Feb. 14, 2024 By Iryna Shkurhan Parents flooded the Queens Community Board 11 office in Little Neck last week during a Cannabis Committee meeting where four proposed dispensary sites were up for approval. Over a dozen children in attendance also held up signs that read “not the spot for pot” and “doobie a neighbor and…
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Jan. 24, 2024 By Bill Parry
Two Queens lawmakers are speaking out about the proliferation of illegal smoke shops in their districts.
Dec. 21, 2023 By Anthony Medina Advocates for additional lighting in Forest Park turned out in large numbers to plead their case at the Community Board 9 meeting Tuesday night, at the same time nearly a dozen cannabis dispensary applicants waited to see if their businesses would gain board approval. More than 30 park advocates attended the meeting inside Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, on Dec. 19, in an effort to make the board aware of their struggle to obtain lighting in Forest Park. Pablo Rubio, the executive director of Formativas Barcelona SC – NYC, spoke for the many…
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Nov. 28, 2023 By Anthony Medina At the Queens Community Board 5 Liquor License and Cannabis Committee meeting on Monday, Nov. 27, members voted to oppose four out of six applications for proposed cannabis dispensary locations in Ridgewood and Glendale. The committee meeting at the Brewery Keenan Heiser American Legion Post on Cooper Avenue in…
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Nov. 16, 2023 By Gabriele Holtermann Good Grades, the first woman-owned retail cannabis dispensary in Queens, reopened to the public in Jamaica on Nov. 15 after undergoing an extensive $1 million renovation. The first legal retail dispensary in Queens, co-owned by Extasy James and her cousin, Michael James, opened as a temporary “pop-up” in March…
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Nov. 10, 2023 By Anthony Medina Queens Community Board 5 (CB 5) officially voted to oppose all three applications for legal adult-use cannabis dispensaries during its meeting at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, on Wednesday, Nov. 8. As a follow-up to the Community Board 5 Liquor License and Cannabis Committee meeting held last week, board members heard again from the public regarding the proposed sites for the state’s conditional adult-use retail dispensary applicants and moved to vote on the matter once and for all. Once the Liquor License and Cannabis Committee report was shared with the board,…
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Oct. 19, 2023 By Czarinna Andres and Anthony Medina Queens elected officials have united to formally express their concerns over proposed adult-use retail dispensary license applications for storefronts in Glendale and Maspeth, citing the potential risks posed by their proximity to educational institutions. In a letter written on Monday, Oct. 16, addressed to the New… Read more »
Oct. 18, 2023 By Camille Botello Community Board 11 is scheduled to deliberate on a new cannabis player in the East Bronx at its Economic Development Committee meeting tonight. Freshly Baked NYC — a legal conditional adult-use retail dispensary (CAURD) license holder with a Queens delivery location but without a current physical storefront — has applied to set up shop at 2152-2154 White Plains Road in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx. According to the committee agenda, CB11 members will deliberate on the dispensary’s application at Wednesday night’s hybrid meeting. David Nicponski, the CEO and co-founder of Freshly Baked…
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Oct. 18, 2023 By Iryna Shkurhan As the state is rolling out legal adult-use cannabis with an emphasis on social equity, community boards have been left with a novel responsibility of approving the dispensary applications that are rolling in. At this month’s monthly meeting that congregates the chairs of all 14 community boards in Queens, a frustration with the state’s lack of support in adopting the new responsibility dominated the meeting. All who spoke up at the Oct. 16 meeting in Kew Gardens expressed a need for more structure to deal with the various challenges that are already coming up…
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By John Schilling Ozone Park resident Jeremy Rivera sat at home back in April, nervously awaiting an email that could change his life as he knew it. A three-time convicted felon on various drug charges who reinvented himself as the head of a construction company post-incarceration, Rivera sought a new beginning for himself once… Read more »