Salt shortage is a great excuse for town DPWs

Around 9 this morning, a neighbor freeing his car from deep driveway snow on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Earlier, city plows came down the street, pushing snow toward the curb and blocking driveways.

On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, snow-covered branches were a delight to behold.

A doctor snared a prime, free parking space in front of his office on Fifth Avenue, near 86th Street, by putting an "on call" card on the dashboard of his expensive, gas-guzzling SUV.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

New York City media are obsessed with snowstorms and snow clearing, and Mayor Bill de Blasio has been rated hundreds of times on the city's performance since he took office on Jan. 1.

But when a big storm hits North Jersey, Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza may not even be bothering to come into the newsroom.

And their equally lazy minions haven't bothered to question a single municipal official on whether they've made streets safe for drivers, pedestrians and bus riders. 

In the past two decades, local Departments of Public Works have done a pretty lousy job of plowing streets and clearing crosswalks and bus stops after big storms, and tens of thousands of home and business owners don't even clear their sidewalks.

Now, the Woodland Park daily reports on Page 1 today, those incompetent crews have the perfect excuse -- a shortage of road salt (A-1).

High taxes, low service

With snow and icy rain falling this morning, that story is the most riveting in the paper.

Oh, there is plenty of Bridgegate news, and localizing of the drug overdose that took the life of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (A-1).

But readers are left to curse under their breath and shake their heads at enormous property tax bills as they watch municipal workers struggle once again to clear streets after the latest storm.

Huge failure

Even before the disappointing Super Bowl contest on Sunday, many North Jersey officials and businesses saw through all the pro football hype delivered by The Record.

Today, the editors lead Local with the rescue of 16 children "from forced prostitution" and the arrest of 45 pimps and traffickers (L-1).

Of course,  the story appears under a tasteless, completely inappropriate headline, suggesting some of the copy editors may be closet sex perverts:

"Sex traffickers thrown for loss"