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Messages - Victor E Sasson

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121
Hackensack Discussion / Re: My favorite paper is not having a good day
« on: September 19, 2019, 10:26:52 AM »
THE RECORD'S FOOD COVERAGE PANDERS TO ADVERTISERS, IGNORES LOCAL RESTAURANTS

Here is a shocking development at The Record of Woodland Park and Hackensack Chronicle, the weekly that no longer has its own staff and reprints articles from the once-great daily newspaper:

"Enjoy a 'Taste of Alaska'" was the headline on the front of the Chronicle last Friday the 13th, reporting a promotion at Oceanaire Seafood Room, the fine-dining restaurant in the Shops at Riverside, referred to by its old name, Riverside Square Mall. Since when did a fixed-price dinner of Alaska seafood constitute the most important local news in Hackensack? OK. This article is no different than The Record designating a retailing reporter many years ago and running all of the front page news about the malls in Paramus to pander to advertisers.

Wednesday's Local news front in The Record carried a breathless story by reporter Stephanie Noda, offering a 'first look' at a new Stew Leonard's in the sleepy Paramus Park Mall. The 80,000 square-foot-supermarket invited Martha Stewart to the private preview, and a photo with the story showed the queen of food manhandling a whole salmon (farmed or wild?, the caption doesn't say).

The ultimate insult to Bergen County readers who keep kosher was published on the Sept. 11 Better Living front in The Record -- a long story on kosher restaurants in Lakewood, a 75-mile drive from Hackensack on the insanely crowded Garden State Parkway.

Why didn't The Record report on all of the kosher places in Teaneck and Englewood? Because the owner, a newspaper conglomerate called Gannett, also owns the Asbury Park Press and decided to run the APP's long, rambling piece instead of one focusing on kosher food in Bergen County.

Oy! At one point, the writers, Kelly-Jane Cotter and Sarah Griesemer, say they are ready for "an Anthony Bourdain-like experience" at an Israeli restaurant they call a hole-in-the-wall. All I can think of is Bourdain's suicide, and stop reading. Anyway, who in their right mind is going to drive 75 miles for a falafel sandwich, kosher or not?


122
Hackensack Discussion / Re: The Ling is listing...
« on: September 15, 2019, 11:22:00 AM »
GROUP TRYING TO SAVE THE LING HOPE FINAL VOYAGE WILL BE TO KENTUCKY MUSEUM

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/09/group-trying-to-save-uss-ling-hope.html

LINK TO SAVE THE USS LING FACEBOOK PAGE

https://www.facebook.com/groups/338689653415753/

LINK TO LOUISVILLE NAVAL MUSEUM FACEBOOK PAGE

https://www.facebook.com/louisvillenavalmuseuminc/

123
Hackensack Discussion / Re: Area in need of Rehabilitation
« on: September 13, 2019, 07:50:11 PM »
This post has been updated to add more projects

'GREETINGS FROM THE SACK' AND OTHER DOWNTOWN TALES

NEW APARTMENTS AND RESTAURANTS, BUT WHERE DO YOU PARK?

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-stroll-on-main-street-new-restaurants.html

124
Hackensack Discussion / Re: My favorite paper is not having a good day
« on: September 10, 2019, 11:05:24 AM »
READERS OF THE RECORD GO BEGGING FOR BERGEN NEWS

Last Friday's edition of The Record was another slap in the face of Bergen County readers looking for local news.

The front page carried a long column on challenges facing the George Washington Bridge paint crew [yawn], and an even longer anniversary story about a Camden man who killed 13 of his neighbors 70 years ago. In a royal FU to readers looking for local news, the mass-killing anniversary covered an entire page inside (along with 3 ads), showing once again how newspapers love anniversaries, using them as an excuse for not covering local news or anything else of interest to Bergen County readers.

Readers of the Local section found a story about a lawsuit filed by the former Elmwood Park borough clerk on the section front along with a fundraiser involving Passaic County first responders at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.

Stories about the city of Passaic, Paterson, and Montclair were on 2L and 3L. No local town news from Bergen County except Elmwood Park (on 1L) appeared in the section, unless you count two Fair Lawn teenagers hospitalized after their car crashed (3L).

An entire page of Local is devoted to a house ad promoting northjersey.com "revealing truth" about pollution left behind by the DuPont plant in Pompton Lakes -- a story the paper has covered for many decades.

What about the "truth" of Gannett company buying up daily newspapers like The Record, slashing their staffs and then ignoring news that holds county and municipal officials accountable to residents who are paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation?



125
Hackensack Discussion / Re: Our horrible streets, roads and highways
« on: September 10, 2019, 10:39:59 AM »
THE LAST BLOCK OF EUCLID AVENUE WILL BE REPAVED

As I write this, a 3-man crew from a local construction company is installing new, larger catch basins on Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues. And wheelchair ramps at Euclid and Summit avenues were installed in anticipation of the first paving of the street in nearly 30 years.

The other blocks of Euclid -- between Prospect Avenue and Main Street -- were repaved several years ago, but this last block wasn't included in the work.

Euclid is among 11 streets that will be repaved before the end of the year, as listed in the city's Fall 2019 newsletter.

126
Hackensack Discussion / Re: My favorite paper is not having a good day
« on: September 05, 2019, 03:12:35 PM »
THE RECORD'S BLINDSPOT TO THE BIGGEST QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUE IN BERGEN COUNTY

Teterboro Airport -- used by corporate titans, and the rich and famous -- is the biggest source of annoying aircraft noise over homes in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other towns in Bergen County, but The Record has never treated the Port Authority owed airport as the nuisance it is.

Efforts to change the flight path of business and private jets to avoid roaring over Hackensack University Medical Center, Prospect Avenue high-rises and schools have been unsuccessful, and the noise-reporting complaint line has had little effect in reducing the racket.

When Malcolm A. Borg was publisher of the Hackensack daily, he pushed for the creation of an aviation museum at Teterboro, and in 1986, he invited Stephen Berger, the new executive director of the Port Authority, for lunch in Borg's private dining room along with a few editorial staffers, including me, who covered the bi-state agency at the time. The first words out of Borg's mouth were on the order of, "What the f--k is going on with the aviation museum?"

The Record did manage to muster enough coverage to kill a proposal to allow bigger jets, like the 737, to land there, but hasn't consistently campaigned to get rid of the older, noisier aircraft that use the airport

Now, at least 2 sensational articles in The Record have identified Teterboro as the hub of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking ring:

"From his mansion in Manhattan to his ranch in New Mexico and his island in the Caribbean, Epstein allegedly used his fleet of private jets to deliver dozen of sex slaves -- some as young as 14 -- to celebrities, royals, and famous politicians, according to statements ... in criminal and civil court filings since 2008, some of which were first released to the public last week," Staff Writer Christopher Maag reported in a story reprinted in the Hackensack Chronicle on Aug. 23, 1979.

Good luck trying to get anyone to do anything about the endless noise from Teterboro now.[size]

127
Hackensack Discussion / Re: M&M Building Renovations
« on: August 28, 2019, 06:36:35 PM »
THE NEW, IMPROVED AND GREATLY EXPANDED M&M BUILDING OPENS ON SEPT. 14:

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/08/grand-opening-of-new-and-improved-m.html

128
Hackensack Discussion / Re: Our horrible streets, roads and highways
« on: August 23, 2019, 10:43:37 AM »
Here are excerpts from the Reason Foundation report on streets and highways:

The state highway systems in New Jersey (50th), Alaska (49th), Rhode Island (48th), Hawaii (47th), Massachusetts (46th) and New York (45th) rank at the bottom of the nation in overall performance and cost-effectiveness. Despite spending more money per mile than any other state, New Jersey has the worst urban traffic congestion and among the worst urban Interstate pavement conditions in the country.

Traffic congestion remains about the same from the previous report, with Americans spending an average of 35 hours a year stuck in traffic. Drivers in New Jersey, New York, California, Georgia and Massachusetts experience the longest delays due to urban traffic congestion in their metro regions.

Towards the bottom of the rankings, you have highly populated states, like last-place New Jersey, along with Massachusetts, New York, and California to a lesser extent, that are spending a lot but often failing to keep up with traffic congestion and road maintenance.

New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut spent the most on their highways on a per-mile basis, with each state spending more than $200,000 per mile of highway it controls.

129
Hackensack Discussion / Re: Our horrible streets, roads and highways
« on: August 23, 2019, 10:33:12 AM »
This study confirms New Jersey highways rank last in the nation, and our urban streets aren't much better:

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/08/22/new-jersey-worst-roads-report/

READ: Ice-covered streets and segregated schools:

http://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-small-citys-high-property-taxes-get.html

READ: Use hospital payments to pave our streets:

http://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-modest-proposal-hackensack-should-use.html



130
Hackensack Discussion / Re: My favorite paper is not having a good day
« on: August 16, 2019, 09:51:42 AM »
After slogging through yet another repetitive "gotcha" post from BLeafe, it finally has occurred to me that Gannett's production staff in a design studio far from Hackensack, N.J., is subjecting readers to:

A Reign of Error

131
Hackensack Discussion / Re: Area in need of Rehabilitation
« on: July 27, 2019, 03:44:06 PM »
Defending charges for public fire protection, Suez says hydrant and main repair cost more than $38,000

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/07/suez-defends-millions-of-dollars-in.html

132
More fractured syntax and other errors from The Record of Woodland Park, as reprinted in the Hackensack Chronicle:

A story warning drivers of flooding in Hackensack appeared on the front page of the weekly today, July 26, referring to July 23. "Hackensack Fire Department is advising drivers to avoid flooded areas, as firefighters have rescued 14 people from stranded vehicles," the second paragraph said.

Were streets still flooded today? "Drivers were getting stuck in the water," the story reported, but it is unclear whether they were in vehicles or just on foot.

A photo caption noted "flooding on Lodi and Gregg Street in Hackensack."

The amount of rain that fell in Westwood, Ramsey, Bergenfield and Lyndhurst ended the story, but no figure was provided for Hackensack.

Sharing the front page with the flooding story was a wildly promotional story on the opening of a "healthy-eating restaurant at The Shops at Riverside," the mall that provides a lot of advertising to The Record. The story jumps to Page 4, and goes on and on about the final phase of a makeover for the luxury mall.[size]


133
Hackensack Discussion / Re: HUMC Expansion
« on: July 18, 2019, 06:09:45 PM »
A city councilman said those projects -- a tower with patient rooms and a separate power plant -- will be paying full property taxes. The power plant apparently won't have any solar, geothermal or other alternative energy, though. (I can imagine hospital officials dismissing solar and geothermal as "experimental" forms of energy.) Why do so few schools, hospitals and public projects ignore solar and geothermal energy? I think only one of the high-rises on Prospect Avenue has solar panels, but The New York Times Sunday edition had a cover story on residential towers in the city embracing solar. At my home in Hackensack, I installed solar in 2009, when we bought the house, increased the number of panels in 2012, and this past March had three Tesla storage batteries installed so that my home is self-powered, zeroing out my electric bill.

134
The Record formally announced a policy apparent to readers for many month, restricting some stories on NorthJersey.com to subscribers. Reader reaction was swift:

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/07/readers-of-record-turn-thumbs-down-on.html

135
Thanks for the psychoanalysis. But you are talking about Gannett, the biggest newspaper publisher in the United States with a track record of buying papers, slashing the payroll and pages of local news, and centralizing production in major design studios around the country, so The Record of Woodland Park is being put out, edited and so forth who knows where, certainly not in New Jersey. Nothing will get better. Readers are abandoning the website and print edition in droves (as shown in the annual reports I have posted on my blog), and I would not be surprised to see the paper folded in a couple of years.

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