Going all out to promote unhealthy food

This old bank building on State Street in Hackensack has been empty for years, and the parking lot next to it isn't being used. Meanwhile, customers going to the post office down the block have to fight over the four metered spaces out front, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Love unhealthy food? Fattening cookie dough? Salty, teeth-corroding potato chips? Artery clogging cakes?

Then, you'll be eager to patronize the three "food" company owners shown on the front of The Record's Better Living section today (BL-1).

Esther Davidowitz, the new food editor, actually has the nerve to call Joel Ansh, Marisa Iapicco and the trio of Adam Horvath, Camille Beck and Jared Levine "epicures." 

Davidowitz demotes to BL-2 in Better Living news of the opening of a healthy food place, Dosateria at the Whole Foods Market in Edgewater.

Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori has been writing so enthusiastically about Dosateria in recent weeks you'd think she had discovered a new aphrodisiac.

Bottom feeding

The editors of Better Living and Business are bottom feeders.

The major story on the Business front today is all about the titanic battle among franchises selling hamburgers and cupcakes, among other items (B-1).

Even today's front page is wrapped in the Summer Can Can flier from ShopRite, which is selling obesity fueling 12-packs of sugary Pepsi at half price (when you buy 4).

Hackensack police reported two editors from The Record, Deirdre Sykes and Tim Nostrand, had spent the night in big-and-tall sleeping bags in front of the ShopRite on South River Street in hopes of raiding the store's Pepsi aisle.

Racist verdict?

Readers likely were surprised by the lead story on Page 1, reporting that a civilian had been found not guilty of all charges in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager (A-1).

That's because Record readers are so accustomed to seeing police officers cleared in the shootings of blacks -- in Garfield, Leonia and other towns.

Anyone who was stunned into senselessness by media coverage of the trial might wonder why Florida requires only 6 people on a jury hearing a criminal case, compared with 12 here in New Jersey and many other states.

They won't find the answer in today's story from The Associated Press (or Mess) wire service (A-1 and A-6) nor do I think I saw an explanation on CNN, which went "live" for closing arguments in the case.

Mind the gap
 
The entire Road Warrior column today is devoted to a gap in a Route 3 noise wall (L-1), leaving readers wondering when The Record will fill in the gap in coverage of real commuting problems.

Tens of thousands of words have been written about NJ Transit, especially since Superstorm Sandy, but no reporter or editor seems ready to explain why rush-hour seats on trains and buses are so scarce (see today's restroom editorial on O-2).

More errors

In his Road Warrior column on Friday, Cichowski reported incorrectly that passing a slower car on the right is illegal, according to a concerned reader: 

"Road Warrior tries to repeatedly endanger his readers in believing his lie that passing on the right is a violation, even though I have repeatedly indicated to him that New Jersey law (39:4-85) states it is not a violation when drivers pass vehicles on the right if done under safe conditions."

To read the full e-mail to editors and management, click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Pass on Road Warrior misinformation 
 
Rent-an-editor

I saw two problems in today's Real Estate cover story on apartment rentals -- one of them so sloppy it could only have been inserted by an editor (R-1).

In only the third paragraph, readers encounter this ridiculous sentence:

"The recent housing bust ... pushed many more people out of single-family homes and into leasing offices ...."
  
Offices? That can't be right.

Working or renting?

On the continuation page, the story says Virginia-based AvalonBay is "working on projects" in Wood Ridge, Hackensack and Bloomingdale.

Avalon at Hackensack, shown on the cover, has been leasing for at least a couple of months.

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the copy desk?

Out shopping for a new wardrobe at the Salvation Army?