Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

Hackensack officials, homeowners urging 'no' vote on $170M proposal:

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2019/01/hackensack-officials-homeowners-urging.html

Have you noticed The Record is running what sound like restaurant reviews on the Better Living front on Wednesdays? Star ratings aren't given, as they were in the Friday restaurant reviews that ended in November 2016 with the departure of critic Elisa Ung, several months after the newspaper was sold to Gannett Co. And prices don't always appear. Nor are readers assured The Record paid for the reviewer's meals.

On Dec. 12 (last Wednesday), Food Editor Esther Davidowitz panned The Hill, a highly anticipated seafood restaurant that opened in Closter after many months of delay. The headline said the restaurant "doesn't quite wow." Davidowitz said she visited four times, and "each time left disappointed and perplexed." Four times? She mentions only 7 appetizers and entrees in her appraisal. Did she go alone? She says, "I have eaten chef Ben Pollinger's food at Oceana, that seafood mecca in Manhattan where the Oradell resident worked for many years, and can vouch for his terrific cooking skills. Perhaps my expectations were too high."

On Dec. 5, Davidowitz appraised Vanillamore, a dessert lounge and restaurant in Montclair that would be avoided like the plague by anyone watching their cholesterol and sugar intake, as are many older readers of The Record. She praises "delightfully innovative, extraordinarily stylized desserts" and "beautifully plated savory dishes."

On Nov. 21, Davidowtitz reviewed yet another Montclair restaurant, even though the town isn't in Bergen County, once the heart of The Record's readership. She says the kitchen of the Montclair Social Club "sends out some of the best food my dining companions and I had eaten in North Jersey in some time." Again, there is no star rating or assurance The Record paid for the meals.

The Record's old headquarters are disappearing fast:

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-records-onetime-hq-on-river-street.html

 A short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_DYP6o-0gI&t=24s

New and old Hackensack:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpHlBWugOjC/?hl=en&taken-by=victoresasson

Of course, Tom Franklin, the photographer, probably would have won a Pulitzer Prize for the flag-raising photo, if the editors had put it on the front page the next day. Unfortunately, Frank Scandale, the paper's new editor, caved it to the bean counters, who told him it would be "too expensive" to remake the front page for the photo, so The Record, like so many other newspapers, ran the stock photo of the smoking towers on A-1. Franklin's photo ran on the front of an inside section on Sept. 12, and his flag-raising photo was sent out by The Associated Press and landed on the front of The New York Post the next day, and the tabloid credited AP. That forced Rich Gigli, The Record's photo director, and Franklin to go on the "Today" show the next day and claim credit for his unique image. What a disgrace. I was a copy editor at the time, and was called in to put out an Extra in the afternoon and then worked into the night putting out the next day's paper, with the column of smoke from the Twin Towers framed in the big newsroom windows of The Record's headquarters at 150 River St. until dark.

A Page 1 column in The Record on the Tesla Model 3 is filled with errors:

https://thesassonreport.blogspot.com/2018/09/clueless-error-filled-column-on-all.html

The story from The Wretched (err The Record) reports the plaques "were pried from the ground."

CONNECTICUT COUPLE CHARGED WITH BURGLARIZING U.S.S. LING:

https://paramus.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/ct-couple-charged-with-burglarizing-uss-ling-after-it-was-flooded/742259/