-page story on Walmart and, possibly, Costco Wholesale opening stores in the Teterboro development?

Was North Jersey Media Group and the Borg family wooing Walmart for the 20 acres they own along River Street, the former headquarters of The Record, and did they lose out because no such state incentive was offered? 

Today's story is silent on the Walmart rumors that swirled around the Borgs' property, and doesn't differentiate between the low-wage jobs at the low-price retailer and the unionized labor at Costco.

Kids and salad

On the front of today's Local section, a story on a program "aimed at curbing obesity through organic gardening" caught my eye (L-1).

Students in a Teaneck middle school and members of the Hackensack Boys & Girls Club grew lettuce "and learned to make their own sugar-free salad dressing."

Imagine that. Young people eating salad and growing lettuce in a greenhouse, of all places, to escape the vagaries of the weather. 

Why doesn't every Hackensack school have such a program? 

And why isn't the tax-exempt Hackensack University Medical Center offering to help the schools serve healthy meals, in return for not having to pay taxes on $130 million in property?

Something is rotten in the city of Hackensack

A recent City Council meeting in Hackensack's City Hall.

Should a city employee function as "Editor" of Hackensack's Community Message Boards, delete information about the Borg family he considers "a personal attack" and not identify himself?

The "Editor" is Albert H. Dib, executive director of  the Upper Main Alliance, a business group that will receive $360,595 in city taxpayer money this year, including his $58,000 salary.

The Main Street group is dominated by real estate interests who pushed for approval of a downtown redevelopment plan by the City Council.

Dib also is said to be Web master of the city of Hackensack's official municipal site, Hackensack.org. 

He is listed on the Community Message Boards, at HackensackNow.org, as:

Editor

• Administrator
• 
• 
• Posts: 2649
• Karma: 16
• [clap] [boo]

The May 14 Hackensack City Council election is one of the most important in Hackensack's history, and recently, a lawn sign supporting the Hackensack Coalition for Open Government -- widely viewed as the "Zisa Slate" -- appeared in front of Dib's home in the Fairmount section.

Victor E. Sasson, an independent candidate for City Council, was able to identify the home as Dib's from the list of registered voters and their addresses.

When Sasson questioned Dib's impartiality on HackensackNow, he replied:

"This is a two-family house. My tenant has a right to display lawn signs as well. I have not made up my mind as to all five candidates yet.

"I have been very careful not to endorse any candidates for office on this site. You don't need to try to do that for me. 

"'Editor' has been my handle on this site for almost 10 years now. I don't plan on changing it for you."

The lawn sign was removed a couple of days ago. 

Lawn signs at Euclid Avenue and Clarendon Place in Hackensack.

Kenneth Martin, a retired detective who heads the Open Government slate, has been charged with removing the signs of a rival slate from in front of Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

Martin boasts of having been the first school resource officer at Hackensack High School. He's setting quite an example for students.

Martin was undone by a surveillance camera after City Council candidate Leo Battaglia of the Citizens for Change slate filed a complaint with police.

A probable cause hearing for Martin is set for Thursday, according to The Record (Friday's L-10).

The home page of HackensackNow.org.

City employee Dib's role on HackensackNow might be overlooked, if he clearly identified himself and didn't censor and delete remarks posted on the sight by "members," who also don't have to identify themselves.

They use such tags as "JustWatching," "BLeafe" and "averagejoe."

The 537 members -- in a city of 45,000 with 20,000 registered voters -- range from residents proud of Hackensack's history and interested in current events to crackpots and vicious character assassins.

When Sasson started posting Eye on The Record and his campaign announcements on HackensackNow, the "Editor" objected and put them under a new category, "Community Soapbox."

The "Editor" even started a poll among members to see whether he could kick Eye on The Record off the site, but only 6 members expressed any opinion. 

When Sasson defended the blog as trying to tell the story of how the Borg family abandoned Hackensack and stood by as editors drastically reduced news of the city, the "Editor" deleted some of those comments.

Specifically, he deleted how a 2008 downsizing followed by several months Publisher Stephen A. Borg's purchase of a $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly with a company mortgage.

Dib says he has identified himself on HackensackNow in the past.

But new members remain in the dark about his city salary and his loyalties to the Zisa family and city Democratic Party chairwoman Lynne Hurwitz, who have ruled Hackensack for so many decades. 

Today's paper

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes plays catch up today with an expanded story about Tuesday's school board election in Hackensack (L-1).

The story appears after Eye on The Record wondered why Sykes had published immediate follow-ups on the contests in Englewood and Secaucus, but ignored Hackensack, where machine politics again triumphed over reform candidates.

In Hackensack, incumbent Francis W. Albolino won yet another term, having first joined the Board of Education in 1992. 

Fewer than 1,100 of the 20,000 registered voters went to the polls, so the losing slate -- incumbent Rhonda Williams Bembry, Lawrence Eisen and Judith Carter -- also were victims of voter apathy.

Considering all of the board's failures and the poor reputation of the public schools, Albolino is a persuasive argument for term limits.


Upper Main Alliance

HackensackNow

A City in Motion