A school election in November, an empty Main Street and other Hackensack views

A DESERTED MAIN STREET: Last Tuesday around 9:30 in the morning, I dropped off our 2010 Toyota Prius at the dealer in Hackensack for a synthetic oil and filter change, and walked over to Main Street. There were few cars and fewer pedestrians on the street. 

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC: Cap Diner at 240 Main St. is on the ground floor of one of the luxury apartment buildings that was completed and occupied, as part of the city's downtown building boom. A total of about 3,500 apartments are being added. On Tuesday, a sign in the window said the diner was closed temporarily.

NO CIGAR: The diner's play on the phrase cup of joe -- coffee, which originated on U.S. navy ships -- caused me to wince. "Cap O' Joe"? Really?

SIGNS OF THE TIME: Above the awning of Sara & Sophia, an Ecuadorian restaurant at 287 Main St., you can see the sign of Bohemia, the Colombian restaurant that once occupied the space. Below, photos of Ecuadorian specialties.

 

Voters lose say on size of tax levy

to support local education 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- With the move of the April school election to November, the more than 22,000 registered voters in the city are losing their chance to accept or reject the proposed budget for the city's schools that is funded by nearly half of their local  property taxes.

Such a rejection would send the proposal to the City Council, which could review it, and accept it or make cuts.

Never mind.

There are an overwhelming number of stupid, lazy and apathetic voters in Hackensack, and many of them don't even know they once had a right to challenge the spending plan of the city's Board of Education.

As a result, since I first started voting in Hackensack school elections in 2008, the proposed school budget has usually been approved by only a few hundred registered voters every April.

Shockingly low turnout

Here's what I reported about the 2020 school election:

The actual number of ballots returned in the May 12, 2020, Hackensack school board election totaled 3,071 and 3 more were blank.

Still, that was far more ballots than was cast in the 2019 (1,915 ballots) or 2018 (1,638 ballots) school board elections, when voters could go to the polls or vote by mail-in ballot.

The May 12, 2020, election was by mail-in ballot only, and that apparently raised the turnout significantly. The election was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The proposed 2020-21 Hackensack school budget was $125.8 million before federal and state aid, grants and entitlements. 

The $85 million tax levy to support the school budget passed, as it has in all of the years I've lived in Hackensack, as residents again seemed to say we want to pay higher property taxes to support our local schools, 1,189 yes votes to 693 no votes.

School taxes are roughly 45% of your local property tax bill. 

School officials said the 2021-22 budget represents an increase of only 1% for taxpayers. 

 

2021 SCHOOL ELECTION BALLOT: The official mail-in ballot for the Nov. 2 general election contains not one but two ballots listing candidates and two public questions, above and below. Hackensack school board candidates are listed on the flip side of the ballot listing candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, state Senate and Assembly, Bergen County sheriff, and county clerk and commissioners, once known as freeholders and often derided as "freeloaders." 

EARLY VOTING: Registered voters in Bergen County may vote early from Oct. 23-31 at locations in nine communities, including the county administration building at One Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack. Click on the state's Voter Information Portal for more information.

Is that all there is?

As a resident of Hackensack, my stroll last Tuesday along Main Street and then to my home in the Fairmount section was a bit underwhelming.

Yes. Apartment construction seems to be everywhere on or near Main Street, which has finally been converted to 2-way traffic, but few of the buildings have been completed, there hasn't been much change in the local dining scene and foot traffic on Main Street is low.

I noticed a new restaurant on State Street -- Shami Falafel -- and my wife said she saw a spot for ramen preparing to open toward the border with South Hackensack.

El Turco Grill, a Turkish restaurant, opened on Main Street next to the Johnson Public Library last year, replacing an Argentinian spot.

Print House development

One of the bigger apartment projects in Hackensack is going up on River Street, replacing the landmark headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group, and former Record Publisher Stephen A. Borg is a partner in the development.

I'm not sure if Borg was responsible for marketing the project as "Print House," which is a textile-printing factory.

"Printing House" would have been more accurate, given the history of local journalism and the many years The Record was printed there.

Nevertheless, the development's website says it is "designed to make headlines" and represents a "new record in Hackensack living."

I'm laughing out loud.

The Borgs ditch journalism

As publisher of The Record, succeeding his father, Stephen Borg's journalism credentials were suspect, but as a bean counter, he engineered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history in 2008 and the move to Woodland Park in 2009. 

In 2016, the Borg family sold The Record and the rest of North Jersey Media Group's daily and weekly newspapers and (201) magazine to Gannett Co. for nearly $40 million in cash.

But they retained ownership of nearly 20 acres along River Street, including The Record's headquarters and a nearby diner, both of which were torn down.

The Borgs had the last laugh -- all the way to the bank.

After Gannett took over, more than 350 employees were laid off or took buyouts.

Click on this Eye on The Record post from July 2020, when construction of the Print House apartments began.