With Christie budget, we get arguments, not leadership

The single lane open on the Anderson Street Bridge from Hackensack to Teaneck was closed on Tuesday for long-term repairs to the span, which has carried restricted traffic since September 2012.  Despite Tuesday's torrential rain, not a single photo of flooding appears today in The Record of Woodland Park, where presumably the sun was shining. See photos below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even though Governor Christie was humiliated on the presidential campaign trail, he was back to contentious business as usual in Trenton on Tuesday.

Reading between the lines of his argumentative budget speech, as reported in The Record, Democratic lawmakers likely were reminded the GOP bully standing before them has already executed more than 500 vetoes since early 2010.

Today, we're no closer to resolving some of the biggest issues facing the state, including the underfunded public employee pension fund and the debt-ridden transportation fund that pays for bridge and road repairs, and mass transit improvements.

Flattering editorial

"The good news is that Christie sounded like a governor committed to doing his job," claims an editorial on A-10 today.

Gee. To me and many others, he sounds like the combative governor who turned his back on the middle class in New Jersey to pursue a doomed bid for the White House, and now he's back to make our lives even more miserable than before.

Or you can read more crap from Charles Stile, the political columnist who is one of Christie's biggest boosters at a paper that has far too many (A-1).

Flooding on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

Flooding on Hudson Street in Hackensack.

Flooding in the H Mart parking lot in Little Ferry.

Local news?

The hysterical reaction to a proposal for 142 apartments in Dumont -- and the threat of a suit by the school board -- speaks volumes about what is wrong with North Jersey's home-rule system of government (A-1).

Another front-page story today shows local news is literally going to the dogs.

What is a story about the Westminster Kennel Club and dogs from Bogota (New Jersey, not Colombia) doing on A-1 today?

The local editors needed several photos of power outages and fires, as well as crime and court news, to fill their thin section today (L-1 and L-3).

News from Hackensack went missing again today.

Bill Ervolino

Readers scanning Bill Ervolino's Better Living cover story on "kitchen gadgets" sigh with relief that at least he isn't writing about his father again (BL-1).

Then, they turned the page to see yet another Ervolino column about his parents on BL-3.

Ervolino and The Record's other veteran columnists, including Stile, John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, long ago ran out of ideas.

They remind readers of the kitchen gadgets Ervolino writes about today:

They're nice for the paper to have, but does anyone really read them anymore?

We've read, seen and heard this ad nauseam

The construction of booths in the parking lot of 150 River Street in Hackensack appeared complete on Sunday. Bergen County apparently will begin charging attorneys and visitors for spaces at the old headquarters of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, which left Hackensack in 2009. The spaces have been free since the lot opened in late July to make way for a new building on the old Bergen County Justice Center parking lot opposite Pep Boys.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A week ago, the front page of The Record was dominated by an assessment of how business at the shore was affected by Superstorm Sandy under this headline:

"A toss-up on Shore success"

Then, in the following days, the same story was covered on TV and radio news, with lots of interviews with Governor Christie, who gave his take on lagging business at the shore.

You'd think that would be enough.

Shore weary

But Columnist Mike Kelly decided he had something unique to say, and raced down to interview an ice-cream shop owner in Asbury Park for today's front page.

Instead of landing a great story, the columnist known as "The Shit-Eating Grin" got sun stroke.

And he just added hundreds of wasted words to the avalanche of shore coverage that has alienated North Jersey readers since last October.

T&A on Page 1

Meanwhile, the photographer who made the photo of ice-cream seller Eddie Catalano that runs with Kelly's column seemed distracted by the tattooed woman in the bikini.

A few other things are apparent: 

Production Editor Liz Houlton finally has abandoned the silly "superstorm Sandy" that was used for months after the storm; the style on lower-case shore has been changed to "Shore," and Kelly burned out long ago.

Above the fold, today's front page looks a lot like last Monday's -- shore-Sandy coverage and the off-lead on Syria.

Parking news

At the old headquarters of The Record in Hackensack -- where Bergen County is leasing 540 spaces for visitors, attorneys and jurors -- the free ride appears to be over.

Two booths have been built, and the county is poised to begin charging for spaces that have been free since the lot opened in late July.

The county apparently will recoup part of the $777,660 it is paying to lease 540 spaces owned by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record of Woodland Park.

Why the county agreed to pay that much for parking spaces that had baking in the sun for years is a mystery.

Flood zone

The lease will end in July 2015, apparently delaying any plans by Edgewater developer Fred Daibes for luxury apartments, retail and possibly a hotel on the 19.7 acres he reportedly has agreed to buy from NJMG.

NJMG, the Borg family and Daibes haven't explained why they think it is a good idea to build hundreds of luxury apartments in a notorious flood zone.

Many of the spaces the county is leasing will be flooded during fall and winter storms, potentially damaging vehicles.

When The Record's newsroom was at 150 River St., staffers kept Hackensack River tide tables handy, and announcements were made, alerting staffers to race out to the lot and move their cars.

Still, employees' cars were flooded and, in some cases, ruined.

I recall one year when me and other employees reporting for work were instructed to board newspaper delivery trucks on Moore Street, a block from River Street.

The trucks delivered us to the employees' entrance -- which was surrounded by several feet of water.

Sandy's tears are flooding Hackensack

River and Kansas streets in Hackensack were under water before noon today. The flood waters from the nearby Hackensack River prompted Costco Wholesale to close its warehouse store early. A Subaru driver who may have shopped at Costco stalled after mistakenly believing his all-wheel-drive car could float.

Water from the Hackensack River blocked the service entrance to Hackensack Toyota.

The rain and wind couldn't suppress the need to pick up a few things at Costco.

Residents of Clinton Place in Hackensack -- between Summit and Prospect avenues -- took down most but not all of their Halloween decorations. The block is known far and wide for the show it puts on for the trick-or-treat holiday at the end of October.

More than 100 utility company trucks and other equipment, including spare utility poles, fill parking lots at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I jumped into the car and drove around Hackensack and Paramus before noon today to see what I could see as Hurricane Sandy approached New Jersey.

I visited the staging area for crews from Public Service Electric and Gas Co. at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, where all the stores were closed.

On the other side of the highway, near IKEA, several drivers didn't bother stopping for red lights.

All that PSE&G equipment is a hopeful sign, given how the utility blew the job of repairing damage from the freak snowstorm two days before Halloween in 2011.

A year ago, as the days wore on with tens of thousands of people still without power, the anger of customers grew and there were reports of people threatening PSE&G workers with bodily harm.

What was the response at The Record of Woodland Park?

The paper's own poor job of covering the storm led to the firing of Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale at the hands of Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who finally pulled his head out of his pampered asshole.

However, Interim Editor Doug Clancy was uncomfortable with readers' anger at PSE&G, and consistently buried it deep in stories about storm recovery.

Even when many thousands were without power for a week or more, Clancy made sure stories prominently featured PSEG's excuses for why it couldn't move faster. 

This from the newspaper that once boasted in its motto: "Friend of The People It Serves." 

See previous post on media hype

 

Flooded, lied to and then abandoned

Image by marnanel via Flickr

All flooding looks the same,as this 2006 photo shows.

Given the frequency of flooding in North Jersey, the editors of The Record are always ready with their three-prong coverage, as today's front page shows.


First, Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes dispatch reporters and photographers to chronicle impassable streets, boat rescues and piles of furniture and personal belongings suddenly turned into trash.


Then, Governor Christie and other public officials gather at the scene of the disaster to shed crocodile tears and promise swift delivery of financial aid.


Finally, groups of fed-up flood victims threaten civil disobedience if government won't pay for long-term solutions -- that's the group of residents in the Page 1 photo today.


Royal screwing


But these poor people don't realize they have been royally screwed -- by fiscal conservatives who claim long-term fixes "cost too much," and by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and others who back that position year after year.


The only thing for certain is next month's or next year's flood. On L-1, a related story reports some towns are waiving permit fees, so residents can repair their flood-damaged homes in time for them to be ruined again.


The off-lead A-1 story today is about politics tying up autism-research funds. Funds for Alzeimer's disease were approved. OK. I'm kidding. Scandale and Sykes care as little about old people as they do about flood victims.


God forbid, you were a reporter or copy editor on their newsroom shit lists before I left The Record in May 2008.


Jews play with fire


The third major story on A-1 today is about fire safety in Orthodox Jewish homes. Even with Rosh Hashana coming up, this is such a narrow subject, it should be on the Local front, not the front page.


An A-1 item refers readers to an A-4 story on those hikers blasting Iran. Really, who gives a shit? Next time, try the Adirondacks.


If you live in Hackensack or many other towns, you won't find any news in Sykes' Local section today.

See previous post on year's dumbest headline

What's Christie got against Paterson?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Flooding in Paterson on Tuesday.

The Record made front-page news of Governor Christie's visits to Wayne on Tuesday and Lincoln Park on Wednesday, but the stories and today's editorial on disaster relief never explain why he didn't go the the hardest-hit North Jersey community -- Paterson.

Floods classified as disaster

The main headline on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily fails miserably in conveying that federal aid is on the way to the storm-ravaged region. 


Using "classified" in a short-count headline and omitting the word "aid" is shooting yourself in the foot, but it's what we've come to expect from Liz Houlton's news copy desk.


Presumably, Christie will join President Obama in Paterson, but I haven't seen any explanation on why their visit has been set for Sunday. What's wrong with Friday?


The Record ran one small photo of flooding in Paterson. What one official calls the worst flooding in more than a century can be captured only in a photo from the air, but Publisher Stephen A. Borg won't spend the money.


More holes


In a letter that seems to be addressed directly to the laziest assignment desk in the Northern Hemisphere, Linda Palamara of Rochelle Park wants to know why Monday's local news coverage completely omitted "catastophic" flooding in her town (A-18).


Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes had their reporters running around documenting the impact on businesses, schools, shopping and water quality.


On L-2 today, the region's flooding history and long-term solutions are discussed, but the story belongs on A-1 in place of Christie's self-serving visits to flood areas. 


(The $1.8 billion for a flood tunnel -- deemed too expensive in the 1990s -- seems like peanuts today.)


Christie even refused to answer questions from flood-weary Lincoln Park residents, one of whom angrily told a radio reporter he visited only "to show his face."


In view of how often obituaries of prominent residents are literally buried on L-3 and the obit pages, why did Sykes give up so much space on the Local front today for the funeral of an EMT from Princeton?


Beer news


On the Better Living front, Starters, a feature on a recently opened restaurant,  carries the byline of Bob Probert, whose work has also appeared in (201) magazine.


Probert reports on a Hoboken restaurant and beer garden that is perfectly suited for carnivores with beer bellies. All the dishes he lists are meat.

We all go begging in Christie's New Jersey

Image by mali mish via Flickr

Governor Christie is the new Tony Soprano, says Columnist Charles Stile.

Living in a state ruled by Governor Christie is getting more unpleasant by the day. 

He has reduced the disabled and poor to begging for crumbs from his insensitive budget proposal and the middle class to defending their union pay and benefits -- part of his successful strategy of preserving the wealth of his supporters.

Of course, his biggest coup is winning over The Record of Woodland Park and other New Jersey media, who love doing public relations for a politician basking in the adoration of a recession-wracked nation. 

Who loves Christie?

But who exactly loves this Republican bully, who exactly thinks he's "hot" (see A-4). That's never reported, just as we probably will never learn how many of the millionaires he refuses to tax are supporting him financially.

No. Christie and the media prefer the pathetic tales of the disabled and others who can't defend themselves from his budget ax, as readers learn from the story on Page 1 today:

Patients' allies split

on disabled care

(The news copy editor wastes space in the drop headline by saying the hearing was held "at college." What does that add?)

Staff Writer Elise Young, from the paper's State House Bureau, covered the hearing, as did Columnist Charles Stile, who weighs in from the front of Local.

You've got to read Stile's column all the way through to realize he has lost his balls: Social advocates steer clear of Christie

He seems to relish telling readers how Christie stands ready with an ax to cut off outstretched hands and how it would be "suicidal" for social service groups to attack the governor.

However, what he never says is why he and other journalists rarely criticize the thug.

 "Mocking Christie's shared-sacrifice mantra or highlighting the hypocrisy of letting millionaires off without a tax increase for the second consecutive year, while these social service groups skimp and limp along with scaled-down state investment, would be suicidal.

"They run the risk of Christie's countering with his scalding brand of mocking. And criticism in Christie's world is tantamount to disloyalty. Critics are traitors. Or as Tony Soprano, whose Jersey Tough Guy persona Christie sometimes personifies, often said of his exiled allies: "You're dead to me."

It goes beyond that, as viewers of the CBS Evening News know. They saw Christie tell a reporter that a New York Times/CBS News poll that found strong opposition to his anti-union policies must have been worded to get the results the media wanted.

Usual mishmash

The rest of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local news section is a mishmash of police and fire news, government grant news and human-interest stories, with a local obituary thrown in for good measure.

But if you're looking for municipal news from major communities, such as budget deliberations in Hackensack, you won't find it.  

Water, water everywhere

After Monday's deluge, you'll find the misery of people who live in flood zones all over the front-page today. But flooding is not news; it's the decades of inaction by federal, state and local officials the paper should be exposing.

The sidebar on Page 1 about Pascack Brook flooding is written so poorly, readers aren't told until the 13th paragraph -- on the jump page -- that water is released to prevent the Woodcliff Lake reservoir from overflowing.