A candy-colored “Exotic Clouds” sign that once beckoned customers into a smoke shop at Stanton and Ludlow streets now hangs over a darkened storefront with windows covered in graffiti. Blocks away, on Allen Street, the gate is down on another shuttered shop, this one with an awning emblazoned with “Social Club,” written in understated cursive.
All around the Lower East Side, tucked between hip restaurants, bars and clothing boutiques, are the remnants of bodegas, lounges and makeshift dispensaries closed by the city in recent months, part of a crackdown on alleged illegal weed stores. Officials have made 5,000 inspections and closed more than 1,100 businesses citywide on charges of selling marijuana without a license.
The Lower East Side includes the zip code with the most cannabis summonses in the city, followed by parts of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the area near Fordham University in the Bronx, according to a Gothamist analysis of city data on violations issued through Operation Padlock to Protect, launched by Mayor Eric Adams and the sheriff’s office in May.
The enforcement push has left behind blocks pocked with empty storefronts, with no clear timeline for returning most of the properties to use — either under the same businesses, or other legitimate, functioning operations. [Read More @ The Gothamist]