RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — A 73-year-old New Jersey man drowned while swimming in the ocean off Palm Beach on Saturday during what was supposed to be a Thanksgiving vacation with his granddaughter.

Nikolay Yurchenko was pulled from the water just after 12:26 p.m. on Nov. 22 behind a condominium at 3100 N. Ocean Blvd., according to the Riviera Beach Police Department. Bystanders on the beach immediately began CPR until Ocean Rescue and Palm Beach Fire Rescue crews arrived.

Rescuers transported Yurchenko from the shoreline to an ambulance, but despite continued lifesaving efforts, he was pronounced dead at St. Mary’s Medical Center around 1:15 p.m.

Yurchenko and his 18-year-old granddaughter had arrived in Florida from New Jersey on Nov. 20 to spend the Thanksgiving holiday together, investigators said. She last saw him between 10:30 and 11 a.m. Saturday, as he left their condominium to go for a swim.

Riviera Beach police detectives and Crime Scene Unit investigators responded to the scene. No foul play is suspected in Yurchenko’s death.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in New Jersey is just over $101,000.

The Cost of Living in New Jersey

While that is an impressive number, we are all aware of the high cost of living here. By the time you pay taxes, make a rent or mortgage payment, and then try to put food on your kitchen table, there’s not much left.

I mean, taxes alone… in 2023, New Jersey’s statewide average property tax bill was around $9,600. That increased to just under $10,100 last year.

Poverty Despite High Income

Even with the average household here bringing in around $100,000/year, the poverty rate is rather high.

According to the Census Bureau, around 9.2% of people in New Jersey live in poverty.

With that in mind, if someone asked you which neighborhoods in the state were the poorest, you would probably immediately think of the usual places like Newark, Camden, or Trenton.

But if someone asked you to list the 30 poorest spots in New Jersey, those stereotypical cities would only get you so far. You might still have a dozen or so empty spots to fill.

Ranking the 30 Poorest NJ Towns

So let’s look at an official ranking of the 30 poorest neighborhoods in the Garden State. Some of these will definitely surprise you. In fact, you might live in one of these spots and not even realize it.

• Cajun-inspired pasta, obscure sandwiches and more most impressed food writer Kara VanDooijeweert this week.
• This column publishes on Saturdays, and typically features standout eats from Morris, Essex, Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and/or Sussex counties.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t hate paper straws.

I mean, I don’t like paper straws — and I used to think I hated them — but, recently, the cardboard-y drinking tubes have been receiving so much backlash in public discourse that I realized my feelings towards them were minuscule compared to most others’.

On TikTok and Instagram, it’s not uncommon that a video complaining about the straws pull over 100 thousand views. On Reddit, threads titled “I [truck]ing hate paper straws” have 460+ comments. At Election Day a few weeks ago, I saw someone wearing a shirt proclaiming “I don’t care who wins, just get rid of paper straws.”

Well, North Jersey, good news — if you’re in the subsection of society that thinks paper straws should throw themselves in a fireplace and burn, you’re going to love this week’s top local dishes; because, while the former are considered dry (and off-putting on a sensory level), these culinary champions are as wet as food comes.

None running the risk of turning your tongue into a desert, these are the three best things I ate this week.

Rasta Pasta, Tops Diner

Though it’s probably more of a modern American restaurant than a diner at this point, there’s no question; Tops Diner is one of New Jersey’s favorite spots to eat. Recently, the chic spot was ranked the best restaurant in the state by the Yelp “elites” (app users/contributors selected by community managers as “experts” on their local food scene), and, while writing an article on the aforementioned, it was subconsciously (re)tucked into the back of my mind.