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. 

A stroll on Main Street: New restaurants and apartments, but where do you park?

SIGN OF THE TIMES: A sign in the window of Frank's Shoe Repair at 179 Main St. in Hackensack could serve as a theme for the city's ambitious downtown redevelopment.

NOW LEASING: The apartment project at Main and Salem streets is now leasing, according to signs on the building, and on Thursday, a homeless man and woman made themselves at home on one of the new benches. Cap Diner is expected to open in January 2020 with "plans for farm-to-table dining using locally sourced and farm-fresh foods," according to BoozyBurbs.com.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Who doesn't like to eat?

More than a half-dozen new ethnic restaurants opened on or near Main Street this year as work continued to complete nearly a dozen apartment buildings.

Another development in 2019 is that the most ambitious project -- 382 apartments above street-level retail at Main and Mercer streets -- no longer is just a big hole in the ground, where work stopped after damaging an adjacent building in July 2o16.

New parking meters take both coins and credit cards, but to patronize Main Street restaurants and other businesses blocks from free lots on State Street or the municipal garage on Atlantic Street, residents and visitors still have to scramble for parking.

Less parking?

Hackensack may be in the midst of a renaissance, as city officials say, but the long-delayed conversion of Main Street to 2-way traffic is expected to reduce street parking even more.

Other projects include:

• At 150 River St., former headquarters of The Record, the Borgs, who sold the paper to Gannett in July 2016, and their development partners plan to build 654 units in three phases, plus 18,000 square feet of retail.
• On the parking lot near the Midtown Bridge, a building with 374 apartments is planned, and a building with 88 units is going up at 22 Sussex St.
• On the former site of the Oritani Field Club at East Camden and River streets, a developer is finishing a 5-story building with 254 apartments across the street from the Toyota dealer.
• Hackensack, Bergen County and NJ Transit are working on a mixed-use development on the site of the former County Probation Department on River Street. The bus station would be expanded, and the 6-story structure would have 140 apartments and 300 public parking spaces. 
• Two more projects are 389 Main St., where 83 apartments are going up where Main Street turns and connects with State Street; and 435 Main St, where 230 apartments and 5 2-bedroom townhouses are planned.

You can find a complete list on the city's website at Hackensack redevelopment, but many of the so-called fact sheets are woefully out of date.

READ: Ethnic restaurants pop up in Hackensack

MAIN STREET CONSTRUCTION ZONE: Apartment projects stretch from Main and Anderson streets, above -- where 430 Main St. will have 40 1-bedroom apartments -- to Sussex Street, where another building is going up on the former site of the Social Security office.

BIG HEADACHE: 150-170 Main St., a 14-story residential-retail building at Main and Mercer streets, has proven to be a big headache to businesses like Art of Spice, an Indian restaurant that lost parking spaces on Main. In July 2016, pile driving cracked the foundation of a building and day care center next door to the excavation; the day care center was evacuated, and eventually, the building was condemned and torn down.

210 MAIN: The former United Jersey Bank building is being converted into luxury apartments, including 3 duplex penthouses.

CLOSED FOR NOW: Art of Spice at 159 Main St. closed after a fire in an adjacent building, according to a notice on the front door. When the Indian restaurant was open, parking spaces in the rear were far from appetizing so we'd try to find a space on the street or go elsewhere.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE: Yasou Paros, which calls itself a Greek rotisserie, opened in the first week of July on the same block as Art of Spice and served big salads and delicious Greek specialties, but closed sometime this month. On Thursday, a sign on the front door said the store was closed for vacation and would reopen after Labor Day (Sept. 2). Guess what? It's still closed.

THE WOOLWORTH: Across the street from 150-170 Main St., The Woolworth will offer 4,000 square foot of retail topped by 4 floors of apartments.

MORE PARKING IN 2 YEARS? The Alcova Cos., many months behind schedule on completion of 150-170 Main St., has purchased a law office and other businesses on Main Street, above, and plans to tear them down for a parking lot, but tenants have been given 2 years to vacate, one said on Thursday.

PUBLIC ART MURAL: In the Demarest Place Walkway just off Main Street, you'll find artist Damien Mitchell's mural, "Greetings from The Sack," above and below. Presumably, "The Sack" is an abbreviation for Hackensack I am not familiar with despite working at The Record for nearly 30 years before the Borgs moved the paper to Woodland Park, and living here since 2007.

WHY COLTRANE? The mural includes legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, above left. Coltrane once was part of the bebop group led by pianist Thelonious Monk, but didn't play on a Monk tune called "Hackensack," which was recorded in 1954 in a home studio on Prospect Avenue that is long gone.

DON'T LITTER: A colorful reminder not to litter at Main and East Salem streets, above and below.

NOT MUCH LITTER: I didn't see much litter on Main Street, but many of the storefronts are run down or empty, and owners seem to be holding onto them, hoping to make a killing by selling out to a developer.

MAIN STREET VETERANS: V&T Salumeria, above left, one of the oldest restaurants on Main Street, and Galapagos Restaurant survived the decision by the Borg family to move more than 1,000 workers out of Hackensack and close The Record's headquarters in 2009.

TODAY'S SPECIALS: The Ecuadorian specials at Galapagos Restaurant on Thursday included Fish Soup and Cow Feet Soup.

MAIN STREET NEWCOMER: Pho Saigon was opened by a young Vietnamese couple who moved to New Jersey from Queens, N.Y., and renovated the space long occupied by Wondee's Fine Thai Food and Noodles.

WRAPPING IT UP: An appetizer of Crispy Veggie Spring Rolls ($7.99) at Pho Saigon.