New York City
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A proposed ban in New York City on menthol cigarettes has led to two opposing groups of advocates debating the potential effects on the Black community.
The proposal of further city and state bans on the sale of menthol cigarettes has created an unexpected conflict between groups of Black activists, visibly seen on Thursday afternoon (March 9th) in dueling protests for and against the bans held a half-hour apart near City Hall.
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A group of activists led by the family members of Eric Garner and George Floyd held a protest against the ban on the steps of City Hall. “We don’t need more interaction by police enforcement, we had enough,” Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother, said at the protest. “My son was a victim because allegedly he was selling ‘loosie’ cigarettes.” That’s what they’re going to do when they ban these cigarettes.”
Another protest, led by members of the NAACP along with 40 clergy members in front of One Police Plaza, advocated for the bans to commence. “The big lie is that the police are going to come into our communities if we ban menthol cigarettes,” said NAACP New York State Conference President Hazel Dukes. “Our children are dying. Our kids think menthol is great. They think it’s bubblegum,” she continued.
While there is a current ban on most flavored tobacco producs in New York State, the 2024 fiscal budget put forth by Governor Kathy Hochul contains the proposed ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes and a tax increase on other tobacco products. The city’s ban proposal, brought forth by Council member Rita Joseph and 19 others, bears similarities to the state ban and contains language which will “prohibit police officers or other law enforcement officers from arresting any person on the grounds in relation to any flavored tobacco product.”
Menthol cigarettes have enjoyed a high degree of popularity in the Black community. According to data compiled by New York public health officials, $177 million of the $9.1 billion spent annually by major tobacco companies goes to marketing in the state. Observers and critics have pointed out how these tobacco companies have aggressively marketed menthol tobacco products to the Black community through targeted ads, giveaways, and event sponsorship. Menthol cigarettes, while consumed by half of all adult users, are smoked primarily by 86% of Black smokers and 72% of Latino users according to reported data.
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It seems Mayor Eric Adams has some more work to do. It has been reported over 150 New York City police offers have been involved in misconduct responding to George Floyd’s passing.
As spotted on The Grio the New York Police Department could have responded better to the tragic killing of that turned the world upside down. According to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, or “CCRB”, over 600 complaints were received when the Big Apple collectively protested police brutality. On Monday, February 6 the organization released their findings via The 2020 Protest Report. Their investigation found that 150 badges were guilty of misconduct during the uproar including excessive force.
On May 30, 2020 multiple protestors were knocked over by a police vehicle. Another lawman reportedly pulled another protestor’s COVID-19 mask down and pepper sprayed them in the face. That same day a different set of offices tackled protestors and hit them over the head with batons. It was also confirmed others used physical force, such as pushes and shoves, against civilians in violation of NYPD Guidelines, abused their authority against members of the press and civilians who were not involved in protests and failed to provide medical attention to injured civilians.
The CCRB also faced multiple hurdles when investigating these complaints, many of which led to complaints being closed as “Officer Unidentified” because the CCRB could not determine which officers were involved in the alleged misconduct. Chief among these challenges were:
(1) the actions NYPD members took to conceal their identities, which prevented them from being identified by complainants, victims, and witnesses.
(2) the NYPD’s failure to track and document where officers, vehicles, and equipment were deployed.
(3) the NYPD’s failure to provide dispositive responses to requests for footage from BWCs and other NYPD-controlled cameras that resulted in delayed responses, false positives, false negatives, and inconsistent responses.
(4) investigative delays resulting from officers refusing to be interviewed remotely.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board is an independent oversight agency that investigates, mediates and prosecutes complaints of NYPD misconduct. You can read The 2020 Protest Report here.
Photo: George Floyd
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Kanye West’s former living mannequin Julia Fox wants the world to know she hates the idea of wealth by giving us a tour of her living conditions.
Julia Fox swears she is Prince Akeem and is living in meager accommodations on purpose. The “actress”/”model” took her TikTok followers on a tour of her “tiny” Manhattan apartment she shares with mice thinking it was a flex on the rich, but newsflash, it’s not.
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Fox, best known for galavanting around NYC and across the globe with “billionaire rapper genius” Kanye West, claims she is against “excessive displays of wealth.”
She also claims the mice running around her “tiny” apartment she shares with her child makes her “feel icky” and adds that “people that have really big houses. It’s just really wasteful when there is just so many homeless people in this country. I just, I’m not really like that.”
“I never thought in a million years that I would do this, but I do believe in maximum transparency, and so I am going to give you guys an apartment tour,” Fox says.
She continues “I know I am going to get roasted. And whatever, but hopefully maybe somebody can watch this and be like ‘maybe I’m not doing so bad.”
If she is paying rent in Manhattan, she is not “doing so bad,” We’re sure the 3 million people watching her bootleg episode of MTV Cribs feel the same way.
While Julia Fox “Struggles” With Mice, Kanye West Got A New Wife
Fox is currently giving the rich the middle finger by flexing on them with her tiny apartment, and her ex is reportedly a married man again.
West is rumored to have tied the knot with Yeezy architectural designer Bianca Censori, and yes, she is a Kim Kardashian knockoff.
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Photo: Taylor Hill / Getty
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One of New York City’s most unique identifiers is no longer. The graffiti from a very popular tunnel in Washington Heights has been repainted to the ire of some residents.
As spotted on Gothamist the Department of Transportation gave the 191st Street 1 train tunnel in Upper Manhattan a noticeable makeover. On Friday, January 20 a crew of employees repainted the underground passageway in an effort to remove all the graffiti that had been there for decades.
The project was not announced prior to it starting and even local were taken aback by the surprise remodeling. “The continual lack of transparency has long damaged our community’s trust; we are angered and disappointed by the lack of notification and care employed by the Department of Transportation in panting the tunnel without community engagement or planning” a joint statement from Council Member Carmen De La Rosa & Nira E. Leyva-Gutiérrez, Executive Director at NoMAA read.
When news of the project spread it quickly drew backlash from locals. “What happened here is just a slap in the face to the community,” said Luiggy Gomez, Washington Heights resident. “They erased history.” Naturally the controversy prompted the DOT to respond. Vincent Barone, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, did not explain why the repainting occurred but shared that the tunnel will receive new artwork in the near future. “We look forward to working closely with the community and local elected officials on a project that celebrates the culture and diversity that makes New York so special,” he said.
At this time the Department of Transportation has not shared details about the forthcoming art project for the tunnel.
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The long wait is over as New York City has opened its first legal marijuana dispensary, with more slated to open within the next few months.
On Thursday (Dec. 29), the first legally licensed recreational marijuana dispensary in New York State will open in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The Housing Works Cannabis Company is preparing to open its doors after being given the go-ahead by Governor Kathy Hochul December 21.
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“We set a course just nine months ago to start New York’s adult-use cannabis market off on the right foot by prioritizing equity, and now, we’re fulfilling that goal,” she said at a press conference announcing the decision at the time.
New York Housing Works, a minority-controlled non-profit organization serving those afflicted with HIV and AIDS, is the first of 36 dispensaries that have been licensed to sell cannabis to the general public. The state’s Cannabis Control Board is on track to issue another 139 licenses within the next few months as another 900 applicants are awaiting a decision. The operating hours will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, and the dispensary will be open to the general public at 4:20 p.m. after the VIPs have their chance to patronize the place in the morning.
The opening of Housing Works Cannabis Company comes as New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued a directive to crack down on the numerous smoke shops and bodegas selling unlicensed cannabis products that have sprung up around the city within the past year. Quality and pricing are the main reasons why these places will present stiff competition to legal dispensaries, with the unlicensed stores also drawing customers in with more colorful displays and decorations.
“Either way you can get marijuana on each block you go on, so it’s going to be the same,” said Ron, a store employee at a smoke shop in the East Village. Housing Works CEO Charles King notes that the financial disparity in operations is a concern. “Because we have to pay taxes in three different jurisdictions, we also have to charge more for our product than the illegal market does,” he said in an interview.
The listed prices for some of their products are on par with what customers would find in unlicensed shops, with an ounce of weed priced at $20 to $35 and pre-rolled joints retailing for $16 to $25 – before the 13% sales tax. But others feel this opening won’t deter the underground market that much.
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Mayor Eric Adams hasn’t met a scandal that he couldn’t avoid. This time, the cop-turned-politician is answering to questions about his decision to go on vacay just before a winter storm was set to hit the city he’s in charge of over the Christmas holiday weekend.
Apparently, while the mayor’s office didn’t let the public know his whereabouts, it turns out he was in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Reports Gothamist:
The mayor revealed his weekend whereabouts at an unrelated press conference Tuesday evening after his office hid them from the public for days. Adams stood by his decision to leave town and said he was mourning his mother during his second Christmas without her.
“After 365 days of commitment to this city, I decided to take two days to reflect on mommy. And to watch how you responded to my two days out of this city was really alarming,” the mayor told reporters after someone asked where he had been over the holiday weekend. “I deserve a good work-life balance like you do.”
Hey, everyone needs time off, right?
However, a public official essentially telling his office to cover for him doesn’t exactly lend to transparency. Nevertheless, Adams insisted he followed protocol and just wanted some time to reflect on the loss of his mother.
Adams asked for sympathy from the city press corps as he noted that, in the past year, he has dealt with killings, fires and police officers dying — all without his parents. His mother died in 2021 while he was campaigning for mayor.
“If I take time off to get my mental capacity together, so I can take the city through the crisis, I deserve those two days,” the mayor said.
Adams added that he had followed City Charter rules, which place the first deputy mayor in charge in the mayor’s absence.
Considering New York City press, it was a lose, lose situation for Mayor Adams no matter what he did.
Just saying.
A new New York City law requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings has officially gone into effect this week, with music companies hiring in the city mandated to comply. On the first day of the law, a picture of at least one of the major music companies’ salary ranges has come into focus.
The day the law went into effect, several companies were criticized for overly-broad salary ranges that effectively subverted the point of the regulation, which was designed to give prospective employees insight into what they could be expected to earn at different companies in the city and address salary discrepancies between men and women and for people of color. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, posted reporting and producing jobs with ranges between $40,000 to $160,000; tech jobs at Amazon were anywhere from $88,400 to $185,000; while Citigroup initially posted some job openings as between $0 and $2 million, before revising them to a range of $59,340 to $149,320.
Among the three major labels, only Warner Music Group (WMG) seems to have complied with the law as of yet. The company has 11 listed job openings on its website across its three locations in New York City, though 10 of them relate to its Spring 2023 WMG Emerging Talent Associate Program, a part-time paid internship program that lists a range from $15 to $30 an hour for between 20 and 25 hours per week. Its final opening, for a digital marketing and content creation manager, is listed at between $58,500 and $70,000 annually.
Sony, meanwhile, has more than 40 openings in its New York locations across all its operations, though not all positions appear to have salary ranges listed; most appear to ask the applicants for a desired salary target, as part of a standard-issue form through LinkedIn. (The law allows companies 30 days to comply after a complaint is registered before facing penalties. A rep for Sony tells Billboard the company will be complying.) It does list starting salaries for its fellowship program, a 24-month position with a starting salary of $70,000 per year.
Universal Music Group has some 16 openings across various divisions in New York, many at its merchandising division Bravado. Though each posting promises a “competitive compensation package including salary, benefits and generous 401k savings plan with company matching,” none lists a salary range. (A rep for UMG did not respond to a request for comment.)
In the independent sector, several New York-based companies have also listed ranges. Concord, for example, has three non-internship positions available in New York: a publishing paralegal ($70K-$80K); a publishing sync manager ($55K-$65K); and a director of business and legal affairs for publishing ($100K-$125K). BMG has two open New York-based positions: an investments/M&A manager ($80K-$90K) and a senior marketing manager ($70K-$80K). Roc Nation has two music-related New York-based openings: one for a senior director of event sponsorships ($135K-$180K) and one for a senior director of music partnerships ($135K-$170K). A senior coordinator position overseeing royalties and income tracking at Kobalt pays between $45,600 and $57,000 in New York City.
Businesses with three or fewer employees and temp agencies are not subject to the new requirement.