Good morning. Today is Friday. We’ll see how things go on the first day of legal marijuana sales in New Jersey. And, since it’s Earth Day, we’ll be meeting tree pickers to plant in city parks.
This is why Daniel Garcia stood in line outside the store at 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
“I am very picky about my weeds,” he says, “and sometimes I ask my guy, ‘Which is good?’ and it’s not always accurate. I like going to the drugstore because I know for sure that what they tell me is correct.”
Garcia, 23 and previously bought her marijuana from a dealer, was the first in this line at Rise Paterson, a sparkling New Jersey dispensary. When it finally opened after two and a half hours – on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in the state — he made one of the first legal marijuana purchases in the New York area. His choice, for just over $60, is 1/8 ounce of a potent strain called Banana Cream.
New Jersey is one of at least 18 states that have legalized recreational marijuana. New York is also among them and will start selling later this year. Advocates say bringing cannabis buying out of the shadows will create new jobs and bring in tax revenue — $30 million for fiscal year 2022 and $121 million for 2023, according to estimates. earlier count from Governor Philip Murphy of New Jersey, who traveled to a clinic in Elizabeth on Thursday.
Cannabis sold in New Jersey faces a requirement that does not apply to blueberries, cranberries, chopped fresh herbs, peaches, spinach or asparagus – all of which made New Jersey grow in abundance. They can be sold anywhere, but cannabis sold in New Jersey must be grown in New Jersey. And buyers in New Jersey can’t legally ship it out of state.
Greg DeLucia, a communications executive, has been patiently waiting for a clinic in Bloomfield, NJ, to open. He said he used to buy his marijuana in more sketchy places.
“My agent,” he said, “is a guy with four teeth named Bubbles.”
The pharmacy is a far cry from the Bubbles dealer. Greeters hand out cakes from a food cart in the parking lot. A steel drummer played pop songs, and Ben Kovler – founder and CEO of Green thumb industryThe company that runs the store, Rise Bloomfield, and several other stores in New Jersey – sounds mellow.
“The whole country has so many worries,” he said. “So the demand and appeal of this product is widespread because health is something we all want.”
Weather
Enjoy a sunny day in your near 60s, with gusts of wind and temperatures dropping to a high of 40s at night.
Parking next door
Suspended today (Passover and Good Friday, Orthodox) and tomorrow (Passover).
She picks trees. Many trees.
Maple for the Bronx? Lilac for Brooklyn? Maureen Clancy decides where the tree will go.
She has a longstanding job title – purchasing manager for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. She is responsible for selecting thousands of trees to be planted on sidewalks and in parks.
She will be responsible for picking more trees if Mayor Eric Adams commits to planting a million more trees by 2030. five county presidents pressed him to take the first step in February, calling for the revival of MillionTreesNYC Program started in 2007 when Michael Bloomberg was mayor.
To find trees for the city, Clancy traveled as far as Maryland — “the nursery is my second home,” she says. Back in the city, she calculates the area needed for each type of tree, coordinating with water and electricity companies and city agencies to ensure there is room above and below ground. But that’s not all.
“I think about how much shade a particular tree can provide for the next 40 years,” she said. “So a lot of thought and planning goes into choosing the right tree for a particular street and neighborhood.”
Latest New York News
A runner looking back and forth
In a conversation with runner Cheryl Toussaint, what could not be talked about – the 50th anniversary of her winning silver medal in the 1,600 meter relay at the Olympics. She’s talking about the future – 260 finalists will compete in Colgate Women’s Games on Sunday at Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island – and it’s hard not to wonder if Toussaint sees something of himself in them.
She went from a competitor in the 1970s to an assistant manager meeting in 1999 to meeting with a director in 2014, and now she is hosting an outdoor event. Colgate’s games, which began indoors in the 1970s, have moved out this year after skipping last year because of the pandemic, and Toussaint has been impressed with what she saw at the semi-final recently. .
“The level of competition has been incredible in the early part of the season,” she said. “We are standing with our jaws falling to what they can do in this short amount of time. The indoor season only ends in March. ” Coming out of the semi-finals, there was only 5 point difference between the top 400 meters in high school – Anissa Moore from Brooklyn and Avery Lewis from Wynnewood, Pa.
In total, this year around 2,000 athletes competed in the Colgate Women’s Games, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive. For students, there are scholarship awards of up to $1,000 per event.
Colgate games are the brainchild of Fred Thompson, former track star at City College of New York, whom Toussaint first met at a Brooklyn track club he started in the 1960s. She stopped by when she was 13, wearing a dress and sandals, and was intrigued. So much so that she changed into her running clothes, entered the 100 meter race and finished fourth.
“I went to Coach Thompson, he looked me up and down and he said, ‘Sure, come on, we practice on Monday,’” she recalls. “And in that moment, my life changed. My life has changed because I now participate in an organized sport whose goals go beyond what I have for myself.
“This whole show, it never gets old,” she said. “It never gets old because every day we have the event is a day when someone walks through the door and realizes something about herself.”
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Dear Diary:
It was my birthday, and a major milestone at the time.
With congratulatory calls filling my head and heart with happiness and best wishes, I forgot to sign up for my life drawing workshop the next day. Attendance is limited to the first 13 people who respond to emails at 5 p.m., and class was full by the time I remember responding.
Later that evening, I called a neighbor, who also often works on the workshop, to say that I wouldn’t be joining her the next day.
She also missed her email after setting the wrong alarm to remind her at 5:30pm. I told her my reason: that I was distracted because it was my birthday. She suggested we go to dinner to celebrate.
We went to a place in Italy in our Upper West Side neighborhood. My neighbor told our waiter it was my birthday.
He asked if we wanted dessert. We declined and asked to check.
He returned with a surprise: chocolate mousse with a lit candle. He apologized for not singing “Happy Birthday”, saying that he had a “not-so-excellent” voice.
That’s fine with me, because I hate the attention anyway.
A woman at the next table, overhearing the waiter, suggested that her companion, an opera singer, might do the honorable thing.
