Why weed is one of the strongest smells in NYC

Plus, conversations with migrants who were forced to sleep on the sidewalk in Midtown. [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [New York is a city of smells, yet the scent of weed is breaking through.]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter curated by Brooks Brunson]( --- Weather: ☁️ The clouds make for quite a dreary start for the week, and they are sticking around all day. Luckily the chance of rain is just 20 percent, and temperatures will be decent with a high of 77, low of 68. --- Welcome to Monday in New York City, where smoking violation complaints to the city’s [311]( system [are up an average of 86%]( since weed was legalized in 2021, compared against the prior decade. The 311 data is in contrast with recent studies which show that adults in the United States increasingly perceive secondhand exposure to cannabis smoke as safer than tobacco smoke. (Though the [science isn't quite there]( to support this view.) So why is the dank so stank? [Read Sarah Sloat's story]( which explores the science behind why weed smells so strong and other ways legalization has impacted city life. --- Here are more stories you should know about to start your week: - Reporter Arya Sundaram [interviewed]( migrants who just a few weeks ago were forced to sleep overnight — some for days on end — on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, amid what would become an international media storm. "The newspapers were coming, recording us, showing us to the world without trying to help," C.S., an asylum-seeker from Senegal, told her. [Read more here](. - A Jersey City police officer [shot and killed a man]( inside a home on Randolph Avenue on Sunday afternoon. - Thousands of special education students are still not receiving the support they need despite a dramatic increase in spending in recent years, New York Comptroller Brad Lander [wrote in a new report](. - A University of South Carolina student from Connecticut was [fatally shot]( early Saturday morning after he mistakenly attempted to enter the wrong home, thinking it was his own. - New York City Councilmember Inna Vernikov has [filed charges of forcibly touching]( against a man who kissed her without permission in a subway station during a television interview. - NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell on Sunday said [police plan to use drones]( to survey crime scenes, an initiative he said was inspired by technology Mayor Eric Adams saw [during his tour of Israel’s National Police Academy]( last week. - A New York Magazine writer recently attended a sold-out festival at Brooklyn Mirage, a sprawling venue which fits at least 6,000 concertgoers at capacity, in an attempt to find out: [Is there a serial killer stalking the joint?]( - [Read our deep-dive]( into the history of Brooklyn Mirage, the two recent deaths and alleged kidnapping. - In more venue news, the event space Bronxlandia in Hunts Point had its [liquor licensed pulled last month](. - The Upper East Side has among the lowest rates of diabetes and obesity in the city, yet 2.3 percent of those living along a stretch from the UES to Gramercy Park [took diabetes and weight loss drugs]( Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro last year, the highest rate in the city. - Trader Joe's has now gotten a whopping five recalls in the last four weeks for food items that potentially contained rocks, insects and metals. [How worried should we be?]( - How much should it cost to rent a floor in a Brooklyn Brownstone? [A lot of them are going for $5,000/month](. - [Here's a further look]( at the record high rents across the city right now. - If you spent time outdoors in the city this weekend, you probably noticed that lanternflies were out in full force. Luckily, there are unexpected heroes like Succession’s Kieran Culkin, who was seen walking through Brooklyn [aggressively killing the invasive species]( with his shoe. (I can confirm this is true, as I was one of the lucky bystanders to witness it.) - Read more: [Here’s why lanternflies seem particularly bad right now](. - The biggest names in tennis are heading to Queens today to kick off the 2023 U.S. Open. City officials [estimate that 880,000 people will make the pilgrimage to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park]( in the days ahead of the tournament and during the two weeks of scheduled games. - Is a hot dog a sandwich? "Bread is a portable, carbohydrate, edible napkin — insofar as your meal is wrapped in some sort of edible carbohydrate napkin, it is a sandwich," one WNYC listener argued during an All Of It segment last week. [Read or listen to this extremely important debate](. - In NYC, we're more accustomed to local bodega cats, but Leo has made himself a home — and a name — inside a South Jersey Home Depot, where the store manager runs a TikTok account chronicling Leo's antics. [It's garnered over 23 million views](. More from Gothamist [second image]( [August ends with rings of Saturn and a super blue moon hovering over NYC]( As the summer winds down, skygazers can enjoy the last days with views of the super blue moon and the rings of Saturn. [New Harlem Renaissance exhibit to showcase a revolutionary time in Black art]( The movement changed “the very fabric of early 20th-century modern art.” [We Rely On Your Support]( [I tried it: A viral Hot Cheetos burrito in Ditmas Park]( The latest story from ‘I tried it!,’ an ongoing series in which our reporters try novel or trendy experiences in New York — so you can decide if you want to. [Bronx death caused by NYPD officer throwing cooler ruled a homicide as community mourns]( Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, who represents District 14 which includes Kingsbridge, said her constituents are struggling to process the caught-on-video incident. [New York native leads latest NASA trip to International Space Station]( Jasmin Moghbeli is the mission commander for the trip, which successfully docked at the ISS on Sunday morning. 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