Taking a Bite of the Big Apple | New York City

ifty summers
ago, a major moment in music and cannabis history occurred in New York City
(NYC). Bob Dylan, a 23-year-old local folk artist, visited the Beatles at Hotel
Delmonico. Though Dylan was still a year removed from major mainstream success,
Beatlemania was at fever pitch with the band making their Ed Sullivan Show debut
six months earlier. Inside a sixth-floor suite, Dylan got the Fab Four high for
the first time. Said Paul McCartney, “We were kind of proud to have been
introduced to pot by Dylan.”

Connect with
NYC’s artistic and musical past in the neighboring East Village, Lower East
Side and Bowery neighborhoods. Start with St. Mark’s Place (East 8th), the
so-called “Bong Capital of the World,” where the music legacy includes the
cover of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, Andy Warhol’s tripped-out
Exploding Plastic Inevitable stage show (with the Velvet Underground) and
legendary punk fashion retailers Manic Panic and Trash & Vaudeville (the
latter still operating). Furthermore, the area between St. Mark’s and Delancey
Street (11 blocks north to south) and Second Avenue to Avenue A (three blocks,
west to east) arguably has the highest concentration of restaurants and bars in
the country. When in this area, pop into neighboring SOHO to visit the Allouche
Gallery (115 Spring Street) for art by Ron English, Lori Earley, Bast and
others.

To connect with
the future, Spanish Harlem and Queens are trending areas stealing the fading
buzz of Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn. Up until around the Great
Depression, Harlem was hopping with artists like Billie Holiday, Ella
Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Cab “Reefer Man” Calloway tearing up local
stages like the Apollo and Cotton Club. These days, emerging artists priced out
of other neighborhoods flock to Spanish Harlem and Queens for more affordable
rents. From restaurants to street murals, the new scene has countless magazines
declaring a New Harlem Renaissance.

Queens was even
declared the top U.S. destination for 2015 by Lonely Planet. The city’s largest borough boasts the most ethnic
enclaves (including the largest of four NYC Chinatowns) and a first-rate art
scene headlined by a new 24-block arts district in Astoria. Queens also claims
NYC’s oldest beer garden, Bohemian Hall, soon to celebrate its centennial
anniversary.

Fun-Filled Facts:

-In 1965, NYC’s
Committee to Legalize Marijuana (LEMAR) became the first U.S. organization to
petition publically for legal reform, and demonstrators included Allen Ginsberg
sporting a “Pot Is Fun” sign.

-The city’s 1944
LaGuardia Report (named after the mayor) scoffed at the outrageous
“catastrophic” claims made about cannabis, which the report called utterly
“unfounded.”

If You Go:

Until recently,
cannabis involved high risk in NYC. While the police arrested nearly 30,000
people for possession in 2013, the commissioner announced in November that
officers would now issues tickets (not arrests) for small amounts. The state
finally legalized medical cannabis last year, albeit not in an inhalable form.

Time to Go: Fall.

Weather: Crisp, cool and possibly windy.