Every single Road Warrior column is a car wreck

An NJ Transit double-decker train at the Secaucus Junction on Friday. The extra seats are welcome, but the rail cars come with a dangerous interior design flaw: low luggage racks on the upper level that can crack a commuter's head.By Victor E. SassonEditorI pity North Jersey commuters who don't drive to work, either because they don't want to be stuck in massive traffic jams or can't afford a car, insurance and the exorbitant tolls.They won't find...

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Editors ignore GOP attacks on minority rights

Hackensack's Main Street often resembles a ghost town, despite the efforts of a public-private partnership called the Upper Main Alliance. Curiously, some of the empty storefronts are owned by C.J. Lombardo Co., whose CEO, Jerome J. Lombardo, is chairman of the very same Upper Main Alliance. On the 200 block of Main, a welcome sign of renewal: Attili's Grill & Cafe, above, will replace Pfeiffer's/El Potrero Grill.A few doors down, a sign promises...

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A truly boring newspaper -- from front to back

As a resident of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, what do I get for the third-quarter property tax payment of $3,765.65 I made today? Mine was the only block of Euclid that wasn't repaved this month. I do thank Police Director Mike Mordaga for a newly invigorated Police Department, but other agencies fall short. The Building Department, in particular, has turned a deaf ear to neighbors' complaints about 177 Euclid Ave. and 311 Euclid Ave., two homes...

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

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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. SassonEditorMike 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...

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Rehashing the past, trying to predict the future

The YMCA on Main Street in Hackensack.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe Record's lazy, bored local news editors are expert at dwelling on the past or trying to predict the future, as today's front page demonstrates once again. I spent about 10 minutes going through this Sunday edition, trying to find something relevant to my life in North Jersey.The Local section from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza was another...

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More national, state and local politics on A-1

Fort Lee's latest sore thumb.By Victor E. SassonEditorDoes President Obama really have to come to New Jersey and point out that state Sen. Barbara Buono is the Democrats' best chance to end Governor Christie's mean-spirited campaign against the middle class (A-1)?The Record's front page report today on Cliffside Park Mayor Gerald Calabrese -- an 88-year-old with big health problems -- is the most persuasive argument yet for dismantling the state's...

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With Christie, the 'Dream' is a living nightmare

At a vacant house on Summit Avenue in Hackensack.By Victor E. SassonEditorThe Record's front page today and other media are jumping the gun on the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington "for jobs and equal rights" (Aug. 28).But it's typical of the Woodland Park daily to focus on the recollections of freedom marchers from Englewood and Paterson who heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech -- and not on how poorly minorities are...

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GOP politics dominate today's headlines

A tractor-trailer holding up traffic on Summit Avenue at Passaic Street, an antiquated two-lane road that is a notorious traffic bottleneck in Hackensack. Passaic is narrow and has no turn lanes on either side of Summit, unlike its intersection with Prospect Avenue and other cross streets.By Victor E. SassonEditorOn Page 1 of The Record today, GOP bully Chris Christie endorses Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan's bid for a U.S. Senate seat from New...

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More flawed reporting on LTACH in Hackensack

Private homes at 324 Summit Ave., above, and 329 Prospect Ave., below, are among  four Hackensack properties that would make way for a 19-story acute-care hospital, in the unlikely event the controversial proposal is ever built.The house at 329 Prospect Ave., which appears to be the only one of the four that is occupied, is across the street from the Prospect Heights Care Center, which is owned by the developer of the proposed hospital, called...

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Editors are doing a better job of covering the dead

The rush-hour stampede for a seat on an NJ Transit train at Manhattan's Penn Station is one of the unpleasant features of using mass transit, but The Record would rather write story after story on Superstorm Sandy damage to locomotives and rail cars.By Victor E. SassonEditor You can't exactly call a story about how many dead people are buried in North Arlington a bright spot, but there is so little else of interest on Page 1 of The Record today it...

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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. SassonEditorThe 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...

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