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UPDATE City Council: Commercial Property Owners Not Being Summonsed for Leasing to Unlicensed Smoke Shops

POLICE SAID MR. Exotix Smoke Shop, located at 290 East Kingsbridge Road in Fordham Manor, was robbed by two armed men on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 and was back open for business as seen on Wednesday, April 12, 2024.
Photo by David Greene

Editor’s Note: The following is an updated version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

A 2023 City law which prohibits owners of commercial premises from knowingly leasing such commercial premises to, or otherwise allowing the use of such premises by, unlicensed smoke shops went into effect last July. It is not being actively implemented, according to the city council.

 

When Norwood News contacted the council to ask a related question about the law, in perhaps another sign of ongoing tensions between the Adams administration and the council, a deputy press secretary at the Office of City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, said in part, “As part of the [Adams] Administration’s required quarterly reporting [on] this law, we learned in March that shockingly, they reported that zero notices or summonses were issued to commercial landlords and thus, none were found in violation.”

 

We asked the deputy secretary which agency was responsible for issuing the summonses. We did not receive an immediate response. New York City Mayor Eric Adams was scheduled to join New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for a joint press conference on the topic of cannabis regulation on Friday morning, April 19.  A further story will follow.

 

Meanwhile, as reported, some elected officials have been joining the Sheriff’s department on various smoke shop raids across The Bronx when it is believed they are operating illegally, while NYS Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) has also been stepping up the pressure on their end on unlicensed stores.

 

Meanwhile, it would appear that illegal weed shops continue to operate and are also being robbed. The NYPD is asking the public for help identifying one of two suspects captured on surveillance video, wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies or attempted robberies of smoke shops located within the borders of the 52nd Precinct, which covers some or all of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Bronx Park, and University Heights.

 

Announcing the robberies, the NYPD reported the incidents only as “commercial establishment” robberies/attempted robberies, without specifying they related to smoke shops. According to police, the first incident took place at New Stand Candy, located at 2625 Grand Concourse at East 193rd Street in Fordham Manor at 6.50 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.

 

Police said an unidentified person approached the store’s tiny, street-level window and displayed a firearm to a 32-year-old male employee. They said the suspect then stole $3,000 and fled the location on foot, heading northbound on the Grand Concourse. No injuries were reported.

 

The store sits directly across the street from P.S. 246, located at 2641 Grand Concourse. On Friday, April 5, a female school safety agent at the school told Norwood News, “Oh, we’ve called 311 several times about that place and the State Police have shut them down two or three times.”

THE MAGIC 7 SMOKE Shop, located at 174 West Fordham Road in University Heights, was only recently shut down and had its sign removed, as seen on April 7, 2024, despite a fatal stabbing taking place inside the store in July 2022.
Photo by David Greene

An attempted robbery was again reported at New Stand Candy at 9.13 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2. Police said a 23-year-old male employee was behind the counter when an unidentified male approached the store’s “drive-through window” and displayed a firearm.

 

On April 3, the NYPD released a video from the robbery in which a man is seen brandishing a handgun. He quickly tucks the gun inside his pants as he attempts to stop the store’s iron gate from closing when the worker apparently tries to shut remotely. Unable to stop it from closing, the gunman is then seen running away.

 

Police described the suspect from the April 2 robbery attempt as a male with a medium build and a dark complexion, who was last seen wearing a black jacket, black pants, black and white sneakers, and a black ski mask.

 

On April 5, after the NYPD released information on the attempted robbery, Norwood News spoke to an apparent (male) employee behind the counter of the smoke shop, who said of the incident and his colleague, “They tried to rob him, but he shut the gate.”

 

The employee was asked if the smoke shop was licensed, as well as the law that stipulates that cannabis shops cannot be located within 500 feet of a public school. The man said the store was licensed but did not comment on its location.

 

We also asked the employee about the requirement by OCM for smoke shop operators to place a specific decal/sticker containing a QR code on their storefronts to indicate that the store is licensed, and since no such decal was visible on the storefront. The employee replied, “The boss is going to come and put it on the door.”

POLICE RELEASED THIS photo of a suspect wanted in connection with the attempted armed robbery of New Stand Candy smoke shop, located at Grand Concourse and East 193rd Street in Fordham Manor on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.
Photo courtesy of the NYPD

The NYPD reported another robbery at Mr. Exotix Smoke Shop, located at 290 East Kingsbridge Road, also in Fordham Manor, at 11.24 a.m. on Wednesday, April 3. Police said the incident occurred across the street from the Bronx Library Center, adding that two unidentified people entered the shore, displayed a gun, and demanded cash.

 

They said the individuals removed $60, and fled the location on foot, traveling northbound on East Kingsbridge Road towards East 192nd Street. Again, no injuries were reported.

 

On Friday, April 12, Norwood News asked P.S. 246 Principal Andrea Johnson for comment on the part of the law preventing cannabis shops from opening within 500 feet of a school. She replied, “That’s what I thought as well; yes, that’s what I thought.” Johnson confirmed the school had made several complaints about the store. We asked if the shop had ever been shut down. She responded, “A couple of times, yes.” Possibly exposing a loophole in the law, she added, “They keep opening with different names.”

 

Asked if she thought the smoke shop belonged in its current location, Johnson said, “Of course not! I’ve been fighting to get them moved forever.” She added that she had been opposed to the shop since it first opened a year and a half ago.

 

As reported, the smoke shop topic was also raised at a public safety forum on Nov. 30, 2023, held at P.S. 246, hosted jointly by Bronx Community Board 7 and the 52nd Precinct Community Council, during which members of the NY Sheriff’s Office and the NYPD took questions from residents of Bronx Community District 7, and again in March by some residents, after a 15-year-old boy was shot in the vicinity of the school.

 

When contacted, Taylor Randi, press coordinator at OCM, confirmed cannabis shops are not allowed within 500 feet of a school. Randi also confirmed that New Stand Candy was not licensed, adding, “We inspected this location twice in 2023 with the New York City sheriffs and issued cease and desists.”

NEW STAND CANDY, a smoke shop located at 2625 Grand Concourse in Fordham Manor, seen here on April 5, 2024, was robbed on March 21, 2024, and again on April 2, 2024. The shop is located across the street from P.S. 246 and was already shut down on two occasions by the New York State Police.
Photo by David Greene

According to OCM, the shop was shut on Nov. 15, 2022, when it was called “Luis & Christian Candy Store Corp.” and once again on Nov. 28, 2022, when it was called “Mazai Smoke Place Corp.”

 

Meanwhile, the Magic 7 Smoke Shop, located at 174 West Fordham Road in University Heights, was the site of a brutal homicide and has closed for good. Police were called to the location on Saturday, July 30, 2022, after a man was stabbed inside the store.

 

As previously reported, police identified the victim as Kenneth Fair, 59, who was allegedly stabbed in the neck by store employee, Vernon Gowdy, 54. Gowdy has been charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon. Norwood News reached out to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for a status update on his case, and will share any updates we receive. He is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

Meanwhile, governor had previously been joined by several legal cannabis shop owners when she delivered remarks to lawmakers in Albany on Feb. 28. Hochul had appealed to lawmakers to strengthen the laws around smoke shops to allow law enforcement to padlock illegal stores, pending the conclusion of what appear to be often lengthy legal disputes preceding the closures.

ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOHN Zaccaro, Jr., (D-AD 80) in coordination with the New York County Sheriff’s Department, conducted targeted inspections yesterday on smoke shops to combat the proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated sale of tobacco and cannabis in the Allerton section of The Bronx on Sept. 14, 2023. 
Photo courtesy of the Office of Assemblyman John Zaccaro Jr.

“These illicit vendors flagrantly violate our laws by selling to kids, evading our taxes, and engaging in fraudulent advertising about their products,” Hochul said. “We learned over the last year we had to take it a step further – $10,000, $20,000 fines are just too small, and they take too long to collect. They have drawn out investigations, months of hearings and appeals before these shops are told to pony up.”

 

She added, “In the meantime, guess what happens? The doors are still open. The money keeps rolling in. More and more cash keeps going in their doors, and not the doors of our legitimate operators, and that’s what needs to change.”

 

For more historical coverage on this topic, click here, here, and here. As reported, Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) announced last year that a public hearing on adult-use retail cannabis dispensary license applications which was scheduled for Nov. 14, 2023, was later canceled before the hearing date, since all four applicants rescinded the notifications sent to Bronx CB7, to present and discuss their applications.

 

Another public hearing, chaired by the CB7 health committee, was held on Jan. 16 to review two notifications. The first motion for a vote on the matter, taken at the January CB7 executive committee meeting, as the health committee didn’t have a quorum at the January meeting, was to consider sending a letter of support to the OCM for an Adult-Use Cannabis Retail Dispensary License at 61 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY 10468. The motion did not pass, with seven “no” votes, one abstention, and two absences.

 

At the same meeting, the executive committee also considered a motion to send a letter of support to OCM for an Adult-Use Cannabis Retail Dispensary License at 3584 Jerome Avenue, Bronx, NY 10467, and the motion passed with six “yes” votes, one abstention, one “no” vote, and two absences.

 

There had been some objections from resdents to previous applications. The board has advised that those wishing to report an incident should refer to this page for details on how to do so.

ASSEMBLY MEMBER JOHN Zaccaro, Jr., (D-AD 80) in coordination with the New York County Sheriff’s Department, conducted targeted inspections yesterday on smoke shops to combat the proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated sale of tobacco and cannabis in the Allerton section of The Bronx on Sept. 14, 2023. 
Photo courtesy of the Office of Assemblyman John Zaccaro Jr.

Anyone with any information on any of the referenced crimes is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1 (800) 577-TIPS. All calls remain confidential.

 

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include information about two notices for license applications sent to Bronx CB7 ahead of the January public hearing. 

 

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.

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