Will UPS follow The Record to the sticks?

During the rush hour, commuters leaving Manhattan compete for NJ Transit train seats.

Why is the possible move of a UPS data center to Woodland Park from Paramus on Page 1 of The Record today?

The daily newspaper and its corporate parent, North Jersey Media Group, made a similar move in 2009, abandoning Hackensack and ending up in a nondescript office building on Garret Mountain in the former West Paterson.

The borough is best known for changing its name to separate itself in the public mind from the poverty and crime of Paterson.

Meanwhile, the royal Borgs have kept a lid on what will happen to the property at 150 River St.  The Record's old headquarters are an eyesore, and dumpsters have reappeared in the parking lot.

Musical seats

NJ Transit's biggest problem in recent years has been an inability to provide enough seats on its buses and trains during the rush hour, a mass-transit crisis The Record has ignored.

But after more than 300 NJ Transit locomotives and rail cars were damaged during Superstorm Sandy, readers have seen an endless stream of stories, editorials and, now, a Road Warrior column on the subject (L-1).

Four reporters worked on a news story reporting the testimony of NJ Transit's executive director to the Assembly Transportation Committee on Monday, and the story appeared on A-3 on Tuesday.

So, why is Staff Writer John Cichowski rehashing that testimony in his Road Warrior column today? 

In foreign news

An L-3 story was missing the address or even the street where a Bogota couple have allowed their property to become overgrown.

The story reports they have been found guilty of five property maintenance violations and fined $2,800 -- and that's on top of the $2,000 in fines they paid in the summer.

The couple are shown in a photo on their overgrown property. 

Did the reporter leave out the address? Or was it head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza or one of their minions?

Which one of the copy editors failed to notice that important piece of information was missing, and where was Production Editor Liz Houlton?

Related articles

• NJ Transit boss vows: Mistake that led to flooded trains won't happen again
• Editors were woefully unprepared for Sandy

Little more than a tabloid

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The Record of Woodland Park gives off a tabloid vibe today. It's filled with crime, court or traffic accident news, including the lead story on the front page. Half  of Page 1 is filled with a sports stadium story -- again. But if you are looking for municipal, development or quality of life news from Hackensack, Englewood or many other towns in North Jersey, you'll be disappointed -- for yet another day.

In the Local section, there are no fewer than 10 court, crime or  accident stories. Eleven, if you count John Cichowski's Road Warrior column, which gives royal treatment to the traffic-violation woes of one driver. Doesn't he have anything better to write about?

Teaneck reporter Joe Ax attended the first public hearing on a Queen Anne Road home where Jewish services have been held for about two years. Neighbors are fighting the synagogue, which didn't apply for variances. Shouldn't the township be faulted for allowing worship there?

This reminds me of the wealthy neighbors who opposed a synagogue on Walnut Street in Englewood, including Malcolm A. Borg, the powerful chairman of North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record. Borg and his East Hill neighbors fought the congregation's expansion, and Borg even used Bruce Rosen, a lawyer who does a lot of work for NJMG, to represent opponents. The initial stories acknowledged Borg's role, but later reports by then-Staff Writer Maya Kremen omitted any mention of Borg or of Rosen's affiliation.

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung reports on a mediocre Indian restaurant in Fort Lee, yet describes it as "one of the great institutions of the North Jersey dining scene," presumably because it has been open 30 years. She might have been better off reviewing one of  the Indian restaurants on Main Street in Hackensack or strolling along Main Street and stuffing her face at five or six places in one evening for a report she once called "Progressive Dining."

No holiday for Hackensack

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The Record of Woodland Park is filled with heart-warming holiday stories today, but the cold shoulder shown to Hackensack and other core Bergen towns just adds to a disturbing pattern.

With the move this year of the paper's newsroom and most top executives from 150 River St. in Hackensack to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park, news and feature coverage also seems to have shifted west.

What other explanation is there for all the coverage of street and road construction in Woodland Park? Of all the stories about Paterson, Pequannock, Wayne and other Passaic and Morris communities that fill the Local section? They don't displace the Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news -- those Bergen stories are never even reported, written and edited.

I like the Page 1 story about the flu doctor at Hackensack University Medical Center, if for no other reason than I can kid myself into thinking it's a story about the city where I live.

Did you see the Page 1 story this week reporting that Jennifer A. Borg, vice president and general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, apparently will give up her seat on the hospital board, because the medical center and The Record do hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising business? How did Borg, a lawyer, overlook this apparent conflict, even after the newspaper reported in great detail on all the business the hospital gave her fellow board members?

On the front of the Local section is the "never-mind" story about the Grinch who stole Friday in tiny, inconsequential Ho-Ho-Kus that was splashed all over the front page Saturday. We learn the man who held off police for seven hours is "emarassed." But I didn't see an apology from the editors for running this crap as a front-page story, the same bone-headed move they made with that balloon hoax from Colorado several weeks ago.

Finally, I refer you to the idiocy compiled by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung in Better Living on readers' "Thanksgiving kitchen disasters." The inviting headline says, "The dog ate my turkey," but if you read the story, you'll find nothing of the kind happened. Is the paper so desperate for readers, it used a misleading headline?

Printed in Rockaway, published where?

Although it's been several years since printing of  The Record was moved to Rockaway Township, Page 2 of the paper still lists 150 River St., Hackensack, N.J., as the daily's home, under a new motto: "The Trusted Local Source."

The giveaway is the telephone number with a 973 area code -- the new headquarters on Garret Mountain in Woodland Park, where top managers and editors, the legal staff and most of the reporters and copy editors were moved.

Elsewhere on Page 2, it says, "Published daily by North Jersey Media Group Inc. at 150 River St., Hackensack, N.J. 07601-7172" and "postage paid at Hackensack, N.J."