Pubdate: Mon, 03 Aug 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Joshua Jamerson

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY PLAN STIRS ANXIETY AND HOPE IN SOUTH BRONX

The Hunts Point neighborhood in the South Bronx has struggled to 
clean up its act for years. Prostitution is still a problem, but it 
is far less prevalent, residents say, than it once was.

A couple of years ago, community leaders and residents helped derail 
the opening of a strip club. The neighborhood was once home to 
several strip clubs and now it has none.

So, now, news that the building that was going to house the club will 
instead open as another kind of business is stirring anxiety in the 
neighborhood. That is because the building is planned to be the site 
of one of New York City's first medical marijuana dispensaries.

On Friday, New York State named the five companies that will be 
allowed to grow and sell marijuana for medical use in the state, 
including in New York City. One of the companies chosen plans to set 
up a retail site in Hunts Point.

But dispensing marijuana, even for medicinal purposes, raises a 
question among some residents and community leaders: Will this be an 
economic boost that the heavily industrial area needs or will it 
become a magnet for trouble, further reinforcing the seedy image that 
many have of the neighborhood?

John Rivera, whose father owns 1280 Oak Point Avenue, the site of the 
proposed dispensary, said he hoped that residents and workers would 
see the shop as he does: as a positive addition that would provide 
jobs and inject some vitality into the neighborhood.

"I don't think the marijuana place coming in there is going to 
negatively affect the community," he said.

Mr. Rivera, who operates the building, which his father has owned 
since the 1970s, said the building had several strip clubs as 
tenants. The building still features an awning with the words "King 
of Clubs NYC," the name of the club that was blocked by neighborhood opponents.

Rafael Salamanca, the district manager for Community Board 2 in the 
Bronx, which includes the area where the dispensary will be, worried 
that it could be a target for drug users and thieves.

"It's all about security and securing that product," Mr. Salamanca 
said. "That's my concern right now."

State regulations require security measures "to prevent and detect 
diversion, theft or loss" of marijuana, including perimeter alarms, 
motion detectors and video cameras in all areas where marijuana is 
kept. Mr. Rivera said the dispensary would be well protected.

Dispensaries are planned in other parts of the city, including 
Manhattan and Queens. The companies will be registered with the 
state, and each plans to open four dispensaries statewide. They are 
required to be doing business within six months, meaning medical 
marijuana could be on sale in New York by the end of the year.

PharmaCannis, which will grow and package marijuana products in 
Hamptonburgh, in Orange County, will sell them at dispensaries in 
Hunts Point and elsewhere in the state.

While prostitution in Hunts Point has not been eradicated, it has 
decreased drastically since the 1990s, when an HBO show, "Hookers at 
the Point," chronicled the neighborhood's seamier side.

The area is also home to the sprawling Hunts Point Terminal Produce 
Market, which is made up of about 40 independent merchants who work 
as a cooperative, and supplies fresh fruits and vegetables to 
groceries, bodegas and other businesses across the New York region.

But even with millions of dollars in investments from city leaders, 
few would consider the area a place of urban prosperity, despite the 
crackdown on strip clubs. In January, a report, by the Citizens' 
Committee for Children of New York, identified Hunts Point as the 
least promising place to grow up in New York because of its high rate 
of childhood poverty, among other economic indicators.

Kevin Almonte owns and operates a secondhand auto parts shop in Hunts 
Point that his father started more than 20 years ago.

Mr. Almonte, who lives on Long Island, said the dispensary might be 
good for the area in the short term - "maybe it will bring more jobs, 
or more policing," he said - but believes it may be a problem in the long run.

"I mean, medical marijuana, that's how it starts," Mr. Almonte, 34, 
said, adding that he is skeptical about more drug use in the area, 
even if it is legal. "In the long run, it'll be a negative," he said, 
adding, "It's like putting a piece of cheese in a rat trap."

Others who work in the area were less hesitant about the plan.

"Everybody has to make a living," said Joseph Beltrani, a manager at 
the Logan Bus Company, which is a block away from the proposed 
dispensary. "I'm not going to say I like it or I don't like it. It's 
not going to interfere with my business."

Mr. Rivera, who owns Gold Key Modular Homes, a modular home building 
company on Long Island that he said was his main business, has not 
had a tenant run a business out of his father's building since 2011. 
The dispensary, he added, would be an asset because it would lead to 
increased police patrols.

"I really think it's going to clean up the neighborhood," he said, 
"believe it or not."

Jack Begg contributed research.
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