DC Council rejects emergency legislation to restore the 300ft buffer between dispensaries and schools

[Anonymous]

So drug dealers are the heroes and schoolchildren be damned. Every time I think our loony left-wing Council can't get any crazier...

[Anonymous]

The Council didn’t want to change the rules part way through the process. And the Board can only deny based on the existing legislation which doesn’t appear to provide them grounds to deny. Even though the applicant agrees that he wouldn’t want a dispensary across the street from his kids school, but he didn’t realize there was a school next to the location he chose and he just chose it because it was available. The whole process is broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Council didn’t want to change the rules part way through the process. And the Board can only deny based on the existing legislation which doesn’t appear to provide them grounds to deny. Even though the applicant agrees that he wouldn’t want a dispensary across the street from his kids school, but he didn’t realize there was a school next to the location he chose and he just chose it because it was available. The whole process is broken.

I agree the process is broken. But the board can exercise discretion. The chair repeatedly said during the hearing that the focus is on whether it’s “appropriate” for the dispensary to be there even if the law says it can be. So there are ground for them to tell the dispensary to find another location.

And of course the business owner knows there’s a school across the street, and another school and a day care within half a block. He said he chose this location specifically after doing “research.” Of course he knew.

What’s infuriating is that there are plenty of other locations downtown that are vacant and aren’t in such close proximity to schools and a day care.

[Anonymous]

Can someone please explain how the meeting ended - I listened to the entire hearing and then it seemed to end so abruptly. They were voting on something and then suddenly it was over. My understanding is that they have 75 days to make a decision? If you listen to the VERY last few seconds of the video - after almost everyone left the meeting, you can hear the woman lawyer and someone else cheering...it sounded like they said, "Did we just make history?" Can anyone explain this?

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to tonight's hearing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCSE1QRw3jo

[Anonymous]

The Council has just committed $515 million to keep the Caps and Wizards downtown, the mayor has promised around $400 million more for a downtown "reimagining" effort, and DC will rightly spend additionally for police and other measures to reduce disorder in the area. So how is it that the Council thinks it's ok to green-light more weed shops in the very part of downtown that they're trying so hard to reimagine and reinvigorate? Proximity to children's schools and day care facilities just makes it even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain how the meeting ended - I listened to the entire hearing and then it seemed to end so abruptly. They were voting on something and then suddenly it was over. My understanding is that they have 75 days to make a decision? If you listen to the VERY last few seconds of the video - after almost everyone left the meeting, you can hear the woman lawyer and someone else cheering...it sounded like they said, "Did we just make history?" Can anyone explain this?

The board is going to have a closed session and consult with their legal counsel. They voted on that and also on the date the closed session will be held.

The cheering at the end is likely because the hearing went very well for their client. It’s painfully obvious that the board is going to vote in favor of the dispensary.

Apparently this was the first protest hearing on the cannabis laws as the chair noted, which may also be why the attorneys were cheering.

The board is a bunch of clowns.

[Anonymous]

Enraging. I live on H Street in NE and have watched shop after shop like this open up on the blocks between my kids' school (Ludlow-Taylor) and another elementary (JO Wilson). I've also watched these streets fill with people who are clearly on drugs, often drinking out of open containers, panhandling, engaging in lewd and sometimes graphic language and behavior. Smoking so much that if you have to walk through with your kid, you're walking through these clouds of smoke. My kids complain about the stinky cigarettes and the crowds on the street. And these places are within a block or two of TWO elementary schools, with hundreds of kids coming and going every day.

I don't care if Congress claims they can't do anything about it. Do something about it, and then make Congress defend their position. This is ridiculous. These people are not even engaging in legal commerce or behavior. The head shops are skirting the law by "gifting" weed with purchase, and the people who patronize them are flouting the fact that the police won't enforce laws against public use (or public drinking, urinating and defecating in public spaces, harassment of pedestrians, etc.). And the Council just decided to do NOTHING.

At least Allen brought the bill. I don't support the recall effort against him (as in won't vote for it and think it's kind of silly) BUT I do sense it might be lighting a fire under him to be more proactive about crime and drug issues in Ward 6 and I'm all for that. The complacency is killing us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enraging. I live on H Street in NE and have watched shop after shop like this open up on the blocks between my kids' school (Ludlow-Taylor) and another elementary (JO Wilson). I've also watched these streets fill with people who are clearly on drugs, often drinking out of open containers, panhandling, engaging in lewd and sometimes graphic language and behavior. Smoking so much that if you have to walk through with your kid, you're walking through these clouds of smoke. My kids complain about the stinky cigarettes and the crowds on the street. And these places are within a block or two of TWO elementary schools, with hundreds of kids coming and going every day.

I don't care if Congress claims they can't do anything about it. Do something about it, and then make Congress defend their position. This is ridiculous. These people are not even engaging in legal commerce or behavior. The head shops are skirting the law by "gifting" weed with purchase, and the people who patronize them are flouting the fact that the police won't enforce laws against public use (or public drinking, urinating and defecating in public spaces, harassment of pedestrians, etc.). And the Council just decided to do NOTHING.

At least Allen brought the bill. I don't support the recall effort against him (as in won't vote for it and think it's kind of silly) BUT I do sense it might be lighting a fire under him to be more proactive about crime and drug issues in Ward 6 and I'm all for that. The complacency is killing us.

This isn’t complacency. This is the city telling us time and again that they don’t care about children and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I give up. We are moving. Just hope this mentality doesn't affect the whole of America and there are still some pockets of sanity to escape to.

You should not be allowed to leave the shithole you created by voting for leftist scum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I give up. We are moving. Just hope this mentality doesn't affect the whole of America and there are still some pockets of sanity to escape to.

You should not be allowed to leave the shithole you created by voting for leftist scum.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I give up. We are moving. Just hope this mentality doesn't affect the whole of America and there are still some pockets of sanity to escape to.

You should not be allowed to leave the shithole you created by voting for leftist scum.

+1.

I'm a moderate Republican so, even as a DC native, DC has never felt like a place where my local vote created anything. I am supporting ranked voting before I go, though I still haven't determined if the Density Bros will use it to maneuver to further power. They are wily. But it should open up pathways for moderate candidates too.

[Anonymous]

Two years ago ANC 3F was tripping over themselves trying to desperately get a dispensary located across the street from UDC. Really? Across from a college whose mission is to try and lift kids out of poverty? What’s wrong with these clowns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enraging. I live on H Street in NE and have watched shop after shop like this open up on the blocks between my kids' school (Ludlow-Taylor) and another elementary (JO Wilson). I've also watched these streets fill with people who are clearly on drugs, often drinking out of open containers, panhandling, engaging in lewd and sometimes graphic language and behavior. Smoking so much that if you have to walk through with your kid, you're walking through these clouds of smoke. My kids complain about the stinky cigarettes and the crowds on the street. And these places are within a block or two of TWO elementary schools, with hundreds of kids coming and going every day.

I don't care if Congress claims they can't do anything about it. Do something about it, and then make Congress defend their position. This is ridiculous. These people are not even engaging in legal commerce or behavior. The head shops are skirting the law by "gifting" weed with purchase, and the people who patronize them are flouting the fact that the police won't enforce laws against public use (or public drinking, urinating and defecating in public spaces, harassment of pedestrians, etc.). And the Council just decided to do NOTHING.

At least Allen brought the bill. I don't support the recall effort against him (as in won't vote for it and think it's kind of silly) BUT I do sense it might be lighting a fire under him to be more proactive about crime and drug issues in Ward 6 and I'm all for that. The complacency is killing us.

You fully recognize that he’s been complacent on crime yet you don’t support the recall?

[Anonymous]

I’m sure he doesn’t care, but Phil Mendelsohn is now dead to me.