Stamford NAACP Speaks Out Against Children Growing Up Around Retail Marijuana

STAMFORD – There are things children shouldn’t see on the way home from the school bus stop, West Side residents say.

But schoolchildren in that neighborhood walk past strip clubs, smoke shops, liquor stores, and now possibly a retail shop selling marijuana.

Residents say they are fighting a proposal by Budr Cannabis to operate a dispensary at 389 West Main St. not because it would sell marijuana, but because it would sell it in front of kids.

“Everywhere kids look it’s bad, bad, bad,” said Renee Brown, who has a school-age daughter. “Why are those things allowed here?”

The Planning Board voted to recommend that the deciding body, the Zoning Board, approve Budr’s application. But the working-class neighborhood is burdened with things that other neighborhoods are not, residents said at a gathering organized by the Stamford NAACP ahead of a Zoning Board public hearing slated for 6:30 p.m. Monday.

According to the Zoning Board agenda, members could vote on whether to accept Budr’s application Monday following the hearing. 

If it’s a go, Budr will be Stamford’s fourth marijuana shop since the state legalized sales for recreational use three years ago. Zoning officials have capped the number of dispensaries allowed in the city at five. Residents of the East Side and Shippan are fighting dispensary proposals for their neighborhoods.

The board, in fact, could vote Monday on a hotly contested application by AYR Wellness to open a retail marijuana outlet at 417 Shippan Ave. It would share a building with a nonprofit that serves immigrant children and families.

“The city’s attitude about dispensaries is not right,” Brown said. “They should only be in industrial areas.”

Children are harmed when they see adults buying drugs, legalized or not, said Emma Goings, president of the Stamford NAACP.

“We’re not against people’s businesses,” Goings said of the Budr application on the West Side. “We want everyone to remember that our children learn what they live.”

To make her point, she read a poem by Dorothy Law Nolte that begins:

“If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.

If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.”

The poem describes outcomes for children if they observe beneficial behaviors each day.

“If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.”

The NAACP has objected to the Budr Cannabis site because it’s not only on the path of schoolkids, it’s near the Yerwood Community Center and Jackie Robinson Park, which provide youth programs. 

Zoning regulations prohibit dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school. Yerwood and Jackie Robinson Park fall in that radius of the Budr site. 

The Planning Board recommended that the Zoning Board approve the Budr application with the stipulation that the city attorney issue an opinion on whether community centers and parks fall within the definition of a school. 

Zoning Board members have a mixed record on dispensary approvals. They OK’d the first two without much contention. Fine Fettle at 12 Research Drive in Springdale, an industrial area, and Curaleaf at 814 East Main St. on the East Side, a commercial area, opened last year.

The Zoning Board at first rejected a third outlet, Sweetspot at 111 High Ridge Road, saying it would share the Bull’s Head shopping center with several businesses that serve children. 

But Sweetspot took the board to court, and they reached a settlement. Sweetspot is set to open in August.

Besides Budr Cannabis on the West Side and AYR Wellness in Shippan, a third application for a retail outlet is pending. Nautilus Botanicals is seeking to open at 1308 East Main St. in The Cove, now the site of The Boatyard BBQ & Grill. 

Gina Calabrese, who is among the Cove residents fighting the Nautilus application, spoke at the NAACP event on the West Side. As the mother of a 16-year-old, she became concerned about the approved outlets and began attending Planning Board and Zoning Board meetings, Calabrese said.

“I was stunned by how passive our city has been about this issue,” she said. “The head of the Land Use Bureau said they decided to allow dispensaries and then issues started popping up and now they are addressing them. There wasn’t good planning, and now these businesses are right there in kids’ faces.”

It’s why residents are protesting the applications, said Cynthia Bowser, a longtime advocate for her West Side neighborhood.

“The failure to write sufficient regulations for dispensaries is unforgivable” and also applies to smoke shops, which have proliferated, often selling marijuana illegally. 

“It’s taking a lot of time now for us as volunteers to fight this because the city didn’t do it right the first time,” Bowser said. “They need to represent the average citizen.”

In many cases the people most affected by the regulations are the least likely to speak up, Bowser said.

“It’s true of people in public housing, where you have to be certified annually to stay in your building,” she said. “Sometimes it’s subtly conveyed that you don’t have the right to expect accountability because of your income and your address.”

City Rep. Kindrea Walston, who represents the West Side, said people are paying attention to the dispensary battles.

“They want to be heard. They’re waking up,” Walston said. “It’s not that they want to be combative. They want to be considered stakeholders.”

Goings said the NAACP has been reaching out to residents and city officials. She emailed Zoning Board members but has not heard back, Goings said.

“I’d like to meet with the Zoning Board,” she said. “I’d like to ask them, ‘What are our next steps?’”

A lot is at stake, Goings said. The last lines of the poem she read illustrate what West Siders want for the children who pass strip clubs and smoke shops on the way to school:

“If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.”Take part in Monday’s Zoning Board public hearing here.