Trump has been engaged in a two week rant about unfair treatment imposed on him by a Federal District judge in California, who was born in Indiana, first appointed to the bench in California by Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 (San Diego County Superior Court), and who happens to be of Hispanic heritage. Trump has doubled down with repeated attacks this week about the Native American heritage of Elizabeth Warren. These overtly racist comments and insults have made Republicans who have actually ever been elected to office nervous and out of sorts. Many have expressed disapproval.
The Republican Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hackensack, New Jersey decided to put their words into action. They have quit the GOP and become Independents in response to Trump’s repeated verbal assaults.
From the Christian Science Monitor (June 11, 2016):
Two Republican officials in Hackensack, N.J. switched political parties over what they said are racist comments made by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino filed a change of party affiliation to independents on Thursday with the Bergen County Board of Elections, they announced in a news release.
“The divisive and racist statements that Trump keeps making are insulting to many of our people and completely unacceptable. We don’t want a young student in one of our schools hearing these things and believing that their own elected officials are supporting these types of statements,” the pair said in a statement.
Their decision to switch part affiliations came days after the state’s top Republican, Gov. Chris Christie, refused to criticize Trump’s comments about an American-born federal judge of Mexican heritage and said that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is not a racist.
From NBC New York TV (June 10, 2016)
The mayor and deputy mayor of a New Jersey city have ditched their Republican party affiliation, fed up with what they call racist comments by Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“It’s crossing the line now. We’re getting to the point where you can’t be doing that,” said Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse. “This was not a decision we made lightly,” said Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino.
With a roughly 40 percent Latino population in Hackensack, Labrosse and Canestrino said they owed it to their citizens to distance themselves from Trump.
“It was important for us to say to anyone who’s listening that this is not anything we’re fond or anything we’ll tolerate in our city,” said Canestrino.
Why does the GOP desertion by two minor local elected officials over Trump’s racist tantrums matter?
Bergen County (Northeast N.J) Inset: Hackensack, N.J. (County Seat)
Because Hackensack is the County seat of Bergen County, and Bergen County is what America looks like today. It is both an integral part of the New York metropolitan area, and its 940 thousand residents and 550 thousand registered voters make up 10% of all the residents and voters in New Jersey.
New Jersey: A Brief Demographic Summary
New Jersey’s population in 2015 was 8.96 million (8.71 million in 2008). According to U.S. Census figures, the ethnic mix is White (Non Hispanic) 56.8%, Hispanic 19.3%, African -American 14.8%, and Asian 9.4%. There are 416 thousand Veterans. 36.8% of Jersey residents graduated from college, 11.6% did not graduate from high school, and 51.6% graduated from high school or attended some college, but did not graduate. 21% of New Jersey’s residents are foreign born.
From the Wikipedia entry about New Jersey:
New Jersey is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse states in the country. As of 2011, 56.4% of New Jersey’s children under the age of one belonged to racial or ethnic minority groups, meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white. It has the second largest Jewish population by percentage (after New York); the second largest Muslim population by percentage (after Michigan); the largest population of Peruvian Americans in the United States; the largest population of Cubans outside of Florida; the third highest Asian population by percentage; and the third highest Italian population by percentage, according to the 2000 Census. African Americans, Hispanics (Puerto Ricans and Dominicans), West Indians, Arabs, and Brazilian and Portuguese Americans are also high in number.
New Jersey has the third highest Asian Indian population of any state by absolute numbers and the highest by percentage, with Bergen County home to America’s largest Malayali community. Overall, New Jersey has the third largest Korean population, with Bergen County home to the highest Korean concentration per capita of any U.S. county (6.9% in 2011). New Jersey also has the fourth largest Filipino population, and fourth largest Chinese population, per the 2010 U.S. Census. The five largest ethnic groups in 2000 were: Italian (17.9%), Irish (15.9%), African (13.6%), German (12.6%), Polish (6.9%).
For its overall population and nation-leading population density, New Jersey has a relative paucity of classic large cities. This paradox is most pronounced in Bergen County, New Jersey’s most populous county, whose more than 930,000 residents in 2014 inhabited 70 municipalities, the most populous being Hackensack, with 44,519 residents estimated in 2014. Many urban areas extend far beyond the limits of a single large city, as New Jersey cities (and indeed municipalities in general) tend to be geographically small; three of the four largest cities in New Jersey by population have under 20 square miles of land area, and eight of the top ten, including all of the top five have land area under 30 square miles. As of the United States 2010 Census, only four municipalities had populations in excess of 100,000, although Edison and Woodbridge came very close.
In other words, New Jersey looks like the real America in the 21st century. For anyone who pines to head backwards to a purer, whiter, less diverse American gumbo of races and religious beliefs than we already have, get over it, Pal.
Hackensack and Bergen County, New Jersey
Hackensack, N.J. City Plan (1896)
From the Wikipedia entry about Hackensack:
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and serves as its county seat. It was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921, but it was informally known as Hackensack. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city’s population was 43,010.
An inner suburb of New York City, Hackensack is located approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Midtown Manhattan and about 7 miles (11 km) from the George Washington Bridge. From a number of locations, the New York City skyline can be seen.
The city is known for a great diversity of neighborhoods and land uses very close to one another. Within its borders are the prominent Hackensack University Medical Center, a trendy high-rise district about a mile long, classic suburban neighborhoods of single-family houses, stately older homes on acre-plus lots, older two-family neighborhoods, large garden apartment complexes, industrial areas, the Bergen County Jail, a tidal river, Hackensack River County Park, Borg’s Woods Nature Preserve, various city parks, large office buildings, a major college campus, the Bergen County Court House, a vibrant small-city downtown district, and various small neighborhood business districts.
The first inhabitants of the area were the Lenni Lenape, an Algonquian people (later known as the Delaware Indians) who lived along the valley of what they called the Achinigeu-hach, or “Ackingsah-sack”, meaning stony ground (today the Hackensack River.
Settlement by the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland on west banks of the North River (Hudson River) across from New Amsterdam (present-day lower Manhattan) began in the 1630s at Pavonia, eventually leading to the establishment of Bergen (at today’s Bergen Square in Jersey City) in 1660.
Oratam, sachem of the Lenni Lenape, deeded the land along mid-Hackensack River to the Dutch in 1665. The area was soon taken by the English in 1667, but kept its Dutch name. Philip Cartaret, governor of what became the proprietary colony of East Jersey granted land to Captain John Berry in the area of Achter Kol and soon after took up residence and called it “New Barbadoes,” after having resided on the island of Barbadoes.
In 1710, the village of Hackensack in the newly formed Township of New Barbadoes was designated as being more centrally located and more easily reached by the majority of the Bergen County’s inhabitants, and hence was chosen as the county seat of Bergen County, as it remains today. The earliest records of the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders date back to 1715, at which time agreement was made to build a courthouse and jail complex, which was completed in 1716.
During the American Revolutionary War, George Washington headquartered in the village of Hackensack in November 1776 during the retreat from Fort Lee via New Bridge Landing and camped on ‘The Green’ across from the First Dutch Reformed Church on November 20, 1776. A raid by British forces against Hackensack on March 23, 1780, resulted in the destruction by fire of the original courthouse structure.
How is Hackensack Governed?
Hackensack operates under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law form of New Jersey municipal government. The City Council consists of five members who are elected to four-year terms on a concurrent basis in a non-partisan election held every four years in May. This form of government separates policy making (the work of the mayor and city council) from the execution of policy (the work of the city manager). This maintains professional management and a City-wide perspective through: nonpartisan election, at-large representation, concentration of executive responsibility in the hands of a professional manager accountable to the Mayor and Council, concentration of policy making power in one body: a five-person Mayor and Council. In the several decades in which the City has used the Municipal Manager form of government, Hackensack has had only nine City Managers.
As of 2016, the mayor of the City of Hackensack is John P. Labrosse, Jr., whose term of office as mayor ends June 30, 2017, along with those of all other councilmembers. Other members of the Hackensack City Council are Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, Leonardo ‘Leo’ Battaglia, Deborah Keeling-Geddis (elected to serve an unexpired term) and David Sims. John Labrosse, who had served as councilman since 2009, and the entire council were elected in May 2013 under the “Citizens for Change” party, which replaced the mayor and three council members who had been supported by the Zisa family. The mayor and deputy mayor will serve four-year terms, unlike in the previous council, where the mayors and deputy mayors served one-year rotating terms by mutual agreement.
As of 2011, there were 19 thousand registered voters in Hackensack: 44% Independents, 10% Republicans, and 45% Democrats. That 55% of all voters are Independents and Republicans, and many of the Democrats are working class and non college graduates should make Hackensack absolutely prime Trump country, if the appeal of his campaign rhetoric has any factual basis.
So, Hackensack is the prototypical American small city county seat. It was settled by Native Americans, colonized by the Dutch and then the English, and has played a rich role in American History since colonial times. It has been the governing seat of Bergen County since 1710, and is run under a non-partisan mayor-council city manager system. Both its Mayor and Deputy Mayor were Republican registered voters (until this week). It is located less than 10 miles from Manhattan, and is part of the official New York metropolitan area. America in a nutshell, past and present.
Listen to Johnny Cash perform “I’ve Been Everywhere” (1996) (at 1:48)
It has played a part in movies and music. Among the notable roles: Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere”, Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”, “Superman: The Movie” (1978), Hitchcock’s “Rear Window (1954), Richard Pryor’s “Brewster’s Millions” (1985), and “The Bride of Chucky” (1998)*
Hackensack’s population diversity is mirrored in the record of impressive accomplishments by the men and women who lived and worked here for the last 200 years. Here are just a few examples.
James Black (1800–1872), blacksmith who is credited with creating the Bowie knife; Alice Huyler Ramsey (1886-1983), first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast; Anna Wessels Williams (1863–1954), physician who worked as a bacteriologist at the first U.S. municipal diagnostic laboratory, helped develop the diphtheria antitoxin and was the first woman to be elected chair of the laboratory section of the American Public Health Association; Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald went to the prep school, the Newman School, in Hackensack in 1911; Wally Schirra (1923–2007), NASA astronaut, one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury; Rudy Van Gelder (born 1924), recording engineer who taped many jazz albums for Blue Note Records in his Hackensack recording studio in the 1950s; Singer Debby Boone (born 1956); David Remnick (born 1958), journalist, writer, and magazine editor who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire; Bill Willoughby (born 1957), basketball player who, along with Darryl Dawkins, were the first high school players drafted by the NBA after they graduated in 1975; and Mark Ingram, Jr. (born 1989), Heisman Trophy winning running back and BCS National Champion at Alabama, currently plays for the New Orleans Saints.
What About Bergen County?
Bergen County, N.J. Political Subdivisions, with Location of GW Bridge Marked
From the Wikipedia entry on Bergen County:
Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of 2015, Bergen County’s Census-estimated population was 938,506, an increase of 3.7% from the 2010 United States Census, when its population was enumerated at 905,116, which in turn represented an increase of 20,998 (2.4%) from the 884,118 counted in the 2000 Census. Located in the northeastern corner of New Jersey and its Gateway Region, Bergen County is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area and is situated directly across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan.
Bergen County’s population resides among 70 municipalities but no large cities. Its most populous place, with 43,010 residents at the time of the 2010 census, is Hackensack, also its county seat. In 2010, Mahwah covered the largest total area of any municipality, at 26.19 square miles (67.8 km2).
Bergen County is one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a median household income of $81,708 per the 2010 Census, increasing to an estimated $84,677 in 2014. The county hosts an extensive park system totaling nearly 9,000 acres (3,600 ha).
The county is part of three congressional districts, the 5th District covering the northern portion of the county and the 9th most of the south, with Fairview being in the 8th District. New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District is represented by Scott Garrett (R, Wantage Township). New Jersey’s Ninth Congressional District is represented by Bill Pascrell (D, Paterson). New Jersey’s Eighth Congressional District is represented by Albio Sires (D, West New York).
The county is characterized by a divide between Republican communities in the north and northwest of the county and Democratic communities in its center and southeast.
The county’s largest employer is Hackensack University Medical Center.**
Hackensack University Medical Center (Hackensack UMC) is a 900-bed non-profit, research and teaching hospital located seven miles (11 km) west of New York City, in Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, providing tertiary and healthcare needs for northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area. HUMC is New Jersey’s largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services and is the fourth largest hospital in the nation based on admissions. HUMC is affiliated with the New Jersey Medical School of Rutgers University.
The medical center was founded in 1888 with 12 beds as Bergen County’s first hospital. Hackensack University Medical Center is Bergen County’s largest employer with a work force of around 9,000 employees and an annual budget of $1 billion. The hospital’s staff of 1,400 physicians and dentists covers the full range of medical and dental specialties and subspecialties.
Not bad for a sleepy corner of New York’s neighborhood. 4th busiest hospital in America, research and teaching medical school hospital, 900 beds, 9,000 employees, 1,400 doctors, and an annual budget of $1 billion.
View of George Washington Bridge, from Fort Lee, N.J. facing New York City
Bergen County is bound to New York City by bands of steel, literally. The single most important roadway bridge in the United States is the George Washington Bridge (GWB), which connects the upper West Side of Manhattan island and the New Jersey Palisades (Bergen County), between Fort Washington and Fort Lee. The lowest point of the bridge is 212 feet above the Hudson River, and the top of the two bridge towers is 604 feet higher than the river.***
It was opened in 1931 (at a cost of $75 million dollars). It spans 4,760 feet, nearly one mile long (0.9 mi.). It is a double decker suspension span with 8 lanes on the upper deck (1931), and 6 lanes on the lower deck (1962). It is the only 14-lane traffic carrying bridge in the world. 300 thousand vehicles cross it every day, 9 million crossing per month, more than 100 million every year. It is the busiest roadway traffic bridge in the world. When it was built, it was the longest main span bridge n the world (until 1937). It was publicly financed and remains publicly owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state agency.
Le Corbusier, Still Life (1920) Museum of Modern Art (New York)
The Swiss-French architect and painter Le Corbusier (1887-1965) called it the Most Beautiful Bridge in the World. As long as you are not traveling across it during rush hour, or when NJ Governor Christie decides to close access lanes out of personal political pique, many New York area residents would agree.
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) said of the unadorned steel structure:
The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. The car reaches an unexpectedly wide apron; the second tower is very far away; innumerable vertical cables, gleaming against the sky, are suspended from the magisterial curve which swings down and then up. The rose-colored towers of New York appear, a vision whose harshness is mitigated by distance. — When the Cathedrals were White
Night View of George Washington Bridge, from New York Side facing New Jersey
The official New York New Jersey state border is located in the middle of the GWB.
Bergen County is an integral part of the New York Metro area. Those who live in and around New York City already know this. For those who hail from elsewhere, you can think of Bergen County as New York City with a little more elbow room, and a Jersey accent.
Bergen County Voting Demographics
As of October 31, 2014, there were a total of 555,293 registered voters in Bergen County, of whom 171,471 (30.9%) were registered as Democrats, 111,099 (20%) were registered as Republicans and 272,261 (49%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 462 voters registered to other parties. Among the county’s 2010 Census population, 61.4% were registered to vote, including 77.4% of those ages 18 and over.
In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 212,754 votes here (54.8%), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 169,070 votes (43.5%) and other candidates with 3,583 votes (0.9%), among the 388,425 ballots cast by the county’s 551,745 registered voters, for a turnout of 70.4%). In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama received 225,367 votes here (53.9%), ahead of Republican John McCain with 186,118 votes (44.5%) and other candidates with 3,248 votes (0.8%), among the 418,459 ballots cast by the county’s 544,730 registered voters, for a turnout of 76.8%. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 207,666 votes here (51.7%), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 189,833 votes (47.2%) and other candidates with 2,745 votes (0.7%), among the 401,845 ballots cast by the county’s 522,750 registered voters, for a turnout of 76.9%.
In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie received 136,178 ballots cast (60.2%), ahead of Democrat Barbara Buono with 87,376 votes (38.7%) and other candidates with 2,515 votes (1.1%), among the 226,069 ballots cast for governor by the county’s 527,491 registered voters, yielding a 42.9% turnout. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 127,386 ballots cast (48.0%) in the county, ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 121,446 votes (45.8%), Independent Chris Daggett with 12,452 votes (4.7%), and other candidates with 1,262 votes (0.5%), among the 265,223 ballots cast by the county’s 530,460 registered voters, yielding a 50.0% turnout.
Elected republican leaders in Hackensack, seat of Bergen County, essential part of the New York City area, just told Trump to take a hike for his intemperate and outrageous racial and ethnic comments. New Jersey just held its presidential primary on June 7. How did Trump do outside of Hackensack, that aberrant hotbed of typical pandering politicians catering to losers.
Turns out, not so well.
Bergen County in the New Jersey Primary
Trump received 80% of the votes cast for Republicans. However, he is the only active candidate listed on the ballot. So 20% of Republican votes in Bergen County were cast for Presidential Ghost candidates, men who have already dropped out (Kasich and Cruz). 1 in 5 Republican voters rejected the nominee to be, even at this late date. Furthermore in a county where 49% of voters are Independents and 20% are Republicans, a total of 70% who might favor a Republican, only 32%, just 1 in 3 voters choose any Republican (Trump and the two Ghost candidates). In other words, in a county with 30% registered Democrats, 68% voted for a Democrat.
Trump barely beat the second place Democrat (Sanders) by less than 3% of the votes cast. Clinton beat Trump by 16 points, or almost 21 thousand votes out of a total of 131 thousand cast. Clinton received 42% of all votes in the county, despite a robust challenge from another Democrat. Trump was left in the dust.
On inspection, the statewide results for all of New Jersey on June 7 closely parallel the results in Bergen County. Trump did no better when all the less populous areas in western and southern New Jersey were added in. 2/3 of New Jersey primary voters choose a Democrat, and Clinton beat Trump by 15 points statewide, a difference of nearly 200 thousand votes. Democrats received 435 thousand more votes statewide than Republicans (virtually doubling their vote total), and 20% of Republicans voted for a Republican Dead Man Walking, instead of Trump.
This lack of strength statewide is not due to a party identification discrepancy between Bergen County and the rest of New Jersey. For all of New Jersey (2014), 47.5% of voters were Independents (Unaffiliated), 19.7% were Republicans, and 32.7% were Democrats. This distribution is nearly identical to that in Bergen County.
All of this in Trump’s backyard, where Mr. Atlantic City Gambling had created such a glorious business success story for more than 20 years (until 2009). As for the vaunted Trump effect of drawing in new voters, that was a but too. See the figures from all the New Jersey Republican primaries since 2000 below.
The largest number of Republican primary voters showed up in 2008, 120 thousand more than for Trump in 2016. Take note that in 2008, 500 thousand votes were cast for two candidates Trump has called losers (McCain: 313 thousand, and Romney: 160 thousand), who together got 140 thousand more votes than Trump did in 2016 (40% higher). So there is no evidence for any serious Trump draw for Independents, sometime Republicans, or disaffected Democrats based on the 2016 actual primary voting in New Jersey. The 2008 election year is the best comparison since it was the last time a primary was fought with no incumbent President or Vice-President running, and thus a wide open contest in a clear field for both sides.
The New Jersey primary was a bust for Trump looking towards the general election. Gov. Christie has said Trump is determined to put Blue states in play in his Battleground 20, including New Jersey and New York. The votes just cast a week ago suggest that someone at Trump HQ has been smoking a heavy dose of aromatic herbs.
Trump’s penchant for foot-in-mouth insults to minorities and ethnic groups that he is unable to stifle for more than 24-48 hours at a time, does not improve his chances in November.
The Lesson of Hackensack for Republicans
From Rosslyn Smith at the American Thinker blog on June 9:
With the last primaries now in the record books, Donald Trump won 44.2% of all Republican primary votes cast. In 2008, John McCain won 46.7%. The last Republican to win an open presidential election contest, George W. Bush, won 60.4% of the total Republican primary votes cast in 2000. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 52.1% and came up short in November despite the unpopularity of President Obama among many voters.
Note also that while in the earlier 2016 primaries Republican turnout swamped Democrat turnout, in later primaries, the Democrats were catching up. Tuesday, in the Republican states of Montana and South Dakota, the Republicans did win the turnout race, but the margin was measured by a few percentage points. In the swing state of New Mexico, Democrat turnout was several times Republican turnout, as it also was in the Democrat states of New Jersey and California.
That’s why the defection of Republican local elected officials like the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hackensack New Jersey matter. To (very) loosely borrow from Billy Joel’s lyrics, Hackensack may give Trump a Heart Attack.
Watch Billy Joel perform “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” (978) (at 0:46)
Sometimes the simplest advice is best. “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” (American humorist Will Rogers) Republicans who care about the future should take note.
A Final Hackensack Note
I have gone on at some length about Hackensack, New Jersey. It has a special place in my own history. I lived for several years next door in Maywood.**** The borough of Maywood (established in 1894) was originally a part of Hackensack. I went to Memorial elementary school in Maywood for five years through grade 6, tried to wear out the Public Library there, and attended Church not far from the Library. On Sundays after services on our way home, we would often drive just down the road (less than 3 miles) to 614 Main Street in Hackensack to Boehringer & Weimer (B&W) German Bakery to buy a crumb cake, or Streuselkuchen (as my Grandmother would call it).
Counter Staff at B&W Bakery (Hackensack, NJ) Displaying Fresh Streuselkuchen for Sale
Nearly any resident of North Jersey will recognize that name and have the same reaction. B&W was established in 1948 (successor to the Weimer bakery) and is still located in the same plain storefront 67 years later. The place is always busy, and they still take cash only. In my expert opinion, there is no better crumb cake in America than at B&W. (I hesitate to say all the world only because my travel and culinary experience in Germany is so limited, and perhaps there is an equal in the old country. I doubt there is a better one anywhere.)
We began going to B&W regularly in 1954 or 1955, when the place was only a few years old. I last visited the bakery in 2007, on a car trip vacation from Louisiana to New York, and the place was not that different from what I had imagined. More importantly, the Streuselkuchen flooded back fond childhood memories.
B&W’s Heavy Crumb Cake Showing Off Incredible 4:1 Crumb to Cake Ratio
My opinion in this matter is, naturally enough, entirely objective and highly accurate, but I am not alone. B&W’s crumb cake has been featured in the New York Times (2004) and on the Splendid Table food podcast (2009).
“Hackensack; Crumbs to Die For” by Marge Perry, New York Times (August. 29, 2004):
It’s well known that the raison d’être of crumb cake is the streusel topping. The cake base is merely the vessel by which the topping is transported to one’s mouth. The higher the crumb, the better.
B&W Bakery in Hackensack, a 56-year-old institution that bills itself as ”home of the heavy crumb cake,” may have one of the best streusel-to-cake ratios in the state. Nearly three-quarters of every bite consists of clumps of just-sweet-enough, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.
B&W — the initials stand for Boehringer & Weimer, the original owners — is a traditional German bakery that does sell other cakes, cookies and pastries. But the business is based on crumb cake, made with the same carefully guarded secret recipe used since 1948. A current co-owner, Ron Kraft, who first worked at the bakery 34 years ago, makes an average of 2,000 pounds of streusel a week, depending on the season. In addition to the amount of topping on his cake, he attributes its appeal to the fact that it is always fresh: the crumb cakes are baked all day long, until 5 p.m. ”We just bake ’em as we need ’em,” Mr. Kraft said. ”And people keep coming back, because we’re consistent.” It doesn’t hurt that the cake is also a bargain — $5.50 for a strip big enough to serve six.
Jane and Michael Stern’s Road Food, The Splendid Table (2009):
True crumb cake could be called a regional thing or, more specifically, a New Jersey thing. It’s huge there, and the best place to get it is B & W Bakery in Hackensack. At B&W it’s called ‘Heavy Crumb Cake’ because it is. A thick layer of crunchy, crumbly streusel tops a thin pound-cake-like layer below. But that layer of cake is really just a crumb delivery mechanism; it’s all about that streusel. Michael says there’s nothing in the world better than a piece of this cake with a cup or two of coffee. But be warned: when you ask for ‘a piece of crumb cake,’ you’ll get a slab that’s about 8 inches by 12 inches! Expect a long line, especially on weekends.
These professional food critics have review gravitas, but we found B&W and knew it was great, along with our neighbors and friends, 50 years before they did.*****
If you have a car, let me assure you a trip to Hackensack and B&W is worth a 7-mile detour from anywhere near Manhattan on a trip.. I guarantee It is infinitely more palatable than another serving of Trump’s foul tasting nonsense.
*Alas, none of Hackensack’s movie credits were in a starring role. But, it was noticed on the Big Screen.
In the 1978 film Superman: The Movie, Hackensack was to have been ground zero for a nuclear missile launched by Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), as Superman (Christopher Reeve) is slowly dying from exposure to kryptonite.
In the 1954 film Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock, L.B. Jefferies’ (Jimmy Stewart) maid, Stella (Thelma Ritter), muses that she had handled enough rhodium trieckonol pills to “put everybody in Hackensack to sleep for the winter.” She makes the statement while she and Jefferies spy on his neighbors, one of which was laying out on a table a set of pills in an apparent contemplation of suicide.
The 1985 film Brewster’s Millions starred Richard Pryor, who played a pitcher for the Hackensack Bulls, a fictional minor-league baseball team that plays in a stadium where a railroad track runs across the outfield.
In the 1998 film Bride of Chucky, Chucky’s human body is said to be buried in a fictional Hackensack cemetery.
** It was just plain old Hackensack Hospital when I was a kid growing up nearby. I had one memorable ER encounter with Hackensack Hospital while growing up. I was about 7 or 8 when I put my hand too close to the front door opening on our family car ( a Chevy). My younger sister was in a hurry to go inside and she slammed the car front door without looking first. The door caught two fingers of my right hand before I could get them free. Holding my hand in a bowl of ice, we went with all due haste to the Hackensack Hospital ER. After x-rays showed I had a hairline fracture of the right ring finger, I was attached to a curved bent aluminum metal splint, colored blue, which stuck out about a half inch in front of two gauze wrapped buddy-taped fingers. Luckily there was no laceration to sew.
There was however a rapidly swelling and very nasty looking purple and red fingernail on the ring finger. I watched a medical procedure performed by the ER doctor that impressed me no end. He took an ordinary paperclip, unbent one end, heated it with a cigarette lighter, placed my hand on a hard flat surface, and told me to hold still and look away. No anesthesia, but he did apply some mercurochrome around the nail base. I didn’t look away, and saw him gently press the hot tip of the paperclip through my nail at the base. There was a small jet of bloody fluid, and virtually instant pain relief. He just looked at me, smiled and said, “Neat trick, huh kid?”
Though I temporarily lost the fingernail from the injury after a few days, my fingers healed normally. I never forgot the paperclip first-aid emergency treatment for a painful swollen nail. Don’t try this at home, folks. Stuff can go wrong. But I have used this method, in a professional context, more than once over the past 50 years, each time with good results.
***From the Wikipedia entry for the George Washington Bridge:
Nuclear Submarine USS Nautilus Sailing Beneath George Washington Bridge (1956)
The George Washington Bridge – known informally as the GW Bridge, the GWB,[ the GW, or the George – is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River between the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City and Fort Lee, New Jersey. As of 2015, the George Washington Bridge carries over 106 million vehicles per year, making it the world’s busiest motor vehicle bridge. The bridge is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state government agency that operates several area bridges, tunnels and airports, and the PATH rapid transit system.
The bridge, an integral conduit within the New York metropolitan area, has an upper level that carries four lanes in each direction and a lower level with three lanes in each direction, for a total of 14 lanes of travel. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph (72 km/h), though congestion often slows traffic, especially during the morning and evening rush hours. The bridge’s upper level also carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Interstate 95 (I-95) and U.S. Route 1/9 (US 1/9) cross the river via the bridge. The New Jersey Turnpike (part of I-95, connecting to I-80) and US 46, which lie entirely within New Jersey, both terminate halfway across the bridge at the state border with New York. At its eastern terminus in New York City, the bridge connects with the Trans-Manhattan Expressway (part of I-95, connecting to the Cross Bronx Expressway).
The bridge sits near the sites of Fort Washington (in New York) and Fort Lee (in New Jersey), which were fortified positions used by General George Washington and his American forces as they attempted to deter the occupation of New York City in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. Unsuccessful, Washington evacuated Manhattan by crossing between the two forts.
Construction on the bridge began in October 1927 as a project of the Port of New York Authority. Its chief engineer was Othmar Ammann, with Cass Gilbert as architect. When construction started, the estimated cost of the bridge was $75,000,000. Prior to and while under construction, the bridge was unofficially known as the “Hudson River Bridge”. That name was the popular choice, chosen over a host of other proposed names as well as the Port Authority’s preference for the name “George Washington Bridge”, based on 1931 ballot voting submitted to the Port Authority by New York and New Jersey residents. However, the Port Authority named the bridge after George Washington that year.
The bridge was dedicated on October 24, 1931, and opened to traffic the following day. The George Washington Bridge, with a span of 4,760 feet (1,450 m) in total– including a main span of 3,500 feet (1,100 m) – was the longest main bridge span in the world at the time, at nearly double the 1,850 feet (560 m) of the previous record holder, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. It held this title until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937.
From 1961 to 1967 I was a daily commuter across the GWB, with tens of thousands of others. During that time I made at least 500 crossings per year, so the bridge views in all directions, day and night and in all sorts of weather, with the road hum and sheer energy of the vehicles urgently crossing in such an organized rhythm and flow, are permanently etched in my DNA memory. The toll when the bridge opened in 1931 was $0.50 cents. It remained at $0.50 per crossing until 1975, so it didn’t cost much more than a NYC subway ride, which was $0.20 at that time, if I remember correctly.
Autumn View of New Jersey Palisades Just North of George Washington Bridge
The bridge tolls were no barrier to frequent use of the bridge and fast access to all the wonders and cultural riches of the Big Apple. The round trip cash bridge toll today is $15 and would slow down impulse travel to the city, at least for me. I would like to think the frequent increases are a considered response to manage urban vehicle density, but I suspect the Port Authority is more likely using the toll rate hikes to increase revenues from a captive audience, without calling them taxes.
****The borough of Maywood, N.J. is named after the 1872 railroad station located in the town. For railroad buffs, from the Wikipedia entry for the Maywood Station Museum:
Restored Maywood Station Railroad Museum (Maywood, NJ) (2014)
The Maywood Station Museum is located in the 1872-built New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway station in Maywood, New Jersey, United States. The station underwent an extensive restoration by the volunteer, 501(C)3 non-profit Maywood Station Historical Committee beginning in July 2002 and officially opened as a museum in September 2004. Maywood Station is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historical Places, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 (as Building #03000487). In addition, the Maywood Station Museum is listed as a Historical Archive by the State of New Jersey.
The museum is open to the public periodically throughout the year. It also open by appointment for class trips, boys and girls scout trips, senior citizen trips and for other organizations and clubs as well as can be contracted for movie and television filming, commercial props, photo shoots, etc.
The museum is operated and staffed by the volunteer membership of the Maywood Station Historical Committee. The main focus of the museum is concentrated on the history of Maywood Station and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad and the roles they played in the development of the Borough of Maywood and the surrounding area. The museum collection contains hundreds of photographs, displays, documents, maps and artifacts covering the histories of Maywood Station, the NYS&W and local railroads, the Borough of Maywood, and the local region, which are changed periodically and designed to entertain and educate visitors of all ages as well as offer a virtual timeline to these subjects. Maywood Station Museum is also the official site of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Technical & Historical Society’s archive, which contains thousands of drawings, maps, track diagrams, photos, timetables, documents and records covering the history of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad.
For those interested in historical buildings, meticulous care has been taken by the Maywood Station Historical Committee to show the museum in a historical context. The museum features the original woodwork painted and stained in its original colors and original Maywood Station furnishings have been restored and displayed such as the potbelly stove, station agent’s desk, chairs, telegraph keys and freight scale. Victorian-period original light fixtures and sconces adorn the ceilings and walls. Additional items have been painstakingly reproduced to the exact original specifications of over one-hundred years ago including the station benches and bay window area.
The Maywood Station Museum collection includes a former Penn Central/Conrail N-12 class caboose, which was restored by Maywood Station Historical Committee members. Visitors to the Maywood Station Museum are invited to come aboard Caboose 24542 and view additional displays and an operating model train layout. The Maywood Station Museum collection also includes original New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad ALCO Type S-2 Locomotive #206, which has also been restored by Maywood Station Historical Committee members. On September 10, 2009, NYS&W S-2 #206 was placed on the State of New Jersey Register of Historical Places. The locomotive was placed onto the National Register of Historical Places on March 19, 2010.
*****The B&W bakery has even made it to YouTube, as a former Jersey resident in Colorado tries to recreate the recipe for Streuselkuchen. Watch here.
Classic Kaiser Hard Roll: A Breakfast Delight
In truth, our family visits to B&W were not limited to Sundays. Fridays and Saturdays were equally good bakery days, when the need arose. They sold other outstanding baked goods, and set the gold standard for me for a number of other treats. My favorites were the pecan ring, seven layer cake, lemon meringue pie, walnut covered sticky buns, and granulated sugar dusted jelly donuts. To this day I have never found a better plain Kaiser hard roll (Kaisersemmel).
B&W BakeryStorefront (614 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ) Open: 7 days per week
I hope B&W makes it another 65 years in the same place, with the same quality, at their reasonable cash prices. And that they continue to keep the all-important Crumb to Cake ratio at a minimum of 4:1.