In NYC, we all see the empty retail spaces at ground level. We walk by them and watch them sit, unused. They are a sight for sore eyes in each neighborhood. It isn’t good for the community to have empty storefronts, period.

On the corner of Washington and 12th Street, used to sit Tortilla Flats. A restaurant that opened in 1983 and closed in November 2018, and still sits empty. The landlord wanted more rent, and the numbers simply did not add up. The owner (whom I know) got to the point where he was making zero and just keeping it open to pay the employees and rent. It was a neighborhood fixture, always bustling, and everyone had been to it at least once, if not several times, in their youth. Fun fact: Tortilla Flats went through more tequila than any other restaurant in the city.

I’d love to know how the landlord feels now. Does that owner even live in the West Village, where Tortilla Flats once stood? How were they able to pay the mortgage, the upkeep, and everything in between without a tenant? Now there is some construction going on, but no tenant sighting. They left that empty shell for the past 8 years for the neighborhood to look at, leaving us with one fewer spot to eat.

The real estate owners have set inflated ground-floor rent rates, making it almost impossible to be profitable. It is the same issue with housing. We need a reality check, as the economy will need to adjust after Trump. The debt, the spending spree…not looking good.

How does a city fix this so there are no more empty storefronts? NYC needs to pass a law requiring landlords to have 12 months to relet their spaces before being fined. That is absolutely fair to figure out the reality of the market. I know because we own real estate and rent it out. If nobody wants it at that price, figure out how long you are going to give it before lowering the price, or be thoughtful about what you are happy to earn off the property that is fair and equitable, that keeps tenants around a long time. If the spot remains empty without a lease in hand after 12 months, the landlord should be fined, and the fine increases over time. Not a small fee, a big fee, that gets larger and larger, one that hurts anyone.

How else do we reset a market and bring back an affordable city?

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At the beginning of Gotham, I was thinking about how to build the brand and grow. The Shed housed the Frieze, and still does, in 2023. I figured it was the perfect spot to engage people about their cannabis use. Rachel was psyched, and we got her a press pass. Ends up nobody wanted to chat.

Rachel, being the smart, creative person that she is, popped a gummy (I believe) and created the now-must-watch High I’m High. You can watch them all here. The show comes out every other Saturday on Gotham’s Instagram, highlighting spots in NYC through the eyes of a mildly stoned Rachel. It is epic.

For the Shorty Awards, we are a finalist in a Branded Series. You can vote here. We are also up for a Webby Award, best short-form video. You can vote here. FYI, the Shorty Awards website is much better.

Voting for The Webby Awards closes on Thursday, April 16. Voting for The Shorty Awards closes on Wednesday, April 8.

PLEASE VOTE!

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Some days I am riding high, and other times I am stressed out, although I try hard to keep it under wraps. A constant roller-coaster. The cannabis industry is laden with a heavy-handed government structure, which would be state-by-state, and that adds a whole other level of intensity.

Do I understand that intelligent government people are trying to peel back decades of false narratives around the plant that destroyed countless families, mostly Black and brown? Yes, I do, and note the word intelligent. There was a time in my life when a government worker had esteem, maybe it was growing up in the DC area, and I was too young to see the layers of corruption and bureaucratic red tape. Maybe it was the unions that killed their commitment and drive? There are many reasons.

I hope the leadership in NYS can now update the rules to better reflect the realities of the business. To be bold and strong by thinking out of the box, and thoughtful in a timely manner, and prove that we can still be leaders in the industry, so when the plant does get federally approved, they look to what NYS has done. Isn’t that the can-do attitude we all love about NY? Whether you agree with Mamdani’s policies or not, he has shown leadership by listening and trying to do things differently. We all need a fresh set of eyes and ideas.

Seeing AOC push the narrative about why cannabis is still a series 1 drug is thrilling. She’s young and the leader of a new generation, whether you like it or not, and she has probably been stoned and understands the power of the plant.

Back to this entrepreneurial venture of mine: at my age, let’s highlight that, including the fact that the business has only been legal in NYS for five years, and the rules and regs were made as the industry grew. I have thought a lot about why.

I was busy doing other things, being a Mom (best and favorite role ever), being a wife, and being someone who needed to own their personal time. I was never going to work for anyone. I hope to see more women amp up their careers when the kids leave the nest.

Did I have to do this? Absolutely not, I could have gone into a new phase of a much chiller existence, but at my core, I had to do this. Would I do it again, now knowing how every day is swimming upstream against the government, the margins, the unions, the cash sink, the frustrations?

Sadly, the answer is no. I would have chosen a different business to build from the start. Ideas were plenty, but this seemed like an almost impossible frontier to conquer. At this point, I guess we will see.

The post Entrepreneurial Life appeared first on Gotham Gal.

Building a profitable business is hard; building one in Cannaland is almost impossible. We are all handcuffed on multiple levels. I was watching an advertisement pre-Knick game on Molson Ale. The advertisement essentially sang about Molson times, from lunch to dinner to evening activities, pushing the concept that Molson should be drunk all day, at any hour. We all know the reality that alcohol isn’t good for us, but cannabis, which is showing some incredibly positive usage results, can’t advertise.

There is a daily misalignment between federal policy and medical evidence. I read daily about all the positive results coming from across the globe, but certainly not enough from the US, because not enough research is being done. Wouldn’t it make more sense to embrace this plant to better serve people who benefit from cannabinoid therapies? Oh, silly me, the pharma lobbyists don’t love this idea because it reduces their use and market share.

This absurd change in federal policy, which occurred during the Nixon years, has stymied progress on potential therapies, dosing amounts, and a true understanding of the benefits the plant can provide us. Just add this to the list of other corrupt decisions at the federal level.

Currently, Gotham has a kiosk at Grand Central, where we sell our private-label products and build our brand, but we cannot sell any cannabis products, even though commuters line up at the liquor store to get something for their commute home. Grand Central’s number-one-selling product, which helps them bring in revenue, is… drumroll, please… alcohol. Why can’t we sell THC drinks and gummies too?

The heavy hand of NYS has issued many licenses, yet there are restrictions regarding how close we can all be to each other. Why? That doesn’t happen in any other category. If we are to be a true capitalist society, then let people set up shop wherever, and see who succeeds, and who doesn’t. There are blocks with 4 coffee shops, and eventually, there will be only one.

The taxes, the handcuffs, the oversight, and the restrictions make zero sense yet we create jobs and put a lot of money back into the economy.

John Kagia, the new head of the OCM, who has been in for quite a while, was quoted as saying, “Legalization is not intended to create new consumers. It’s intended to serve over 2.2 million New Yorkers who consume cannabis regularly.” This might be one of the most intelligent things anyone has said in this industry, ever.

Federal legalization is long overdue.

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Even if you want to ignore the insanity going on in the world right now, it is hard to. Everyone I know is concerned at an underlying level. We are at the mercy of the government, and the people running it are insane and incompetent. And so much is happening every day, it’s tough to keep up. It’s scary 

Is this country going to be bankrupt when this all ends? Will our standing in the world ever return? Will we have friendly allies again to partner and do business with? Will our country be hit with an attack? Or should we only be scared of AI and the countless jobs that are being eliminated?

How do you address those fears as a parent, a friend, a partner, or a company?  I think about this all the time.  I can’t fix this, but I hope I can be a voice of reason and safety. We have seen companies grow so big that they need to be broken up. We have seen the US invading other countries, leaving them worse off than before. I’m freaked too, but I want to believe that this, too, will end, and we will rebuild as a species, and it will put us in a better place. That’s what history has taught us. 

The question I keep wondering is who is going to save us, and how is this all going to end, or at least shift gears.

And then I watched the Oscars, an annual event broadcast around the globe. The speeches were bold; they’re political; they are calling shit out, and they aren’t afraid. They were also defining how insane the culture we are living in is. Acknowledging parts of the industry that had never received an Oscar also signals a message of community. So perhaps this puts pressure on those still bowing to the king: the people are not with you? I can only hope. I am looking for positive light anywhere I can get it.

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I went to college in Boston. It was there I learned the word used to describe Boston and the northeastern part of Massachusetts was “provincial”. This is where the first people settled in our country; there is history, and their self-governing, traditional, tight community of New Englanders.

I just read the 2009 book called New York: The Novel by David Rutherfurd. This book has many narrators, beginning with the families that arrived in Manhattan as Dutch and British merchants, destroying the Indian fishing villages. We follow families that evolve through the Gilded Age, the Civil War, the 1929 crash, and beyond. The connections and lessons run deep. It is also about the American opportunity.

What has struck me the most is how each era is similar to what is happening in our country today; although different, it is still history repeating itself. Each chapter conveys how we might have left England, but the corruption, the elitism, the power, the abuse, came over on the boats, and it has never stopped showing up. How do we change that?

Everyone has woken up to what trauma means, how to be more aware, and some can call it “woke,” but to me, it means we can be a better society. The “Me Too” movement made progress, but we need more. How women and children are abused is mind-boggling, and why don’t we start making the victims the most important person in the room? How people manage and behave in work settings has changed, and thank god. What I witnessed in the early 80’s, I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that.

Racism still exists because it is taught to exist. We continue to repeat history by failing to break with the past. Transparency, empathy, honesty, and accountability would certainly be a change in the right direction. We have such an ugly past, and many try to erase the history books and rewrite them without the bad behavior that existed, but you can’t because it must be retaught. We pretend to be “provincial” in that going to church on Sunday means all can be forgiven.

You can’t make a better future without acknowledging and understanding the past. We have yet to learn this. When are we going to have a leader who can change the direction our country is taking now? We can only hope.

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These days, when cannabis is on the ballot, the people vote in favor of having dispensaries, aka consumers being able to buy weed. This speaks volumes.

There are many jurisdictions throughout NYS where it is the community boards that have decided not to allow dispensaries in their communities. Why is the obvious question. Now, areas that have said yes are starting to reap the tax benefits. Let’s hope NYS figures out a way for this industry to grow and for more taxes to be put back into these towns.

There is so much information being tossed around these days that it is hard to pay attention and figure out what’s real and what’s not. There are polls, of course, that can tell us what the majority of Americans are thinking, but that doesn’t mean the Senators and Congresspeople will vote that way. Sadly, at this point, we all know that corruption is rampant everywhere, as it is literally in our face.

The one thing I have always loved about California ballot propositions is that the people get to speak. A referendum can be placed on the ballot through the California State Legislature or through a petition signed by a number of registered voters equal to 5% of the total votes. Then of course the entire state votes on whether to pass that proposition. The positive is that the people get to speak, the negative is that the government is not set up for the change that just took place and it takes years for the legal system to hammer it out.

All that being said, when it comes to cannabis and the false narrative that has been fed to us for decades, the people are speaking quite clearly that they want a dispensary in their states and towns, just like a liquor store and a pharmacy.  Unfortunately, most of the legislature will need to be rewritten to force those towns to shift, which speaks loudly about how the government tiptoed too lightly on this.

All of the people running for office should be listening to the people, not to the money at the top, and I believe they will be rewarded for having a dispensary in town and for the tax dollars flowing into the system.

The post Let The People Decide appeared first on Gotham Gal.

I love fashion, always have. Clothes define the times. They also represent your self-identity. You feel different wearing a suit than a pair of sweatpants. Clothes are the first thing people notice when you walk into a room. We can look back to Princess Diana, who wore the now-famous “fuck you” dress to the Vanity Fair Gala when Charles left her. She did not have to say a word; the outfit and how it looked on her spoke for itself.

I get excited for the change of seasons, and always make a new purchase. Some things from the year before stay the course, others are put into storage for a later day. I love going back and re-wearing old favorites. I particularly love passing them on to our daughters and my nieces.

As a world, we make too many clothes. People are finally realizing how fashion is destroying the environment. The success of The Real Real and other companies like this, where people can sell their clothing and buy other people’s clothes they no longer want, is here to stay.

Luxury has gotten out of hand. The cost of marketing the goods, running the stores, and paying for design houses is extremely high. LVMH, the best of the best, grossed almost $80B in 2025 (down 5% from 2024) and made a profit of $12B (a 13% decline from 2024). LVMH has a market cap of $280B listed on the Parisian exchange.

One could ask, when does this peak? Yoox, Net A Porter, and My Theresa are now all rolled up under one roof, Lux Experience, a publicly traded company on the NYSE, housed in Germany, that purchased each of these sites. Not surprisingly, they have already laid off 100 people but plan on laying off over 700 as they restructure. This happened with Macy’s when it merged with Bambergers. Why pay for two when you can have one? In the Yoox Net A Porter My Theresa roll-up, why pay for three of everything? The big difference is that roll-up is all online, not brick-and-mortar, and with AI, there will be less need for people.

I thought about all of these things when I saw a red Chanel bag in the latest Elle magazine. I am not a Chanel girl, but I was curious, so I looked it up online. The bag is priced at $13,500. That is insane. I would rather buy a piece of art from an upcoming artist and keep my belongings in my pockets. The industry believes these bags cost about $500 to make. That is some serious margin. I understand that they represent an old-school elite luxury brand, but how many people can afford to buy this, or even want to buy it, even if they can afford it? As I used to say to our children, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The world is changing.

I loved the fashion shows this past week, and it is fun to watch them streamed on Instagram, and the shows absolutely spoke to the times we are in, but I can’t help but wonder where this is all going? Where does it end up? Change is absolutely afoot.

The post The Cost of Things appeared first on Gotham Gal.

Liquor is waning. When industries wane, they call in the lobbyists to make their case with cash. The latest plea is to allow liquor stores to carry the THC cannabis drinks, not the hemp-derived cannabis, because that is off the table, but the products that are being carried in dispensaries. Their angle is well, we are the liquid vice providers, so give it to us.

Needless to say, this pisses me off, and more than likely everyone else in the dispensary space. The government has made it hard enough for us to advertise, distribute, and be profitable because we are overtaxed, and has also foisted unions on all of us, even though nobody has ever died from a cannabis overdose. How are we supposed to survive? How are we supposed to create new industries?

Take a look at all the other industries, particularly tech and pharma, that should all be broken up. Most of them own the entire supply chain and every business they touch, including sucking up all of our data. It is bad enough that we have insane power crazy people running our country, but at least the Democrats could do is get cannabis right, and let new industries blossom.

The corruption has got to stop.

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Prior to the opening of Gotham, Fred and I would spend three months a year in LA. Gotham was a bit of a hiccup for a few years, but this year we made our way to LA for an extended stay. Fred is longer than me, but it has been great. I am able to stay involved in the business through Zoom. Although I do miss the in-person, particularly because I rarely get to see the rest of the company unless I am present. But we have a great team, and I can be in LA without feeling out of touch, well, not completely, but.

Favorite activities in LA are the farmers’ market. I have been to the Santa Monica Farmers Market and the Hollywood one, too, and others throughout the city, but my absolute favorite is Mar Vista. They have everything, including food to go, so think Smorgasbord meets Union Square Market. One of my favorite discoveries this year is the mango sticky rice booth.

Everything is so beautiful, tastes delicious, and smells good too. It is hard to get this anywhere else except the East Coast during August and September but the peaches and plums out east will never compete with the west coast farmers market.

This past weekend was Frieze. I have bemoaned the art fairs and how they are a major part of the transformation of the gallery world, in both good and bad ways. The last few years have felt so staid, from the art to the installations. In LA, at the Santa Monica Airport, 3/4 of the rows are mostly LA galleries, with those representing younger, up-and-coming artists. Up-and-coming doesn’t really exist price-wise at Frieze anymore, but of course, that is everywhere. (Artist Lebohang Kganye @ Southern Guild)

It’s too bad because the price points here make it hard for many, and it shouldn’t be. Everything used to be $10-20K, and now everything is $75K, but at least this year, I was inspired. There were a few pieces I would have bought, but I am watching from afar these days. (Artist Ludovic Nkoth, Movement @Francois Ghebaly)

Here are a few more of my faves. (Artist Alex Gardiner, Spiral @Perrotin Gallery)

Artist Matthew Brannon, 11pm Friday Night, Soho, @David Kordansky Gallery

SO Los Angeles!

Lauren Satlowsky, Skiing on Acid @Timothy Taylor

Narsiso Martinez, Asparagus Picker, @Charlie James Gallery

Jeffrey Sincich, @Charlie James Gallery

Miki Leal, Como obtener un Mattise al modico precio de un Miki @El Apartamento Gallery)This might be one of my faves.

My favorite thing in LA is sitting in the backyard, chilling with the fire pit on. Only another week.

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