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Welcome back. Smoking marijuana in public places is now banned in Glen Cove. It's the first Nassau community to do it. The Glen Cove City Council recently voted to approve that law. It means you will no longer be allowed to smoke pot on the sidewalk, in public squares, parks, beaches, the like. City council members say people have been complaining about the smell of weed all over the city. The decision has residents reacting this week. I believe that if anything people should be able to have the freedom of doing what they want without hurting others. There's a time and a place for adult substances, and our parks, streets, playgrounds, and public spaces are not a place for marijuana use. So if you decide to smoke anyway, you could be fined now $100. Each additional offense will be a $250 fine. It will take effect by the start of the new year. Town leaders say legal cannabis sales are also giving them headaches. Vision Long Island hosted its annual Long Island. Smart Growth summit last week in Woodbury. We did this program from that event and at the event, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico says at first it seemed adult use cannabis and other adult uses in the town, it was working fine. Brookhaven opted in. That is until the cannabis Control Board from the state started to override town zoning. Any town, if you haven't opted in, don't opt in, because it is an absolute quagmire that we have because they allowed in Quorum in a J6 zone, they issued a license overriding the town zoning in Lake Ronkonkoa, backing up to two residential homes. And joining us now is the mayor of the city of Glen Cove, Pamela Panzenbeck. Good to see you, Mayor. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Rich. I'm happy to be with you today. All right, so let's start off with, um, the state of play in Glen Cove. First of all, the city did not opt in to legal cannabis sales, right? We did not. OK, so considering that the city council still felt the need to pass this law. Now tell us what prompted this. So actually it's pretty simple, um, every. Pretty much on Mondays and especially in the nice weather we get telephone calls from residents, regular residents, parents of children calling on Monday and complaining we had a nice event but we could not stand being, uh, in the midst of the stench of marijuana, and they know they complained to the police department. Police are at our events, and we've been saying we're very sorry there's nothing we can do because it is legal to smoke marijuana. In the state of New York, so at some point, um, over some discussion our safe agency, um, sat down with the community committee. And they asked me would I back this if they could come up with some legislation. I said absolutely they worked through the summer to write legislation to ban the smoking of marijuana. In our parks, stadiums, all our public areas, and, um, we sat down, we went through the code, a few iterations, and it's really very simple. That is what we have chosen to do. We presented to the city council, we had two public hearings and we voted and I'm happy to say. The vote was unanimous. I really did not know what to expect. The vote was unanimous and since that vote I have gotten so much positive feedback on my personal phone, my home phone, my office phone, my emails, my Facebook, uh, it's just been overwhelming. Beyond the obvious smell, how will police be able to enforce this? How will they know? So you know this really is we're trying to stop a behavior this is really a quality of life issue um the police are ever present they're everywhere we go and you know isn't even just that when we come out of work and we go into work sometimes. The smell of marijuana is pervasive in our parking garages. So I, and I, you know, our police are probably until the law's official be, will be warning people and saying, you know, we are, you're not gonna be able to smoke marijuana in public, and you know, the message will get out, um, for people who do partake if they're in their. Backyard, so they're in their backyard or in their friends' backyards or in areas that is absolutely fine. OK, um, while I have you here, I wanna talk about affordability because you were at that smart growth summit, um, last week. You spoke about this, spoke about some of the development happening. In this city, um, tell us a little bit about that. We have a couple of minutes and, and it's, uh, important because so many people are trying to find affordable places to live, places they can actually grow here on Long Island. So you know that everything in government is slow, but we have been on the forefront of building 55. Affordable workforce housing, condominiums which will be for sale, which will be for people who fall into that income range and we think that we had hoped to be the first. I think someone's gonna beat us at that, but that would be down at the Garvey's Point area and it's 55 or 56 units for sale condominium. Last year we passed our, um, comprehensive plan which passed unanimously. Um, the one thing we haven't implemented is transit oriented development. We are at this time looking into possibly doing something like that. Every housing development has an affordability component, so, um, hopefully, and, and, you know, the nice thing is like in the village square across from City Hall, the apartments are all the same. You really do not know who has a subsidy and who does not. So they're all intermingled, which, which makes it nice for people who live there. All right, well, Mayor, always good to see you. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. Thanks a lot. The, the new law, it takes effect the start of next year. It takes effect, uh, yeah, well, it was filed with the state, we'll say around the first, but I've been out. We're hoping this will start a trend all over Long Island because people are really, um, excited about it. We'll be watching, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Rich. Thank you. And still to come on Power and Politics, how do your finances compare to a year ago? We're breaking down the new data that shows just how many people are struggling and what our elected leaders are doing about the affordability crisis. The best Monday mornings start with coffee and news 12. Local news, local weather, local stories starting at 5 a.m.

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LIPP1214C_2025-12-14-15-52-09

Welcome back. A new study says congestion pricing is decreasing air pollution in the city and even here on Long Island. Researchers at Cornell say particle pollution has significantly decreased since the controversial program took effect nearly a year ago, and they say it's not just below 60th Street, but in all five boroughs and even to a lesser extent. The surrounding metro area. Researchers say overall the program will have long-term benefits for public health. Despite that good news, the reality is congestion pricing is still yet another expense for all of us, which brings us to some troubling but not very surprising new data on our money. Nearly 40% of Americans say their finances. Are worse now than they were a year ago. That's a 3% increase from the year prior. The survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York coming as community leaders in Nassau call on Albany to do something about what they say is the current affordability crisis that includes things like the cost of housing, food, and car insurance rates. Everything is going up and everything is more expensive. How can we as New Yorkers afford these things if um we don't have help? So the call to action is help those in middle class who need the assistance. The state Republican lawmakers say along with housing, energy costs also need to take priority. The state Republican conference says the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act is playing a big role. It requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. It's going to create a challenge for our schools in the next two years. We just heard from Bob Vecchio from the Nassau Suffolk school districts about the zero emission bus mandate that's supposed to start in 2027. School districts don't have the infrastructure to support it. Those buses cost 3 times the amount of the buses that they currently have, and that is just going to continue to drive up our school budgets. And we've reached out to the governor's office for comment. We haven't heard back yet. The Environmental Bond Act set aside $500 million for schools to buy those new buses. We've reported on this. Districts can still apply for that funding. $200 million is left, so that's something you. Wanna be aware of. Watch News 12 Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5 a.m. for more of our taxing Long Island series. If you watch this show, you know that series well. That's all the time we have. Join us next week for another edition of Power and Politics. I'm Rich Barrabe. Have a great rest of your day.

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A panel of political experts join the show to discuss Bruce Blakeman's candidacy in the race for New York governor. 

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