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 United Front Against Displacement held a conversation highlighting Columbia’s gentrification of West Harlem and New York City Housing Authority’s efforts toward privatization in Lerner Hall on March 22. The conversation, which was held in partnership with the Sustainable Development Goals Hub and the Columbia Housing Equity Project, featured testimonies from NYCHA residents, UFAD representatives, and Columbia University students.

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.

William “Billy” Green, TC ’23, moves people, both literally and figuratively. He incorporates musical chairs into chemistry lessons. He dances professionally with a drum ensemble. He develops and teaches arts programming in Ghana and South Africa with the Opus Dance Theatre Company. Yet his tendency toward action is not purely physical: Green curates environments that stimulate sustained personal, academic, and artistic growth, and his dynamism recently earned him the title of 2023 New York State Teacher of the Year.