Editors crow over PA scoop, ignore mass-transit failures

Rain barrels are an easy way to conserve water during what federal weather officials are calling a "moderate drought" in North Jersey, according to The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors waste no time today taking credit on Page 1 for a scoop exposing a United Airlines flight between Newark and Columbia, S.C., "to curry favor" with David Samson when he was chairman of the powerful Port Authority.

A federal and internal probe of the special flight for Samson, often called a mentor and father figure to Governor Christie, led to the departure of the Newark-based airline's CEO (A-1).

But the Woodland Park daily has done a far poorer job exposing how little the bistate agency has done to expand mass-transit operations, including the PATH commuter rail system and the reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

The agency's mass-transit failures affect far more readers than another so-called expose of cronyism and favoritism in high places.

Christie P.R.

Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to assign Staff Writer Melissa Hayes to cover Christie's doomed bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

Hayes' story, which sounds more like public relations than hard-hitting reporting, appears on Page 1, marveling over the conservative bully holding more town hall meetings in New Hampshire than any other GOP clown (A-1).

Local news?

On the Local front today, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza give lavish coverage to the opening of a $20 million science, technology, engineering and mathematics center at the hoity toity Dwight-Englewood School (L-1).

The private school, on the mansion-filled East Hill of Englewood, counts among its alumni Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group; his wife Sandra Agemian Borg; son Stephen A. Borg, publisher of The Record; and daughter Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel.

Stephen's sons, Alexander, Austin and Charlie, are in the Dwight-Englewood Classes of 2017, 2019 and 2021, respectively.

In the past, coverage of Englewood's private schools has been far more extensive than that of the troubled public schools, even though both Sykes and Sforza covered the small city as reporters before they were promoted to assignment editors.

'Horse' in Teaneck

Instead of municipal news, another lead story on the Local front catches up to the seizure of $3.5 million in heroin, also called "horse," and the arrest of a California man in a home on Bryant Avenue in Teaneck.

There is no explanation for why Sykes and Sforza didn't report the Friday arrest and seizure until a press release came out on Tuesday or why the identity of the house renter eluded the three reporters who worked on the story (L-1 and L-2).

More filler

The desperate local editors also needed more Law & Order news and two drive-by accident photos to fill their thin section today (L-3).

The caption under a photo of a tobacco truck fire at Routes 17 and 80 in Hackenack doesn't say whether the driver was speeding, his load shifted or whether the bridge abutment he hit was damaged.

And the photo is all the Hackensack news you'll find today.

More filler appears in Business, where an entire half page is wasted on a story about "auto parts suppliers" by the Detroit Free Press (L-9).

Happy New Year

On the Better Living cover today, freelancer Sachi Fujimori shares Rosh Hashana recipes from Israeli chefs in North Jersey (BL-1).

She says these "culinary artisans grew up with the flavors of the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa."

But none of the recipes on BL-4 contain Middle Eastern or North African spices and herbs.

Fujimori was a reporter at The Record for more than 5 years, leaving in February 2014. She also worked at the Herald News.

On the first day of 2014, lots of boring old news

At Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Tuesday, a security guard dressed in black refused to discuss how many security personnel have been hired since a gunman invaded the mall on Nov. 4 and fired random shots before committing suicide. This guard, who was helping shoppers cross a road, didn't appear to be armed with a gun. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's first edition of the new year offers lots of stale old news.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads the paper with yet another story about The Traffic Jam That Ate Fort Lee after Governor Christie's flunkies at the Port Authority closed access lanes to the George Washington  Bridge (A-1).

And there is yet another column from Staff Writer Charles Stile scrutinizing the impact of Christie's every action or inaction, every bite of food and every bowel movement on his White House aspirations (A-1).

Gottlieb sent a photographer to Times Square for the routine New Year's Eve image, but he couldn't find anyone from New Jersey in the crowd (A-1).

On A-4, a man from North Carolina -- not the Garden State -- is shown with a story about the Affordable Care Act.

Laughing out loud

On the Editorial Page, readers get their first belly laughs of the year from the Woodland Park daily's "editorial credo," which runs every Jan. 1.

The credo is signed by Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, the chairman of North Jersey Media Group, and son Stephen A. Borg, the president and publisher, who pushed his father aside several years ago; Editor Martin Gottlieb and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin.

In the first paragraph, they renew their pledge to support policies on the Editorial Page that will improve life "in our region," not to mention the lives of the Borgs and their wealthy friends.

Ads dictate news

They also claim the newspaper's "cash register will not dictate the content of its news articles," despite volumes of evidence to the contrary that the editors lavish coverage on large mall retailers and stiff Main Street merchants. 

At least the Borgs acknowledge they guide the paper's "editorial policy," though they don't acknowledge steering news coverage to their rich friends, including real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

First dump of year

Road Warrior John Cichowski long ago ran out of his own ideas and opinions -- as well as any responsibility to report accurately on commuting issues.

So, it's no surprise he starts the new year pedaling more complaints from every crackpot driver who sends him an e-mail in hopes of seeing their names in print (L-1).

The Addled Commuter just doesn't understand that a long overdue expansion of mass transit -- not wider roads -- is the only viable solution to increasing traffic congestion.

Private school news

The huge spread on the Local front about a 9-year-old from Orange who attends an expensive private school in Englewood continues the Borgs' embargo on news of the city's public schools, including Dwight Morrow High School (L-1).

The elder Borg has lived on Englewood's East Hill for decades, but his newspaper and its "editorial credo" have had little impact on improving the city's largely segregated schools or its struggling downtown.

Same old news

Today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza started the new year scrambling to fill pages with local news he didn't have, just as he did in 2013.

So, he ran another gee-whiz photo of a car, whose unidentified driver tried to climb a home's retaining wall just off Route 17 south in Waldwick (L-3).

Sforza leads Local today with a follow-up to the anticlimactic arrest of Joey Bariso of Lodi on charges he used a handgun to shoot his 85-year-old grandmother "several times as she slept on a couch."

Tuesday's story on the arrest of Bariso appeared two days after the fact, and ran on Page 1 over a second story on Christie failing to defend the state's stringent concealed gun law, which was upheld by an appeals court.

More brain fade

A major screw-up in another front page story on Tuesday wasn't corrected today -- more evidence of brain fade on the copy desk, which continues to labor under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, the Queen of Errors.

The story on a shared services agreement between Montvale and River Vale reported incorrectly in the seventh paragraph that Montvale and "River Edge entered into the agreement over the summer" (Tuesday's A-6).

Tuesday's Local front carried a heartbreaking report on the funeral for Teia Gallo of Washington Township -- one of three African-Americans adopted by a white family -- who was stabbed to death, allegedly by her younger brother, Travis Gallo.

Van Lenten case

As of Dec. 16, lawyers for North Jersey Media Group and the estate of Peter Van Lenten Jr., as well as other defendants, filed 184 more pages of amended answers, motions, requests for default, certifications, affidavits of service and other legal mumbo jumbo.

Van Lenten, 47, of Pompton Lakes, former vice president of information technology for The Record and NJMG, died on April 28, 2010.

So, NJMG's litigious general counsel, Jennifer A. Borg, is going after Van Lenten's widow, Lauren, and son, also named Peter, though it's not clear how they can be held liable for what Van Lenten may or may have not done.

Enriching lawyers

The case is proceeding at the same snail's pace of most other civil litigation, serving only to enrich the lawyers involved.

NJMG is again using outside counsel, Pashman Stein, the Hackensack law firm that has been the subject of at least one favorable story in The Record's Business pages.

The suit, filed in April 2013, alleges Van Lenten conspired with outside computer and networking vendors and former employees to defraud NJMG.

Other named defendants include IC Systems Solutions and Computer Network Solutions. 

On June 14, the court entered defaults against defendants Philip Nolan and Nancy Nolan, who were identified as principals of one or both firms.

Lack of oversight

"Between 2001 and 2009, over $2 million was paid to [defendants] ICSS and CNS on false or inflated invoices," according to the suit.

But in the very next paragraph, the complaint acknowledges "shortly after [Van Lenten's employment was terminated in April 2009], NJMG began a review of the IT Department's purchasing practices under Mr. Van Lenten's leadership."

"That review lead [sic] to the discovery of the false and inflated invoices submitted by [defendants] ICSS and CNS," the suit alleges.

Is the lack of review during Van Lenten's tenure a major flaw in the suit, and if so, who at NJMG was responsible for failing to do that oversight?

The suit also alleges that from 2001 to 2009, NJMG paid [defendant] ICSS in excess of $1 million for temporary workers, many of whom were retired company employees, "at rates far in excess" of what they were making before they retired.

Porn allegations

In late 2011 -- in a footnote to the suit -- NJMG and the elder Borg settled a sexual harassment complaint filed by Tracey McCain, an Englewood woman who worked for Van Lenten.

McCain alleged that Malcolm A. Borg used company computers to disseminate pornography to Van Lenten and other managers and supervisors, knowing she would see them, because one of her jobs was to read and review her boss' e-mails.

The settlement was sealed by order of a Superior Court judge in Hackensack on Sept. 26, 2011, but likely involved the payment of money.

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.

More Christie P.R., LTACH and the Zisa curse

Patrons can park for free in a lot or at the curb when using the U.S. Post Office in Teaneck, above. In Hackensack, the post office has no parking lot and patrons have to fight over 4 metered spaces out front or for others around the corner. The Hackensack Police Department is across the street, and tickets are not uncommon.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Check out the phony photo of Staff Writer Herb Jackson with his NJ/DC political column on The Record's front page today.

Jackson -- the Woodland Park daily's so-called Washington correspondent -- is trying to give the impression he carefully considers every word, when, in fact, he writes off the top of his highly partisan head (A-1).

Jackson is part of the paper's public relations machinery for Governor Christie and other conservative Republicans.

Who can forget his Page 1 story on a Tea Party rally in Washington a few years ago, when Jackson conveniently ignored a large photo of dead Jews the Republican crackpots were using to compare health-care reform to the Holocaust?

Despite what Jackson says, Christie's true, partisan  nature is well-known. 

He set back a mass-transit expansion by decades when he killed two Hudson River rail tunnels.

And the GOP bully went to bat for wealthy business owners by vetoing a hike in the minimum wage (A-3).

Hackensack updates

Two Hackensack stories on the front of Local today update readers on long-running controversies (L-1).

As expected, a Superior Court judge ruled the developer of a proposed 19-story hospital on Prospect Avenue got "a fair hearing" before the city's zoning board turned down his application, 5-0, in January 2012.

A lawyer says the backer of the Bergen-Passaic Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) will appeal the decision (L-6).

The Borgs, Zisa curse

Of course, the Borgs and North Jersey Media Group could have offered to sell their 19.7 acres along River Street to LTACH's developer, defusing the long-running controversy.

But the greedy publishing family has chosen developer Fred Daibes, who promises to flood the area with luxury apartments, putting further strain on the city's public schools.

In return, The Record fills its news columns with favorable coverage of Daibes, a multimillionaire from Edgewater.

The second story amounts to the curse of former Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa returning to haunt Hackensack.

Another lawsuit

Zisa is under house arrest while he appeals convictions for insurance fraud and official misconduct, but now he is suing the city and the former president of its police union.

It is city residents who should be suing former City Council members and other city officials for not firing Zisa years ago, when problems in the Police Department first surfaced.

As it is, the LTACH and Zisa cases prove once again only the lawyers win as they rake in unconscionably high legal fees from both sides.

Editors miss the mark on home-rule reporting

Jitneys such as this one heading to Manhattan relieve the pressure on NJ Transit, which doesn't provide enough rush-hour bus or rail seats for North Jersey commuters.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


Mike Kelly pushes a lot of words around on The Record's front page today without coming close to answering some of the biggest questions about local police departments:

What exactly does the chief of a small department do, and why do we need nearly 70 of them in Bergen County alone (A-1)?

When The Record's Local section runs stories about a string of house burglaries, readers in such wealthy towns as Tenafly know what the chiefs don't do.

So, isn't it a good idea to empty the office of police brass and get them out on the street in Englewood Cliffs and other towns, where they can try to stop burglaries and enforce speeding laws?

But Kelly, aka "The Shit-Eating Grin," beats the subject to death, relying on one of the silliest comparisons I have ever seen:

"Think of this as the law enforcement equivalent of a restaurant with too many cooks and not enough waiters to serve the food."

No. Think of this as a columnist who long ago ran out of steam, and has been reduced to rewriting news stories.

Elderly and dead

Another front-page story today continues The Record's portrayal of the elderly as so demented they wander off for days -- or end up confined to a long-term care facility (A-1 and A-9).

The Record often ignores vibrant seniors who are living full lives until they die.

Still, I searched Local in vain today for an expanded obituary of a noteworthy North Jersey resident. In fact, I haven't seen one in several days.

Assuming Staff Writer Jay Levin is on vacation, why do the editors simply sit on their hands instead of assigning another reporter to write a local obit?

God knows, readers can't figure out why the Borgs are paying some reporters whose bylines are as rare as blue moons or why head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes keeps making excuses for them.

Help for obesity

The Better Living section today picks up more of Local's slack with a cover story on where families can get help for their obese children (BL-1).

Now, the paper should publish a story on where its obese editors can go for help.

The section also appears to have ended "STARTERS" -- a feature on new restaurants -- and substituted a streamlined column called "NOW OPEN" (BL-1)

Today's piece on Fiona's Restaurant in Midland Park is by Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori, whose straightforward reporting is far better than the hard sell of free-lancer Joyce Venezia Suss.

Boring columnists insult readers' intelligence

It's smooth driving after years of slow going over roughly patched pavement on Hackensack's Euclid Avenue, between Main Street and the railroad tracks.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Christie Apologist (Charles Stile). The Shit-Eating Grin (Mike Kelly). The Vagina Monologue (Tara Sullivan). The Addled Commuter (John Cichowski). The Momma's Boy (Bill Ervolino).

The Record's sorry lot of columnists are on full display in today's Sunday edition, with two of the morons on the front page.

How can Charles Stile call Governor Christie "the Jersey savior" and a "moderate" or compare him to Bill Clinton after the GOP bully used numerous vetoes to get his way, and broke his promise to lower local property taxes (A-1)?

Egypt, trollies

Why is Mike Kelly writing about a Jersey City jewelry store owner who can't retire to his native Egypt, and ignoring thousands of Jamaican-Americans in North Jersey whose island homeland has been in crisis for far longer (A-1)?

And the A-1 photo that accompanies Kelly's column is initially confusing. That's not the "Ahmed" he is writing about.

Why is the increasingly irrelevant Road Warrior waxing nostalgic over a form of mass transit that hasn't run for more than 80 years or is this just another way John Cichowski can avoid getting out of the office and doing some legwork (L-1)?

Selling out

You have to sympathize with Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais, a lone voice for consumers in The Record, which continues to promote business and developers, including those with ties to the Borg family (B-1).

A couple of years ago, DeMarrais himself wrote a story for the Business section about a woman who sold a multimillion-dollar private jet to Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and his pal, real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

Today, the Real Estate cover story eagerly quotes Edgewater builder Fred Daibes, without ever telling readers the multimillionaire who has skirted environmental regulations has agreed to buy the Borg family's 20 acres in Hackensack to build luxury apartments (R-1).

Farm to garden

It's only been a few weeks since Elisa Ung returned from her second maternity leave, but the restaurant reviewer has quickly abandoned the consumer focus of her Sunday column, The Corner Table (BL-1).

The chef and restaurant she writes about today is in Princeton. Hey, let's jump in the car and drive almost 60 miles for dinner.

Don't we all have 150 cookbooks and throw dinner parties?

You'd think so from the Better Living cover story by the new food editor, Esther Davidowitz (BL-1).

On BL-3, in another boring column about his family, Bill Ervolino writes about homeowners who grow huge zucchinis or what amounts to penis envy among gardeners.

Apathetic voters didn't derail Hackensack reformers

During Tuesday's election in Hackensack, a poll worker at the Fairmount Elementary School, above, told a woman who supported Victor E. Sasson for City Council to vote instead for the Citizens for Change slate at the top of the ballot. Sasson wrote a letter to the county Board of Elections, complaining about the alleged voter steering.

Voter apathy didn't stop a slate of reformers from sweeping Tuesday's City Council election in Hackensack.

Only 3,513 out of more than 20,000 registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday -- fewer than in both the 2009 and 2005 elections -- a spokeswoman for City Clerk Debra Heck said today.

In the past, low voter turnout doomed candidates who were seeking to oust the Zisa family dynasty, which has held power since the early 1990s.

But on Tuesday, incumbent Councilman John Labrosse led the 5-member Citizens for Change to victory -- denying a bid by 5 Zisa puppets to hold onto power in what is widely mocked as "Zisaville."

Sasson who?

Independent candidate Victor E. Sasson received 344 votes, some of which might have gone to members of the Coalition for Open Government, which he identified as "the Zisa slate."

The Record of Woodland Park denied Sasson a story announcing his candidacy -- unlike its treatment of the two organized slates -- then virtually ignored the campaign.

The victory of the Labrosse slate took the editors by surprise, forcing them to make it front-page news on Wednesday and to follow today with an interpretative story on A-1 and two related stories from Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely and her predecessor, Stephanie Akin.

'Daunting odds'

Today, the first paragraph of the Page 1 story reports the Labrosse team won "against daunting odds." 

But the total voter turnout, number of registered voters and Sasson's own campaign for reform are nowhere to be found.

Still, the story reveals how The Record and other media cover elections -- by comparing campaign donations, and usually giving more space and more favorable coverage to the candidates who amass the most cash.

Then, reporters call all those pundits and experts they have on speed dial, including a political science professor who also writes an opinion column for The Record.

Weinberg steps up

Even Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, belatedly got into the act, praising Citizens for Change on A-8, even though she had refused Sasson's request to make a robocall on behalf the reform candidates in the election.

That opened the way for Newark Mayor Cory Booker to make his own robocall for the Open Government candidates, bowing to their establishment ties and support from Lynne Hurwitz, Hackensack's Democratic Party boss.

Booker's clueless aide is quoted on A-8 today as calling the Hackensack contest "a tough race with good candidates on both sides, but ultimately the mayor supported what he believed to be the strongest overall ticket."

Christie reforms?

Those experts told The Record the Citizens for Change slate benefited from a reform movement sweeping the state, but how do the editors explain a quote from a professor of government at Fairleigh Dickinson University on A-8.

Prof. Peter Wooley alleges, "We are in reform period here in the sense that Chris Christie made real change the centerpiece of his first term as governor."

Of course, Christie loves to tout his "reform agenda," but the vast majority of his policies have hurt the middle and working classes, and catered to the rich.

The Borgs

So, it's no surprise Christie's war on the middle class is labeled "reform" in The Record, which is published by the elite Borg family.

The Borgs shut down the headquarters of The Record in 2009, abandoning Hackensack and dealing another blow to a struggling Main Street.

Their 20 acres along River Street have become an eyesore, and they haven't disclosed plans for the property. 

An emphatic two thumbs down for Roger Ebert

More than 10 NJ Transit bus routes were disrupted by the closing of the Anderson Street Bridge between Hackensack and Teaneck due to emergency weight-limit restrictions, above. Since the September closure, The Record hasn't interviewed a single bus rider on how their commute has been affected, but has carried the Road Warrior's endless hand-wringing over every tiny inconvenience faced by North Jersey lead-footed drivers.

With greedy publishing families like the Borgs and scandals involving fabricated quotes and even entire stories at such prestigious publications as The New York Times and Washington Post, you'd think Hollywood would have exposed the dark side of newspapers long ago.

You'd be wrong, of course, and critic Roger Ebert spent more than 45 years analyzing films without ever mentioning how directors have done exactly the opposite -- they go out of their way to glorify the press.

Hollywood might shy away from blasting the press because critics like Ebert, who worked for a big newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, could make or break them.

And you know the only reason Editor Marty Gottlieb put Ebert's obituary on the front page of Friday's paper is because he was a fellow newspaperman.

The Record's Friday entertainment tabloid once carried Ebert's reviews, but they ended several years ago, in an apparent cost-cutting move.

He's no Jeff Page

Gottlieb also seems to be indulging another fellow newspaperman, Staff Writer John Cichowski, whose Road Warrior columns are paved with inaccuracies.

On Friday, the Road Warrior's annual pothole column appeared on the Local front -- symbolizing the deep whole he continues to dig for the paper's credibility.

Local yokels

Five pages of Friday's Local was devoted to higher-education news, but head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes still needed a photo of a non-fatal accident to fill the local-news section (L-7).

Her deputy, Dan Sforza, spent the day out of the office, measuring potholes for Cichowski.

Rutgers brouhaha

Today, for the third day in a row, Gottlieb presents more screaming Page 1 headlines and blanket coverage of Rutgers University and its abusive basketball coach, Mike Rice.

Meanwhile, readers have had to listen to WBGO-FM radio news or search for stories on Trenton budget hearings to find out how Governor Christie intends to screw the middle and working classes again by short-changing mass transit and affordable housing. 

Crossing readers

Today's story on a Fort Lee crosswalk ticket blitz took readers by surprise -- coming after a March 22 Road Warrior column that warned about the use of plainclothes officers in a similar Teaneck crackdown this month (L-1).

But so far, drivers haven't seen any such blitz on Cedar Lane.

Sykes and Sforza couldn't find room for Hackensack news today, but did find space for the Dean's List; photos of a minor SUV and car fire, and a motorboat being pulled from a river; and for a story on road repairs in Edgewater (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

New to My Blog List 

(on the right of this page):

Hackensack Scoop
The County Watchers 
  

The Borgs and LTACH: Perfect together

Teaneck police stopped the driver of this Porsche on Main Street in Hackensack, in front of the Sears Auto Center, on Wednesday. Two other Teaneck police cars responded, below. As for traffic stops in Hackensack, they are not that common, and drivers seem to speed and roll through stop signs with abandon. This morning, a young woman in a Toyota Corolla crossed the double-yellow lines to pass my car on Spring Valley Avenue near the Maywood border.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At a forum in a Prospect Avenue high-rise on Wednesday night, all 11 candidates for Hackensack City Council pledged to stop a developer who is fighting a zoning-board decision that rejected his plan for a 19-story hospital.

The long-term, acute-care center -- known as Bergen Passaic LTACH -- would be built between Prospect and Summit avenues, near Golf Place, outside the city's hospital zone.

A coalition of Prospect Avenue residents fought the plan for about three years before the zoning board decided the matter in January 2012.

In a basement meeting room at The Whitehall luxury co-op, independent candidate Victor E. Sasson, editor of Eye on The Record, was seated between his opponents -- two 5-member slates that call themselves Hackensack Citizens for Change and Hackensack Coalition for Open Government.

Sasson felt like he was being asked to part the Dead Sea.

Where was The Record?

No reporter for The Record covered the forum, the first of four planned at Prospect Avenue high-rises near the proposed site, which is zoned residential.

Citing the tax-exempt status of Hackensack University Medical Center, Sasson said there is no way of knowing whether developer Richard Peneles would apply for non-profit status after his hospital was built and stop paying property taxes.

Go to the river

An appropriate place for such a hospital is the 20-acre River Street parcel owned by the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group, publisher of  The Record, which abandoned Hackenack in 2009.

The property has become an eyesore. Now, wire is being stripped from the four-story building in anticipation of its demolition.

Sasson urges Pineles and the Borg family to get together and work out a land and money swap that would pave the way for construction of LTACH in a commercial zone with access to highways.

Because NJMG's land is in a flood zone, LTACH could take the form of a dry docked hospital ship -- with parking below decks -- and be dubbed Borg's Ark. 

Then, when the next Sandy hits, LTACH would be able to ride out the storm.

Another appropriate place for the 19-story hospital is also on River Street, at Kansas Street, land occupied by Costco Wholesale, which is rumored to be leaving Hackensack in about a year.

Today's paper

Superstorm Sandy unleashed unprecedented coverage of the Jersey shore, as two stories on today's front page show.

Now, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, have an excuse for not covering Hackensack and many other towns.

Paramus officials seem blind to the possibility that merchants who allow their sign lights to burn after 11 p.m. are contributing to public safety and deterring burglaries (A-1).

Big local news

Readers will find major Hackensack news on L-2, where a photo shows a street-light and solar-panel pole that was knocked down by a bus in front of police headquarters.    

The photo caption says only the pole fell "on State Street."

Was the NJ Transit driver cited? Readers have no clue.