Gotham Buds, Harlem’s first legal adult-use cannabis retail store, opened last week across from the historic Apollo Theater. In an interview with Spectator, Omar Tejeda, Gregory Gray Sr., and Malika Bellamy—three of the four founders of Gotham Buds, alongside Jeffrey Lopez—described their journeys in the budding cannabis industry.

The Harlem Community School District and Abyssinian Development Corporation held an event this Sunday celebrating the launch of the “Culturally Responsive and Affirming Social-Emotional Leadership” Project—CRASEL. The celebration follows a $1 million federal grant from New York senators to increase resources for social and emotional development for students in Community School District 5, which consists of Morningside Heights and parts of Central Harlem.

New York City’s Rat Action Plan, passed by the City Council on Oct. 27, 2022, went into effect on April 1, 2023. Manhattan’s District 7 Council Member Shaun Abreu spearheaded the four-bill package to mitigate rat prevalence in the city and hold buildings, businesses, and the city accountable for trash disposal in an initiative he calls the “War on Rats.”

The City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy held a discussion on Monday about cannabis legalization in Harlem as part of its Harlem Health Initiative.

West Harlem-based biotech incubator Harlem Biospace—which received $9 million in state funding last year—has entered the planning stages of construction. The new lab, which will be built by the Harlem-based Janus Property Company, is set for construction at 1361 Amsterdam Ave. in the Mink Building. As Janus prepares to move to the next stages of planning, the property company and the Harlem Biospace founders said they hope to open the space by the end of the year.

Almost two years after New York state passed the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act to legalize and create a market for recreational cannabis use in March 2021, New York City has established its first three legal cannabis dispensaries. But these three dispensaries, all located near Greenwich Village, were not part of New York City’s initial plan for its first adult-use retail store, which was intended to be located in Harlem.

New York City opened its first legal cannabis dispensary on Dec. 29, 2022, almost two years after the state passed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act that legalized recreational cannabis use. During this interim, illicit shops have sprouted up throughout the city, leading to concerns about public health and the success of the incoming legal market.

New York state announced the first 36 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses on Nov. 21, with the state and license holders preparing to offer sales by the end of the year.

Rats are coming out in unprecedented numbers, posing problems for city streets and residents alike. But as rodent populations grow, concerns about rats are ignored and leave tenants forced to choose between new rat roommates and leaving their apartments.

Harlem has played a long and important role in the history of the American LGBTQ community at large. Hosting the first nationally recognized drag ball in 1869, Harlem’s history is one of both celebration and repression, going back over a hundred years and changing the course of the LGBTQ community.