🌱 Marijuana Update + Century Of Cold Cuts + Students Say No To Guns

Hello, everybody! Carlie Houser here with your fresh copy of the Brooklyn Patch newsletter, filled with everything you need to know about what's going on locally. Today you'll learn about:

• The first pot licenses set to be approved for Brooklyn dispensaries.
• A Carroll Gardens butcher shop closes after 100 years of serving up cold cuts.
• NYPD brings drone-game tech curriculum to Brooklyn teens.

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But first, today's weather: ☀️ Sunny and breezy. High: 49 Low: 37.

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🗞 Top stories in Brooklyn today:

1. The first marijuana dispensary licenses are being dished out in Brooklyn after a lengthy legal battle. For the last few months, Brooklyn has been "the only borough to be left out of the initial rollout of dispensary licenses last fall." A court injunction, which has barred dispensary license approval in New York City over the last few months, has finally been scaled down, and licenses for Brooklyn entrepreneurs could be approved as soon as Monday. (Brooklyn Paper)

2. A Carroll Gardens butcher shop is closing its doors after 100 years in the borough. G. Esposito & Sons Pork Store has been a neighborhood fixture for a century, originally on Columbia Street before it relocated to its current Court Street location. The butcher is one of Brooklyn's oldest businesses, but a new sign posted on its windows indicates the store will be closing come April 10. Back in 2010, The New York Times called G. Esposito's a "meat store grandma would love," and reported that it's been serving up local cuts from New Jersey farms since it opened decades ago. (Eater NY)

3. Yesterday, students and teachers at an East Williamsburg Charter School held a rally against gun violence. Williamsburg Charter High School held a Say No to Gun Violence Rally and Petition Signing in response to the shooting of two students and a staff member outside of the charter school in February, and another school shooting in Nashville this week. Amid an uptick in violence on school campuses nationwide, students and teachers at the Brooklyn school started a coalition called GROW as part of a larger effort to curb youth gun violence in and around the borough. (WABC-TV)

4. A new drone program for Brooklyn youth hopes to offer a fun and educational outlet. This week, NYPD launched a first-of-its-kind drone program aimed to teach teens about tech. The event kick-off was hosted by the police department's Youth Strategies Division — a game similar to soccer yet played with drones was a major hit. The curriculum was developed by Sgt. Johnny Hines and mixes e-sports to science for an excited, but useful, lesson in aerodynamics. (AMNY)

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📆 Today in Brooklyn:

• It's Free Admission Thursdays at the Brooklyn Children's Museum (2:00 PM)
• Experience a Night of Comedy at 'Cultural Confusion' at The Springs in Greenpoint (7:00 PM)
• 'Christine and Laura do Half Hours' is a live-filmed comedy special happening at Littlefield (7:00 PM)
• Don't miss Breaking Sound Brooklyn, a multi-sensory music experience happening at The Broadway bar and restaurant (7:30 PM)

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🐝 Brooklyn Buzz:

• 🍕 "Pizza chef Miriam Weiskind made a strong effort on the Tuesday, March 28 episode of 'Chopped' on the Food Network [...] Weiskind was apprenticing as a pizziaola at Paulie Gee's in Brooklyn, but during the pandemic she was furloughed and pivoted to make thousands of free pizzas out of her apartment for New Yorkers hit hard by the lockdowns." (dayton.com)
• 🏀 "The slumping Nets announced Tuesday that Ben Simmons, the versatile swingman they acquired in last season's trade-deadline deal that sent James Harden to Philadelphia, would miss the remainder of the campaign and any postseason games due to a nerve injury in his back." (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• 🏙 "Here's a chance to live in Brooklyn's tallest tower for (slightly) less. The 93-story Brooklyn Tower launched a housing lottery this week for 120 middle-income apartments. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income, or between $90,172 annually for a single person and $215,150 for a household of seven, can apply for the units, priced between $2,630/month for studios and $3,872/month for three bedrooms." (6Sqft)
• 🏠 "Ready to start [house] hunting? For your convenience, we've put together a list of the five recently listed homes to hit the open-house circuit in the Brooklyn area. That way, you can get a feel for what's out there without committing to a house blindly." (Brooklyn Patch)
• 📚 "The Brooklyn Public Library is facing over $10 million in budget cuts following Mayor Eric Adam's call for citywide spending reductions for the next four fiscal years and says those cuts could have devastating impacts on the services it provides." (Brooklyn Paper)

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• Post Nets Game - Live Music at McMahon's (April 7)
• Kids Easter Party Queens NY (April 9)
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Thanks for following along and staying informed! See you all tomorrow morning for another update.

— Carlie Houser

About me: I'm a recent grad based in Brooklyn, NY. I love to write, run, read, and find new restaurants and venues around the city.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Brooklyn Patch newsletter? Contact me at brooklyn@patch.com