I spent 1-3rd grade in Ann Arbor. My parents were emotionally damaged humans who didn’t work very hard to avoid transferring that to all three of us. Going back there with my three siblings this past weekend was cathartic. Although I am the oldest and have the best recall, we still took quite a trip down memory lane.

Ann Arbor is an idyllic place to raise a family and go to college. The city enforces strict local preservation rules in 15 historic districts that include interior restrictions, one of the first in the nation to do this in residential areas. The population is 125,000, rising to 350,000 when you include surrounding areas. They have kept the place’s integrity; the architecture’s long-ago vibe keeps a neighborhood groove that feels good. That works really well in a state where everyone couldn’t be nicer. We had countless random conversations with people.

We returned to the house we lived in, including the apartment we had lived in before moving there. We were living in sunny Bel Air, Los Angeles, before moving to MI. My Mom was definitely not happy. Why we left Michigan has become hazy. Did my father not make the tenure track because he behaved so badly (not shocking), but that’s a tough one in academia, or did my Mom say this is not working for me? Who knows, but after 3rd grade ended, we left and went to live in Arlington, VA, before settling (literally, as it was rural suburbia back then) in Potomac, MD.

I went to Burns Park Elementary, which is three blocks from our house. The grounds are incredible. There is a big hill, which I remember sledding on. A brick building at the edge of this expansive park used to operate the ice rink, which we were told closed a few years ago. Memories come rushing back.

I never wanted to go to a big school, even though my Mom was sure I wouldn’t get into any, so why go deep? I applied to two schools: one safe school, Maryland, and Simmons College. My dad asked the head of admissions why they accepted me, but I went anyway. (Zingerman’s sandwich photo above – a must-stop institution)

We used to go apple picking and then return to Dexter Cider Mill for donuts and cider as kids. We learned that apple picking was on other farms around the area, but Dexter Cider Mill was the place for the goodies. I love a good caramel apple covered with peanuts.

We went to a farmers market and saw products we remembered from that time. Landjäger sausage and lemon drops (now I know where to buy them).

The all-day parties on Saturday, tailgating before the big football game, are like nothing I have ever experienced. It is a lot to take in, but I’m so glad I got to do it once. I also did not get the two memos: one about wearing Michigan swag and/or do not bring a bag. The stadium is large enough to almost fit most of Ann Arbor proper which is why the whole town gets into the football games!

And the weather was perfect. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. That early fall warm weather, with the crispness in the air. It is so good. If things had turned out differently, I would have been raised in Ann Arbor. Do they have an app for that yet?

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The Highrise (round 2) should be an amazing event. There is so much chatter happening right now in the cannabis industry around rescheduling, federalization, profitability, price compression, and more. Even if you are curious about the industry or considering investing in it, this is the conference for you.

I hope to see you there!

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How much longer can the costs keep going up? The numbers tell the story. Colleges cost $500m a year; most of the graduates will never be able to pay that back, and starting your life with that kind of debt, and the interest the government collects on each loan, is oppressive. The rents don’t compute with salaries. Basic needs are skyrocketing. The divide between the haves and have-nots has become a growing abyss. Look around, and you can start to see the cracks. The worst part is that we are all getting a glimpse of how government runs things, and it’s insanely disturbing.

Small signs everywhere show the economy is shifting, and some of the biggest names in retail are feeling it first. Luxury brands are rethinking how many stores they really need. Starbucks just announced a huge round of closings. Acme has shuttered a few locations too. These aren’t small, struggling shops. These are household names, and they’re pulling back, and I believe we will see more after the fourth quarter.

When the luxury closings come, and they will, they’ll leave a massive mess in their wake. Nowhere will feel it more than the smaller destination towns that have come to depend on them. We all know how grim it is because COVID did a number on us with its own set of closures. What if all the big brands just close up and leave, and pay out the lease? Many of the secondary towns- not necessarily Madison Avenue- will be a strip of endless empty storefronts and expensive real estate that no one can afford to fill. It will be very interesting to see what happens to those places, and who steps in, if anyone, to force market change. Zohran, whether you like him or not, is at least trying to create a more equitable city.

On the other hand, there’s AI. For years, big companies have charged the same premium prices for their services: lawyers, advertising agencies, consultants, cable, all the costly expertise that businesses were told they couldn’t live without. Each of these businesses wants to do what it does: give advice and write documents, create new campaigns, and let you connect to content. But as a small business owner, or even just as a consumer, you can now look at a lot of those bills and say, “You know what? I don’t need to pay for that anymore.” Work that used to require an expensive firm can increasingly be done faster, cheaper, and in-house. That’s a massive shift, and it’s already happening.

Put those two trends together, and you get something remarkable: the power is moving back to where it always should have been, in the hands of the consumer. Consumers are deciding which stores deserve to stay open. They’re deciding which services are worth paying for. They’re choosing with their wallets, and they have more options than ever.

So here’s my advice to every business, big or small, including our own: listen to the consumer. Listen to what they’re telling you. Watch what they actually do. Because they’re the ones holding the cards now. Everything is about to change. The businesses that pay attention will be the ones still standing when it does.

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For centuries, the bar has been one of the great public spaces. It’s where people go to get out of the house, meet their neighbors, have a meal, find some company, get the local gossip, or just be among people. Each town has one, or maybe a dozen, where the same community keeps returning to interact with the world.

I worked at a place one summer where all the men got their paychecks on Friday and headed off to the local pub. Factory workers clocked out and headed straight there to unwind with friends. Deals got made, friendships got forged, and plenty of life happened over a beer, a scotch, and a martini. But let’s be honest about what everyone was doing there. They were drinking.

Alcohol takes the edge off. It loosens tongues, making conversation easier. For some, it goes much further. Every bar has had its sots in the corner, completely out of their heads. Because alcohol, for all its charm, is a terrible, terrible drug. And yet we love it even though we know how evil it is for our bodies. If you have ever seen someone who has died of cirrhosis, you know. Or a kid who has drunk so much that their eyes roll back in their head and have to be rushed to the hospital to have their stomach pumped. Alcohol is everywhere. Walk into a bar or a restaurant, sit down, and what’s the very first question? “Can I get you something to drink?” Not “What would you like to eat?” The drink comes first. Always.

Today we are at the beginning of the cannabis revolution. Nobody knows how cannabis will be integrated into everything ten years from now, particularly in society, and we can’t forget the medical research, which is the most important. Cannabis is legal; it’s regulated; it’s sold in stores staffed by knowledgeable people, although it is not federally legal, which is mind-boggling. Yet in NY State, we still can’t open consumption lounges. So where does the cannabis community go for their local bar?

Think about what a bar actually sells. Sure, there’s alcohol. But there are also french fries, burgers, and, depending on the place, some excellent food. The idea that the bar was about community could be a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. Did the men need a place to drink by themselves, be bad, and make deals, or did they want community? It is a bit of both. To me, it is all about community. The drink is the excuse; the people are the point.

Gotham is a community business. Our cannaseurs know the people who walk through our doors. They know their names, what they like, what’s going on in their lives, their dog’s name, and perhaps where they are traveling to and from. It reminds me of walking a dog in Manhattan. You pass the same people day after day, and the dogs mingle and play, and a conversation starts, and it might continue for a few months, or never happen again. You may never learn their names, but you know about their lives: who just had a baby, who’s training for a marathon, whose mother has been sick. My sister calls this the third tier of your life, and I love that. It’s not family, it’s not friends, it’s not work, it’s that essential in-between layer of connection. Everyone needs it. That’s exactly why bars matter. So why not for cannabis?

The cannabis community is full of wonderful people. Many of them don’t drink, or would simply rather consume something else. Why shouldn’t they have a place to gather with friends and consume, the same way drinkers have for hundreds of years? We held an event for the entire Gotham team the other night, and honestly, that’s all we did: we consumed together and had some delicious food. And it was fantastic. People talked, laughed, connected. Nobody was slumped in a corner. It was everything a good local spot should be.

Guarantee that when NYS finally allows a consumption lounge, there will be no food-related restrictions. I am sure the alcohol industry is not happy about the possibility of a consumption lounge, but eventually you will be able to go anywhere and do both, although it might take ten years. It will just take time because government leaders don’t want to make changes without lobbyists and unions, and I am praying AI will change all that through more community engagement. I am quite positive we will be stuck with another senseless rule and another frustration in an industry that already has plenty.

We’ve accepted for centuries that a community space can be built around a substance far more harmful than cannabis. It’s time to give our community the same courtesy. Open the lounges. Let us have our local spots.

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In a constantly changing industry, it is not easy to decide which topics to discuss, as if (and when) cannabis gets rescheduled, the conversations, decisions, and thought processes change. We are still discussing the kick-off of this event, as things move quickly yet slowly.

This event will focus on the biggest markets: California and New York. One is the largest and longest-running regulated market, and the other is the fastest-growing. We are waiting for confirmation from Clint Kellum, Director of California’s Department of Cannabis Control, who took the helm of the world’s largest legal market late last year, inheriting eight years of hard-won lessons on licensing, compliance, and the fight against the illicit market. Confirmed is John Kagia, the relatively new Executive Director of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management, steering a $3 billion-plus market through its first real test of maturity. Together, they oversee the two states that set the direction for legal cannabis nationwide. In a candid conversation with Cultivated’s Jeremy Berke, they’ll take on where the industry actually stands, what operators need to know right now, and where regulated markets go from here — rescheduling, hemp, interstate commerce, enforcement, and the future of the legal industry itself.

Wholesale prices are falling in every mature cannabis market, and New York is next. Brands are watching margins shrink, retailers are pushing for deeper discounts, and cultivators are choosing between scaling up, specializing, or getting out. This panel puts the full supply chain on one stage — the distributor with visibility across hundreds of brands, the cultivator running a farm at scale, brand operators fighting for shelf space, and the retail data behind it all — to ask where the floor lands, and who’s still standing when it does.

The four companies that went through Gotham Growth will also present their products and lessons learned to the audience. Gotham Growth is a 6-session, high-impact accelerator designed for growth-stage consumer-product founders in the NY cannabis market who are actively selling cannabis products through licensed dispensaries, retail partners, or regulated marketplaces. The program supports founders who are preparing to scale, expand, or stabilize their businesses and provides clarity, structure, and execution support. We are passionate about this project at Gotham, giving back to others who are in need of advice and clarity in getting through the overwhelming barriers in this industry.

People apply to come, as we plan to engage the audience with the people on stage. The price is low at $100 a ticket, so we can bring diversity from our industry to the audience. We’ll have plenty of time to continue the conversations after the event, with a post-conference gathering of everyone at the event location. The Highrise is shaping up to be an event of conversations that industry leaders are thinking about.

We hope to see you all there!

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I cannot believe it’s been twenty-five years. I can still walk through the entire day in my head, start to finish, like it happened last week. Where I was, where our children were, the people who ended up at our house, the fear of what was happening to our country. It left its mark. And here we are, twenty-five years later, still fighting the same country.

I remember watching the second plane fly directly into the building and realizing, in real time, this was not a mistake. After picking up our children, and with Fred arriving at the same time (just luck because the phone lines were down), we walked up Sixth Avenue holding our children’s hands with hordes of people, many covered in soot, all of whom looked in shock. I felt like I was standing inside a Spielberg film. Not real. Except it was.

We got to our house with a small group of people who were supposed to leave the city that evening. The first thing I thought of was that we needed food, so I went to the grocery store to fill up. I remember listening to other people telling stories at the cash register. There was the fear of the unknown. Some had friends down there who worked in those buildings. Would they be ok? I remember thinking, ” Oh, fuck.

As it all sank in, Jessica (who was 10) and I took large bags of T-shirts and clothing for the victims down to St. Vincent’s (which is no longer there). But there were no victims. A few days later, we drove down again with towels for the hospitals. They didn’t need those either. The doctor at the front door, waiting too, saw Jessica and thanked us for the towels. At that point, we all knew there would be no victims to heal. The doctor who took the towels shook his head, thanked us, and told Jessica, who had engaged him, that he feared they wouldn’t need them. Even though the city blocked off 6th Avenue down to the towers for a week afterward, hoping someone could quickly get to the hospital, the street remained vacant.

The photos went up everywhere after that — on walls, on lampposts, taped to windows, all over the city. I remember picking up our kids one afternoon the following week, driving home, and one of their friends asked from the back seat, “Where do you think all those people are? Are they ever going to find them?” I thought about how these kids were being given hope, and I knew there was none. And I so had to say it: “They’re gone, honey.”

The pain and loss and trauma of that day doesn’t really leave you. The next day we took our kids on the subway, just to see a movie, because I refused to let us become a family living in a city ruled by fear. I remember Josh asking a policeman on the street, “Have they got those people yet?” — like there was still an answer coming that would make it okay. And now, knowing everything I know about how government actually operates — probably more than I ever wanted to know — it makes me wonder about the whole thing all over again. To this day, nobody has been held responsible for 9/11.

Every night I walked the dog and could smell how bad the air was. A pall hung over downtown, and depending on which way the wind blew, the air felt even worse. For weeks, we could smell many things. I developed asthma after 9/11 because of the air.

Then this week, Zohran released 17,000 documents that city hall had buried, revealing how bad the air really was. These were the real victims. The people who worked down there day after day, sifting through the buildings. Our men and women in uniform. Many of them have tried countless times to get the government to pay for the aftermath of many of the first responders’ health issues from being down there for weeks on end. Why does the government hide from the public when the government is supposed to represent the people? We can afford the aftermath of destruction in other countries, but we can’t take care of our own people?

The cost of 9/11 pursuing a country for a handful of people actually destroyed countless families, cost billions of dollars, and what has been accomplished? Twenty-five years later, I still don’t have peace with any of it, and based on the finally released documents, I have to wonder: does anyone think about all the people’s lives who have been destroyed by retaliating, like war? Is that to claim victory? There is no victory here.

Every time I think of that day, my eyes well up with tears. The fear on everyone’s face, especially the children who couldn’t process what happened, and neither could most of the adults. 9/11 changed how we live our lives; the reality is that security has now been amped up to the moon and was not like that 25 years ago. Does that security come with the belief that this will never happen again? Or is it just to keep an eye on us?

Through the memories and tears, I ask myself, as we look back at what has changed over 25 years, are we better off, or are we still fighting the same war? Did we do right by all the people who lost their lives? Unfortunately, the answer is no.

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I am an optimist.  Maybe it’s how I am wired.  I always look at the upside.  I love risk.  I love building things.  I believe most people are generally kind and want to do the right thing.  

Anyone over 60 will tell you age changes your perspective.  The majority of my life I have tried to do the right thing. I’ve given back and served as a Chair as several non profits. I believe that those who have had financial success should help impact those who have not been as fortunate.  

Being an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry has changed my entire perspective. I think I preferred living in my own bubble of belief. Getting an inside look at how government operates (especially during the Trump years) has made me incredibly cynical.   

Maybe it’s the endless poor decisions or the lack of accountability, but I think it comes down to trust. I don’t trust anything our Government does. Most decisions don’t seem to be made on pragmatic grounds, but on who writes the biggest check and who scratches someone’s back, regardless of the outcome. Growing up, I lived in the DC area, and then it was an honor to work for the Government. I wonder why anyone would want to do that now?

This summer was extremely cathartic.  Maybe it is getting older and realizing I’ll soon be a Grandparent. Or maybe I’m finally opening my eyes to the reality of the world.  My optimistic bubble worked for me for a long time.

As people get older, they tend to be more philanthropic and give back in many ways, but as I enter this next phase of life, I am feeling the need to be more selfish. Focusing on me and my desires vs trying to help make change. All the effort I have made, and I wonder: did I really accomplish any change?

I watched the Gloria Steinem show on Netflix called Famous Last Words. Seeing all the impact she made, only to watch it all be rolled back, must have been painful. She was a trailblazer for women’s rights, rights that we should have always had, but for some reason we don’t, and it appears to be getting worse.

I’m not walking away from the Public Housing Community Fund, and I plan to grow Gotham as much as I can, but it has become clearer to me every day that no matter how much I try to do the right thing, it doesn’t seem to matter, particularly in the cannabis industry. 

I know this doesn’t sound like my usual upbeat, positive attitude, but being in the thick of legal battles that should never have happened has changed me. For better or worse, it has definitely made me a cynic. I prefer optimism.

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Our biggest legal predator lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, and his name is Donald Trump. Unfortunately, there are many more out there. Our legal system is built with so many loopholes, which is exactly why we embrace civil debate (at least we used to), and why laws evolve as things change and/or are interpreted differently.

The system was designed to protect with certain guardrails, with the expectation that most people will follow the letter of the law. But what that same system has also created are legal predators — people who sue you for things you didn’t do, from the ADA to unions to employees who come after you for firing them when they had it coming, with thorough documentation, but none of that matters. When you are faced with a lawsuit, you have to respond, hire lawyers, and pay out for something you didn’t see coming.

Many of these predator lawyers know full well their client has a worthless case, but they figure they can still extract cash from someone. It doesn’t matter if they can’t win; they can clog up the legal system. They know the only way out is to pay them off to walk away. It’s happened to us more than once.

What I’ve told plenty of entrepreneurs is this: everything is built on a legal foundation, and it’s a lot like building a house. Your specs can’t be eighty percent complete when you send them out to bid, or you will find yourself paying more than you had bargained. In the legal world, it doesn’t matter how buttoned-up you are — someone can still come after you with a case that has no real merit, just enough teeth to make it expensive to fight. What I don’t understand is how the lawyers who take on these cases, who push them through a system that’s already buried in paperwork and wasn’t built to handle this kind of legal harassment, look at themselves in the mirror every morning and think, “This is what I do for a living. It’s grift, dressed up in a suit and a bar license, working its way through loopholes. And I am utterly disgusted by it.

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I predict a massive tech backlash. I don’t know a single person who isn’t utterly disgusted with the tech titans right now. How much money they’ve made. How little they’ve given back. How they carry themselves like they’re above everybody else. How they seem to control everything, thanks to the Supreme Court giving Super PACs the ability to impact our elections. How they’ve captured every scrap of our data, lied to us about what they’re actually watching and collecting, and never really answered for any of it. People are pissed.

Take Instagram. It’s a genuinely useful app — for sharing family photos, design ideas, building an audience for your business, recipes, DIY projects, podcasts, interesting videos, or whatever you want to pass along. But look at what it’s actually done to us. It’s built a culture that, at its core, is vapid. Take the photo, post the photo, become an “influencer.”

We rented out a boat for an afternoon with a crew so we could enjoy the experience. It didn’t take long for any of us to realize that the journey is set up around “Instagrammable” moments. We bought cheese and wine for the outing, and the next thing I know, one of the crew has taken all the goodies and built a cheeseboard that looks good in photos. Did I ask for you to cube my cheese? The crew member obviously wanted us to acknowledge it and hashtag them. Is this what people only want to do? She basically said, “Look at this beautiful cheeseboard I made for you; it is my favorite thing to do.” Really?

We were lucky to see a group of dolphins leaping out of the water. The crew’s reaction was to circle in any direction so we could photograph the dolphins; literally, he said, “Take photos!” What happened to just being in the moment? What happened to actually enjoying the day instead of documenting it for an audience? And what happens to all these influencers in ten, twenty, or thirty years? This isn’t a real way to build a life or an income unless, of course, you are on OnlyFans.

It’s a strange, revealing window into where people’s heads are right now, and it’s not flattering. I’m hoping more people start choosing platforms like DuckDuckGo, so we can start pulling back from the tech titans show. I am definitely making conscious decisions about which platforms I use. Does anyone really need another app?

I think we’re standing at the edge of major change. Retail, technology, transportation, banking — nothing is going to come out of this “gilded era” unscathed. This has been building since the Reagan years, with those who want to pull us backward toward something that no longer exists, paired with the current holders of power. You cannot go backward. And when that collides with where we actually are, something breaks. I’m predicting massive shifts ahead. It will hit the stock market. It has already hit the cost of goods. It will touch nearly everything we’ve built our daily lives around. I can take decades to build something, and it can all change in a second.

We are ripe for change, and honestly, it’s about time.

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I sat outside at Doubles in the Amagansett Square waiting for my order the other night. I love it there (full transparency: a family investment), and they have created an incredible community spot with plenty of delicious options….and soon to be in Brooklyn Heights!

While sitting there, instead of doomscrolling, I listened to the conversation across the way. The guy had just been in DC and was showing pictures to the people he was sitting with. I haven’t been down to DC in years, but I grew up in the area and knew the places he was describing. He showed a picture that I caught a glimpse of, where Trump has put up barriers around most of the public mall. He even said that he could barely take a picture without being hassled. It made my heart sink.

I can only ask why. Granted, the Republicans have full ownership in DC now, and that is how our system works, but why have they allowed this to happen? Why have they turned a blind eye to corruption at staggering levels? The questions are endless, but the one word is why, why, why, why?

Where we will be when this ends, and it will end, is the biggest question. Going back to how things were is never a reality, but where we are going is. Our standing in the world has plummeted, our dollar is shit, and all the other countries have figured out how to survive without us.

Politics is grim, and we are all witnessing how grim it really is. Major change needs to take place to even have faith in government again, although that faith slowly eroded, starting with the lies of the Vietnam War, and plummeted with Nixon and then, of course, Reagan.

Every day I ask myself why and what the other side is going to look like?

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