Edgewater's volunteer fire force is a big insult to residents

Fire consuming the 408-unit Avalon apartments on Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 Edgewater residents homeless. The Cliffview Pilot.com photo was taken by Carmen Fuentes. Are residents ill-served by volunteer firefighters?By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORResidents in the booming Gold Coast town of Edgewater deserve better than a volunteer fire force that has failed to extinguish at least three spectacular apartment fires in the past 20 years.More than...

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More sketchy and flawed reporting on driving, mass transit

In Fort Lee, construction of the massive Hudson Lights retail and residential project has spread to Lemoine Avenue and Main Street, above and below, closing nearby streets and disrupting downtown traffic. Meanwhile, across the street, the Plaza Diner is being renovated and expanded, but hasn't set an opening date.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThe Record's editorial today on the proposed $1 billion-plus expansion of New York Penn Station to benefit New...

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Train station opus raises more questions than it answers

New Jersey-bound commuters in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in Manhattan. The Record's Sunday story on a new train station seemed to have a big hole in it -- about the size of two more Hudson River rail tunnels.When an NJ Transit train is assigned a track in the Amtrak-owned station 10 minutes before its scheduled departure, commuters scramble to get a seat.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORThousands upon thousands of words on the potential...

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Reporter John H. Kuhn set an example that few follow

On River Street in Hackensack, you can make one stop for cheap gasoline and even cheaper, low-quality hamburgers.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORI seriously doubt that many of the reporters at The Record will read the obituary of John H. Kuhn on the Local news front today.And if they do, it's unlikely they'll try to match the disabled reporter's energy or his insistence on going out into the field to cover a story (L-1)."He [Kuhn] churned out many thousands...

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Front-page news, views from everywhere but North Jersey

Construction of a Justice Center on Court Street in Hackensack, above and below, seems to be moving as slowly some of the civil lawsuits filed in the Bergen County Courthouse.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORWith all of Paterson's troubles, why did Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record race down to Camden to assess whether it's the success story Governor Christie claims it is?Christie has totally ignored Silk City, where gun violence took the lives of two innocent...

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Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITOREditor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. You'll find more interesting...

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Christie-friendly editors do great P.R. for GOP bully

A trailer parked on East 85th Street in Manhattan shows the value of copy editors and copy editing. When North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, lost sight of that simple fact during a major downsizing in 2008, the quality and accuracy of its flagship daily began to decline noticeably. That slide continues, as A-2 corrections show, but they are only a fraction of the actual screw-ups.  By VICTOR E. SASSONEDITORGovernor Christie has...

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