Here's a tortured tale of real estate hype and a buyer who got saddled with a 'new' home filled with shoddy workmanship

WHAT'S NEXT: Our new roof was completed last week by EMT Solar & Roofing of Cherry Hill in preparation for a new solar panel system that promises to zero out our electric bill year-round. Shoddy workmanship on the original roof left us with numerous leaks.

 The front door wasn't safe, 

the roof sprung many leaks, 

radiant heat left us shivering

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you're shopping for a home in Hackensack's Fairmount section, you should be aware of a big quality of life issue -- aircraft noise. You will be living under the flight paths of both Teterboro Airport and the international airport know as Newark Liberty.

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACENSACK, N.J. -- In 2007, I was a first-time home buyer and tree hugger who was looking for a place with a southern exposure -- ideal for the installation of solar panels.

Both of our cars were gas-electric hybrids, but we wanted to do more to clean up the environment.

And thanks to an inheritance, we had a seemingly limitless budget to finally allow us to move out of a cramped duplex apartment. 

So, when I saw an article showing a gee-whiz redesign of a Hackensack ranch home in The Record, where I worked at the time, my wife and I decided to drive over and meet brokers from Buyer's Advisors, who act as agents for buyers only and collect their fee from the seller.

'A mini estate'

The house was being sold by real estate agent Lynn Jantos Donovan, then owner of Property Connections Real Estate in Hackensack, who hired an architect to transform the 3-bedroom ranch in the city's Fairmount section that dated to the 1960s.

Donovan lived there, but also owned several other homes, we were told, one as near as the Jersey shore, others in Mexico and New Mexico, and the last in Hawaii.

Listen to the hype in the original listing of the home:

"This mini estate boasts all the bells and whistles. This Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home has 3 bedrooms..., 3 full bathrooms and over 3,300 sq. ft."

There was a fireplace in the master bedroom, a Jacuzzi tub in the master bath, a gourmet kitchen with a Viking range, and a backyard with a gas fireplace and hot tub.

Once I confirmed the redesigned home had the ideal exposure to the sun to take advantage of a state rebate program for the installation of solar energy, all those features were a seeming bonus, but as a first-time home buyer I missed some major flaws.

As soon as we saw the vaulted ceilings in the airy 1st floor family room, kitchen and dining room, we should have run, knowing the rooms would be impossible to heat with a radiant system under the wooden floor.

We hired an inspector

But even the inspector we hired didn't mention that, so we closed on the house in August 2007, and moved in.

In the following months and years, here are the problems with safety and workmanship that surfaced:

• The Andersen "custom stained glass front doors embedded with [Frank Lloyd] Wright's geometrical color patterns," as reported in The Record, were missing security parts that compromised our safety, and we spent about $1,000 to repair them.
• The first-floor radiant heat was so inadequate we had to set the thermostat to 74 degrees to get even the hint of warmth through the wood floors (used even though stone is the best conductor of radiant heat).
• The roof started leaking in numerous places on both floors, and exterior and interior repairs cost about $7,000.
• Besides causing roof leaks, heavy rains would flood our 2-car detached garage, requiring the installation of a sump pump in a shed behind the garage. When the first couldn't handle the flooding, we upgraded to a bigger one for a total cost of about $1,000.
• The house is so poorly insulated and sound proofed I can hear the boiler in the basement go on when I turn up the thermostat in the second-floor master bathroom.
• One winter, that lack of insulation caused a pipe to burst through a kitchen wall. Repairs cost many hundreds of dollars.

'Cheapest system possible'

Months after we moved in and shivered through our first winter in 2007, I called the plumber who had installed the radiant-heat system under the floor -- plastic tubes carrying hot water from the boiler in the basement -- and was told Donovan asked him to put in the "cheapest system possible."

I eventually got an estimate of $10,000 for installing radiators in the first-floor rooms to solve the problem, but never went ahead with the work.

Roof and skylight leaks

Numerous leaks from the vaulted roof and a skylight in the kitchen, over sliding doors to the deck, in a 1st-floor bedroom and upstairs in the master bedroom and bathroom soon followed -- the apparent result of shoddy workmanship by a ragtag collection of workman Donovan hired for the renovation.

During heavy, wind-whipped rain, we'd have to lay down towels to absorb the leaks or move furniture. Rain even poured into a first-floor bedroom closet through a light fixture.

When we hired a contractor to make repairs, he discovered the original installers of the roof ran out of underlayment -- the layer that protects the plywood deck from moisture -- but instead of getting more used paper and plastic bags that shingles and other roofing material came in.

ROOF BAGS R US: The crew installing a new roof during the 2003 renovation used paper and plastic bags under the shingles, above, when they ran out of the proper leakproof material.

SOLAR POWER: The solar panels we installed in 2009 and 2012 have served us well, above. They generated electricity from sunrise to sunset, thanks to a southern exposure. They were removed to replace our roof and we will be getting a new system that will generate even more electricity.

Small Claims Court

Only the missing security parts in the elaborate double front doors were apparent in the first days of moving in, and I was able to take the seller to Small Claims Court and recover the $1,000 cost of repairs.

When the roof leaks and the myriad other flaws of the elaborate renovation that had apparently been done as cheaply as possible appeared many months or years later, I was never able to locate the seller again to discuss possible reimbursement.

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. 

Crosswalk without a warning sign proved deadly to woman, 76, out for a daily stroll

JINXED CROSSWALK: None of the 4 crosswalks on Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack -- including this one on Passaic Street, used by Carol A. Ventura before her untimely death on May 13, 2021 -- have "Walk/Don't Walk" signs or any other warning to alert pedestrians about turning vehicles from Summit Avenue, like the Tesla I photographed yesterday, above. 

 

She was hit by one vehicle, 

then run over by a trailer

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- When a 76-year-old woman set out for her daily late afternoon walk in her neighborhood two weeks ago, she didn't stand a chance as she stepped off the curb at dusk and into a crosswalk on Passaic Street at Summit Avenue.

Not only are the crosswalk stripes non-reflective, faded or missing, but there is no lighted sign warning pedestrians like Carol A. Ventura it is unsafe to walk as vehicles on Summit get a green arrow and turn onto Passaic Street and into the crosswalk she was using.

That late afternoon walk on May 13 proved to be Ventura's last as first a pickup truck turning onto Passaic from the Summit Avenue turn lane hit her and knocked her down shortly after 8:30 p.m., police said.

Then, a second driver, like the first, said he didn't see the woman, and she was run over by a landscaping trailer his vehicle was pulling.

Ventura, who had retired recently after 25 years as a sales administration manager at E.T. Browne Drug Co. in Englewood Cliffs, died a short time later at the hospital.

She lived not far away in The Pierre Apartments on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack.

No 'Walk/Don't Walk' signs

None of the 4 crosswalks at the busy intersection of Summit Avenue and Passaic Street -- in Hackensack's Fairmount section -- have "Walk/Don't Walk" signs.

The intersection has long been cursed by drivers on narrow, 2-lane Passaic Street -- a major artery leading to Maywood, Rochelle Park and Paramus -- because there are no turn lanes for vehicles on Passaic at Summit Avenue.

The street dates to the Revolutionary War, and the intersection, maintained by Bergen County, would look more at home in an underdeveloped country.

NO WARNING OF TURNING VEHICLES: The second crosswalk on Passaic Street at Summit Avenue, above, has no sign to alert pedestrians they should look out for cars or trucks turning into the street from Summit Avenue.

No help for pedestrians 

Pedestrians also are sitting ducks on Polifly Road in Hackensack, where a 3-block stretch with a busy CVS Pharmacy on one side of the 4-lane street and an apartment building on the other side lacks crosswalks or traffic lights.

On March 4, 2021, Lillian J. Holmes, 81, of Hackensack died after she was knocked down by a hit-run driver in a black SUV, and struck by a second driver as she was crossing the darkened street to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy.

Polifly Road is another street "maintained" by Bergen County.

June 4 services

Services for Carol A. Ventura. who turned 76 on April 13, one month before she was killed, will be held on June 4 at G. Thomas Gentile Funeral Home at 397 Union St. in Hackensack.

A celebration of her life will take place at Nanni Ristorante in Rochelle Park.

"Carol had been embracing her retirement and looking forward to spending more time with her cherished companion" -- identified as William J. Gaynor -- according to her obituary.

Ventura grew up in North Bergen, earned a bachelor's degree at Montclair State University and became a school teacher.

Read her full obituary on the funeral home website: 

Obituary of Carol A. Ventura

READ: Yet another careless driver 

is getting away with running down a pedestrian

Bounced from Hackensack slate, official accepts backing of discredited Zisa family

WHAT IS HE HIDING? In this April 2018 photo taken at a Hackensack City Council meeting, then Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker, in a black hoodie, hides from a cellphone camera. Now, Nunnermacker is serving as spokesman for Deputy Mayor David Sims, who was dropped from Mayor John Labrosse's slate in the upcoming council election.

 Deputy Mayor David Sims

heads own ticket on May 11

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Deputy Mayor David Sims is a walking contradiction.

Sims has served on the Hackensack City Council since 2013, when he and four others first won election on a reform platform after decades of rule by the Zisa family and its allies.

But after he was dumped from Mayor John Labrosse's council slate for violating the Covid-19 lockdown at City Hall, Sims has enlisted Zisa allies to run with him and serve as his spokesman in the May 11 council election.

And they've chosen to call themselves the "Coalition for Clean Government."

So, here's the contradiction: 

Is Sims saying that since 2013, he's been part of a governing council that wasn't "clean"?

A third slate

A third slate of candidates in the non-partisan May 11 election is led by Leila Amirhamzeh, development director of New Jersey Citizen Action and a former member of the Hackensack Board of Education.

Sims "is turning to the Zisa political dynasty for financial and political backing," Jason DeAlessi, a spokesman for the Amirhamzeh slate, told NorthJersey.com.

"The people of Hackensack are tired of the same political fights of the past and deserve better," DeAlessi said.

MAIL-IN VOTING: We've already received our 4 mail-in ballots for the non-partisan Hackensack City Council election on May 11, as well as campaign material from the Labrosse Team.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL: From left, Councilwoman Stephanie Von Rudenborg, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, Mayor John Labrosse (seated), Deputy Mayor David Sims and Councilman Leonardo Battaglia (2017 photo from City of Hackensack).

Sims' spokesman

In a March 19 story in the Hackensack Chronicle, NorthJersey.com quoted Jason Nunnermacker as a spokesman for Sims.

Nunnermacker, a lawyer who is a key ally of the Zisa family, served as Board of Education president and ran unsuccessfully for the City Council.

Nunnermacker noted Sims' past electoral successes, saying they were the result of "his devotion to our community," according to NorthJersey.com.

'Zisaville'

The Zisa family's decades-long grip on Hackensack turned the city into a laughing stock called "Zisaville."

Jack Zisa, the former 4-term mayor (1989-2005), tried to return to power in the 2017 City Council election by backing a 5-member slate, just as he is doing now.

His father, the late Frank Zisa, served 16 years on the City Council and as mayor for one term (1977-81); his brother, Ken Zisa, was the city's police chief for many years and served in the state Assembly (1994-2002); another brother, Frank Zisa Jr., served as deputy police chief; and a cousin, Joseph C. Zisa Jr., was the city attorney for many years.

When the Zisas ruled Hackensack, greed, nepotism and partisan politics were king, as I reported in 2017.

READ: When the Zisas ruled Hackensack...

READ: The Record was clueless 

on Zisas' bid to regain control of city

2020 ends with my first dose of vaccine, potential end to our national nightmare

As a volunteer at Englewood Health, formerly known as Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, I was offered a first dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine to prevent the coronavirus disease, which has killed more than 340,000 Americans this year. 

After I entered the hospital on Wednesday, I was asked to put on a mask over the mask I was wearing and to sanitize my hands. Other visitors were subjected to temperature checks, and the hospital cafeteria was closed to outsiders, including me. 

We ate healthy and stayed healthy, explored the great outdoors

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "Lines." 

That is my answer to the headline on the front of The New York Times for Kids section last Sunday:

"If I had to describe my 2020 in one word, it would be _____."

When the quarantine began in March, nine long months ago, I stopped going to the gym and no longer was able to visit patients as a volunteer at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, now known as Englewood Health.

That meant that as an older American, food shopping was my only means of exercise, and on my trips to Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market, ShopRite and H Mart, I encountered long lines of masked shopper shifting from foot to foot as they waited to get in.

Monotony

The second word I'd use to describe 2020 is "monotony." 

I pretty much get up every day before 6 a.m.

First, I make coffee, then after showering, I eat a big breakfast of leftovers or prepare an egg white omelet for other family members.

I also go food shopping early during senior hours, take a midday nap, eat or prepare dinner as early as 3 p.m., settle down in front of the TV around 4 or go for a short drive to a nearby town, then go to bed around 10:30 p.m., and get up during the night 2 or 3 times to go to the bathroom.

We spend a lot more money on food than most families of 4 because I am a pescatarian who hasn't eaten beef, pork, lamb or poultry for a decade, and my wife, son and mother-in-law are dedicated meat eaters.

This year also has seen us buying as much organic, pesticide-free food and produce as possible; only wild-caught seafood; and making sure they only eat meat and poultry raised without harmful pesticides and growth hormones.

And as an older American and amateur cook, I also have had to watch out when using recipes from The Times and other sources that are filled with artery clogging butter and cream, excessive sodium and sugar.

Beside covid in 2020, another health concern that was exposed by Consumer Reports magazine is the real danger of microplastics in our air, and our food and water supplies.

That prompted me to replace all of our plastic food-storage containers with glass, and brew our morning coffee in a stainless-steel percolator my mother used more than 30 years ago.

The water never comes in contact with plastic because the Farberware percolator has no plastic parts, unlike the cheap Mr. Coffee machines I used for years.

2021 and beyond

Amid the surge of new coronavirus cases after Thanksgiving and Christmas, I got a lift when I received an email from the hospital, inviting me and other volunteers as "members of our health-care team" to get a first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, and I already have an appointment for the second and final dose.

That means the volunteer program at the Englewood hospital may resume, possibly as early as March, and I can once again visit patients to comfort them and offer words of encouragement after their open-heart surgeries (I got a new heart valve in September 2011).

I'd like to see my wife, son and mother-in-law get the Covid vaccine, too.

The Jan. 20 inauguration of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president also is something to look forward to, and I hope they can speed up the vaccination program nationwide, and end our national nightmare.

Read: Pandemic sees resurgence of family meals

Read: Bored to tears, fearing long food lines

Read: Cartoonists slam Trump's many failures

Read: What about a sudden loss of intimacy?

Panic buying in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in long lines of older American like me during the senior hour at the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro, above. Despite signs urging social distancing, below, shoppers with carts had a hard time keeping away from each other.

After I shopped during the senior hour at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, I stopped on the way to my car to take this photo of millenials and other younger shoppers who had lined up to get into the organic and natural foods supermarket.

For our Sunday fresh fish dinner, I often waited on line at the H Mart in Ridgefield, above, until the Korean chain opened a new supermarket in Little Ferry on Dec. 23, 2020, nearly 18 months after the old Little Ferry H Mart closed.

We started off our Christmas dinner with a cooked seafood salad of Alaskan King Crab, Canadian Lobster Tails and Argentinian Red Shrimp dressed with fresh lemon juice, Dijon Mustard and ground cumin.

One of the rare high points of 2020 was the availability of previously frozen wild Sockeye Salmon fillets at Costco Wholesale after the fresh wild salmon season ended in early October. I grilled these portions on the stovetop for 8 minutes and dressed them with a saute of fresh tomatoes and sliced garlic.

 

On Saturday afternoons, we usually order takeout from nearby restaurants, including Seafood Gourmet in Maywood, above; Lotus Cafe in Hackensack for great Chinese-style seafood and vegetables; and Kinyobi in Hackensack or BCD Tofu in Fort Lee for delicious Korean specialties. We also enjoyed takeout from the U Pie & Lobster Co. in Englewood and Greenhouse Juices & Cafe in Teaneck.

During the spring and summer, we made day trips to Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, above, and Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center in the Bronx, below.

Using a list I copied from The New York Times many years ago, we also visited public sculptures and monuments in Manhattan, including this tribute to Duke Ellington, the legendary jazz band leader, in Harlem.

Closer to home, I was wowed by this dramatic sunrise over Hackensack as I drove down Euclid Avenue on the way to Home Depot to pick up a large recycling bin I had ordered online.

We were walloped with a big snowstorm on Dec. 17, 2020. I grimaced when I was watching TV and heard one of the anchors of the CBS Morning News introduce a report from Suffern, N.Y., and call the town "Sufferin', N.Y."

The Record's Local section cheats Bergen, and editors promote lots of unhealthy food

PASSAIC COUNTY NEWS: Local, the section of The Record containing municipal news, was filled with Passaic County stories on Dec. 11, cheating readers in Bergen County, where the newspaper flourished for more than 110 years and where the majority of readers live. Instead of a guide to what was inside the section, an ad appeared above the masthead.

PATERSON DATELINES: Renovation of Lambert Castle on Garret Mountain in Paterson led the Local section on Dec. 11.

MORE PATERSON NEWS: A second Paterson story appeared on L-1 on Dec. 11. The 2 other stories on the Local front were about Ridgewood and Leonia schools.

Writers don't appear eager 

to steer us to healthy choices

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- On Dec. 11, The Record published yet another local news section that cheated Bergen County readers.

Even before the newspaper was taken over by Gannett in 2016, The Record's owners decided publishing a single Local section would save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in newsprint costs every year.

The decision to fold separate Bergen and Passaic sections condemned the majority of readers, who live in 70 Bergen County towns, to slog through story after story about Paterson and the rest of Passaic County, even as Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news went missing.

And so it was last Wednesday:

CLIFTON NEWS: On Page 2L, a story reported Clifton planners were to hear a proposal for 300 "housing units." A second story on the page reported the "rescue" of a deer "with a plastic pumpkin stuck on its head," according to the headline.

THE TOWN, NOT THE DEPARTMENT STORE: The big news leading Page 3L was from Bloomingdale, the Passaic County town, not the department store in Hackensack. 

WAYNE, PATERSON AND ESSEX COUNTY NEWS: The rest of 3L included a photo essay on a model train display in Carlstadt, more news about Paterson, a fire in Wayne and the homicide of an unidentified "minor" in Newark.

MINOR KILLED: The story on the homicide contained few details. 

PATERSON POLITICAL NEWS: The story on a school board member in Paterson seeking a City Council seat has absolutely no redeeming value for Bergen County readers. "Redmon" and "Jackson" aren't recognizable names in a headline for Bergen readers.

UBIQUITOUS WEATHER PHOTO: Even the weather photo on Page 6L, the fourth page of local news in the section, was taken in Paterson, which is closer to The Record's newsroom in Woodland Park than Hackensack, Fort Lee and other Bergen County towns. So, covering Passaic County saves Gannett even more time and money, but robs Bergen readers.

Pushing sugar, mystery meat

The same Dec. 11 edition of The Record included a Better Living section cover story by the fashionably slim food editor, Esther Davidowitz, and food writer Rebecca King with a hard sell on "desserts to pick up for the holidays."

The story on "deliciously gooey, royally luxurious, beautifully presented" desserts certainly came as a shock to diabetics or other readers who are watching their intake of sugar and butter -- both of which can clog heart arteries -- not to mention eggs and whipped cream.

How many of the 13 bakeries listed are advertisers or potential advertisers to which Davidowitz and King are sucking up?

Davidowitz wrote "The 7 Best Dishes of 2019" in the December 2019 edition of (201) magazine, also published by Gannett's North Jersey Media Group.

Four of the 7 dishes included meat, but Davidowitz is silent on whether that pork and beef were naturally raised without antibiotics and other harmful additives.

I hope I'm not the only one who believes food writers shouldn't knowingly or unknowingly promote unhealthy food.

On Dec. 6, the cover story in The Record's Better Living section explored "food options" at Nordstrom, but the writer was sent to the department store in Manhattan, not the one in Paramus, the shopping mall capital of New Jersey.

Read: SUGAR SHOCK: 

Readers are overdosing on desserts

Repaving of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack is complete, and it's smooth and beautiful

LOOKING GOOD: A mixture of asphalt, stone, sand and gravel never looked as good as they did on Thursday evening, when Euclid Avenue between Summit and Prospect avenues was reopened to traffic after being paved for the first time since the early 1990s. Euclid is one of 11 streets in Hackensack being repaved before the end of 2019.

NO DRIVEWAY BUMP: The layer of asphalt appeared to be a little thicker than the original, judging from the elimination of the "bump" when we drove our cars into the driveway and garage. The other 4 blocks of Euclid Avenue, which ends at Main Street, were repaved several years ago.

JULY 2018: Years of patching and pothole repair left parts of Euclid Avenue looking like this in the summer of 2018, above and below.

YEAR-ROUND POTHOLES: The neglect was evident when potholes hung around throughout the year. Read: Use some of hospital's millions to fix streets

Paving program arrives on Euclid Avenue after decades of pothole repairs, patching

MUSIC TO OUR EARS: A 3-man crew from Maisano Construction Co. of Hackensack used jackhammers to remove old pavement and curbing on Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit Avenues in Hackensack, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The sound of jackhammers on Euclid Avenue this morning signaled relief, not annoyance.

The street, which forks as it approaches Summit Avenue, is one of the widest in the city's Fairmount section.

But Euclid between Summit and Prospect avenues has been neglected for nearly 3 decades, and wasn't paved when other blocks between Prospect Avenue and Main Street were repaired several years ago.

Instead, numerous pothole repairs and patches left a minefield of rough and broken pavement for residents to navigate even as they were paying some of the highest property taxes in Bergen County.

Now, replacement of catch basins and the installation of wheelchair ramps at Euclid and Summit precede a long-overdue paving of the block.

Euclid Avenue, from Summit to Prospect Avenues, is one of the 11 streets being repaved by the end of the year, according to the city's Fall 2019 newsletter.

READ: A massive traffic jam ruined our night out

HOW OLD? The work includes the replacement of bricks that could be 100 or more years old. The crew took a meal break this morning, below.