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| On Saturday afternoon, a Hackensack police officer was on hand as three city firefighters used a hose to try and remove the blood stain left after Jerome S. Some was struck and killed by a small SUV as he was crossing Prospect Avenue on Tuesday night. Plywood covers the doors of Some's building, rear, during renovation of the lobby and other areas. |
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| Pedestrian safety is a gamble on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, above, where crosswalks are few and far between. The same can be said for signs advising drivers of the state law on yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks. |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
Jerome S. Some would be alive today if renovations to his high-rise in Hackensack hadn't displaced members of the building's co-op board.
Some, 87, was crossing Prospect Avenue to a Tuesday night meeting of the board, on the second floor of Bel Posto Restaurant, when he was struck and killed by a small SUV.
Witnesses said the driver, Kathleen Gehm, 63, didn't see Some and didn't brake before the impact. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.
Gehm is a nurse who is believed to have been on her way to her job at Hackendack University Medical Center.
On Saturday, Hackensack firefighters used a fire hose to try and remove Some's blood, which had stained the pavement in front of his building, the Eiffel Tower at 151 Prospect Ave.
There is no crosswalk between Some's building and Bel Posto, a fine-dining Italian restaurant with a sushi bar.
Pedestrian gamble
On Saturday afternoon, along the nearly 1 mile length of Prospect Avenue, between Passaic and Essex streets, I could find only four signs advising drivers of the state law requiring them to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk.
Keep in mind Prospect is a busy street lined with high-rises and apartment buildings.
Two of those signs flank a crosswalk in front of the medical center, one is located at Beech Street and one is on Prospect between crosswalks where the street passes over railroad tracks.
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| One of the four signs on Prospect Avenue advising drivers to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks is near Beech Street, above and below, a busy intersection with stop signs, not the traffic light residents have been demanding for years. |
Even when there are crosswalks on Prospect, they consist of two parallel painted lines in several cases, not the more visible painted cross-hatch.
Some, the founder and owner of Some's Uniforms on Main Street in Hackensack, left a wife and four children ages 23 to 60.
Election follies
The Record's front page today continues the tradition of editors and reporters bored with the electoral process trying to persuade voters that nearly every contest is
a horse race, defying the facts.
Voters weary of the endless discussion of politics and the absence of any real exploration of issues and what is good for New Jersey and the nation simply turn off and don't even go to the polls.
Look at the preview of the U.S. Senate election dominating Page 1 today, especially the preposterous headline over a Mike Kelly column on Steve Lonegan, the Tea Party crackpot who would add even more division to a dysfunctional Congress.
Which editor's twisted mind is responsible for using "passion" to describe Lonegan's racism and extremism?
Kelly, the columnist with the shit-eating grin, is so eager to avoid mention of Lonegan's shameless campaign against Newark Mayor Cory Booker he begins his piece with ancient history, something Lonegan did more than 30 years ago!
A-2 carries another embarrassing correction of a Page 1 story.
Another moron
On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski has reached a new low: a quiz for drivers -- another royal F.U. to commuters who use the overburdened public transit system.
Kelly's failure as a columnist can be seen clearly on the Opinion front, which carries yet another dated, unflattering photo of the veteran reporter (O-1).
After detailing all of the millions of tax dollars that go into supporting football programs that cause "too many brain injuries in too many players," Kelly simply can't muster the courage to express the strong opinion that readers look for in a columnist.
Instead of saying emphatically that tax dollars shouldn't be used, all he can muster is: "It needs to be asked at some point why tax dollars should support it."
Doblin column
In a letter to the editor today (O-3), Paul White of Ridgewood questions the competence of Editorial Page Director Alfred P. Doblin, who started a column on Governor Christie and last week's debate with "three paragraphs on nonsensical questions concerning music" that "expose his usual bias" for the GOP bully.
White notes that during the debate with Democratic challenger Barbara Buono, "Christie displayed callousness toward the health of women, our cities, the middle and lower classes, and minority rights."
In view of that, why can't Doblin write a column without references to Broadway musicals and Hollywood films? That's so gay.
And as the editor who helps determine which candidates are endorsed by The Record, I don't think he should be writing an opinion column at all.
Let them eat cake
For yet another Sunday, the dessert-obsessed restaurant reviewer devotes her column, The Corner Table, to restaurants, not to the issues restaurant goers face (BL-1).
At least, Staff Writer Elisa Ung should stop pretending she is on the consumer's side and rename her column.
