{"id":4748,"date":"2022-03-10T22:55:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T22:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vY29ubmVjdGljdXQubmV3czEyLmNvbS9ueWMtcmV2aXZhbC1wbGFuLWluY2x1ZGVzLXRvdXJpc20tY2xlYW4tc3RyZWV0cy1wb3Qtc2FsZXPSAQA"},"modified":"2022-03-10T22:55:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T22:55:28","slug":"nyc-revival-plan-includes-tourism-clean-streets-pot-sales-news-12-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=4748","title":{"rendered":"NYC revival plan includes tourism, clean streets, pot sales – News 12 Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mar 10, 2022, 10:56pm<\/span>Updated 2h ago<\/span><\/p>\n

By: <\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After two years of the pandemic battering New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is hoping to steer his city toward an economic revival by luring tourists back, beautifying the streets and embracing New York\u2019s looming legal pot industry.<\/p>\n

Adams, a Democrat who was elected last year on a pro-business, anti-crime message, unveiled an economic development plan Thursday that he said would usher in a \u201cNew New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never be the same. COVID has changed the game. And we must be prepared to win in the game,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

New York City, with a population of 8.8 million, became the early epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. and was again at the center of the storm this past winter when the omicron variant emerged.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 cratered New York City\u2019s economy, sending the unemployment rate from a pre-pandemic rate of 3.7% to more than 20% in May 2020.<\/p>\n

The rate in December was 8.8%, higher than the rates for the state and U.S. as a whole. About 66,000 business shuttered at some point, with more than 26,000 permanently closing, according to the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

As rates of virus cases and deaths have been sharply dropped, the new mayor has sought to turn a page, declaring that the virus cannot control New Yorkers\u2019 lives and the city must come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t stumble into post-COVID. We must start to think about the redefinition of what our city is going to look like,\u201d Adams said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s plan calls for helping small businesses and cultivating specific industries, including pharmaceuticals, medical technology and other parts of the life sciences sector, manufacturing, video games and the legal pot industry.<\/p>\n

New York legalized the recreational use of marijuana last year for those over 21, but recreational sales are not expected to start until later this year or early next year as the state sorts out regulations for what is expected one of the biggest legal U.S. markets for pot.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office estimates that the industry will generate $1.3 billion in sales and between 19,000 and 24,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

Adams has hyped the industry before, offering rolling papers and a fake bag of marijuana to Stephen Colbert during an appearance on his late-night show while presenting the host with New York City-themed gifts.<\/p>\n

Adams, a former New York Police Department captain, said Thursday that his office is committed to help the industry to develop in a socially equitable way, helping those who were impacted by the war on drugs to find opportunities in the industry, such as pro bono legal services, help with applying for licenses and financing and marketing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe unfairly targeted Black and brown communities during the marijuana, heavy-handed arrests that I fought against when I was a police officer,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

The mayor said he wants to boost New York City\u2019s outreach to tourists and invite people from all over the world to visit and spend money. Tourism dropped from 66.6 million visitors in 2019 to 22.3 million in 2020 when the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

Adams doesn\u2019t just want to boost the city\u2019s image through marketing, but has said he wants to improve public safety by reducing crime and tackling perceptions of crime and \u201cdisorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 new plan also calls for focusing on the city\u2019s beautification, prioritizing street cleaning and graffiti and garbage removal. The city will add benches, bike racks, planters and other amenities to business districts around the city, according to the plan, and establish long-term standards for outdoor dining structures on streets and sidewalks that have been a lifeline for the city\u2019s restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have a clean city, and every part of the city is a reflection of how we feel about ourselves,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWhen our streets are not clean it sends the wrong message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Share this story<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mar 10, 2022, 10:56pmUpdated 2h ago By: Associated Press After two years of the pandemic battering New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is hoping to steer his city toward an economic revival by luring tourists back, beautifying the streets and embracing New York\u2019s looming legal pot industry. Adams, a Democrat who was elected last year on a pro-business, anti-crime message, unveiled an economic development plan Thursday that he said would usher in a \u201cNew New York.\u201d \u201cWe will never be the same. COVID has changed the game. And we must be prepared to win in the game,\u201d Adams said. New… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nyc-revival-plan-includes-tourism-clean-streets-pot-sales-news-12-connecticut.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}