Our local newspaper is flying off the rails

Teaneck calls this patch of grass next to Route 4 a "park." Walkers and runners are advised to use gas masks.By VICTOR E. SASSONEditorToday's front page is filled with stories only Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record, his sub-editors and his reporters care about.Residents of North Jersey and, especially, of Bergen County are trying to stifle yawns as they rifle through today's edition for anything relevant to their lives.On A-2, two more corrections...

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Bergen-Borg parking pact may cost taxpayers $1M

The dumpsters are gone, and now the cars of visitors, attorneys and jurors fill the parking lot at 150 River St. in Hackensack, former headquarters of The Record. Bergen County is paying $1,440.11 for each one of the 540 spaces it is leasing through July 2015. A 6-story Justice Center is being built on the nearby Bergen County Courthouse parking lot.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe cost of the new Bergen County Justice Center Parking Lot -- at The Record's...

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Will River Street be vacant for 2 more years?

Since The Record left 150 River St. in Hackensack, this marker has resembled a tombstone for local journalism. Now, Bergen County is leasing 540 parking spaces in the old Record lot from the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group.This is one of the trucks and other pieces of equipment parked in the NJMG-owned lot near the U.S.S. Ling, generating more income for the Borgs.By Victor E. SassonEditorAfter Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned the Hackensack...

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Editors continue to play catch-up on Fahy suicide

A storefront on Palisade Avenue in Englewood has become an eyesore, remaining empty long after another failed restaurant vacated the premises. The Record continues to turn a blind eye to the struggles of the wealthy city's downtown, as it does to hard-hit business districts in Teaneck and Hackensack. By Victor E. SassonEditorEditor Marty Gottlieb leads The Record today with another story that attempts to explain why former Bergen County Prosecutor...

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More -- much more -- sloppy and irrelevant reporting

Ten lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic merging into a single tube of the Lincoln Tunnel during Friday afternoon's agonizing rush hour. By Victor E. SassonEditorOnly political junkies like The Record's Washington correspondent and Editor Marty Gottlieb are already thinking of the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.Unfortunately for readers of the Woodland Park daily, Gottlieb leads today's paper with Staff Writer Herb Jackson's silly "primary preview"...

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Where life and death are highly profitable

A congressional proposal to end door-to-door mail delivery -- reported on Page 1 of The Record today -- would intensify the war over the four metered parking spaces in front of the Hackensack Post Office on State Street, above. By Victor E. SassonEditorThe owners of the for-profit Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center laughed all the way to the bank while stiffing nurses and the IRS, The Record reports today (A-1).In less than three years, the 230-bed...

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Editors try to paper over uncomfortable truths

Musicians scrambling to protect themselves and their equipment from a sudden, heavy downpour on Tuesday night during a concert on the green in downtown Tenafly.By Victor E. SassonEditorWill wonders never cease, as reported by The Record?A Superior Court judge was called for jury duty in Passaic County, then excused at the request of the defendant's lawyer in a civil suit (Page 1).Gee whiz. When is The Record ever going to report on the outrageous...

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Chris loves Sandy, but hates the rest of us

The new City Council, led by Mayor John P. Labrosse Jr., third from right, meeting at Hackensack City Hall on Monday night in an atmosphere of optimism for the city's future. A sign inside the 3rd Floor men's bathroom, below, seems to show the city has been conservation-minded, though it is just getting around to installing solar panels on its buildings, lagging behind Teaneck and other communities.By Victor E. SassonEditorJust imagine...

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Why are we letting drivers get away with murder?

The new Hackensack City Council is meeting tonight at 7 on the 3rd Floor of City Hall at Central Avenue and State Street.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe centerpiece on the front page of The Record today is a familiar story -- one I've probably read 100 times in newspapers or seen on TV news:A car runs down and kills a pedestrian, but the driver tells police he "didn't see" the victim.He wasn't speeding and didn't break any other traffic laws.And the...

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That's titillating, but how does it affect me?

This sign, seen across the roof of a van, is a touch of civility at a Manhattan entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Fortunately or unfortunately, congestion usually slows drivers to a crawl, giving them time to read the sign and yield to other drivers -- in marked contrast to what happens on New Jersey highways.By Victor E. SassonEditorAn extra-marital affair, an angry husband, pay-to-play and a prominent Republican who has grown fat on his New Jersey...

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