David Tarala has worked at East Hill for 42 years.

Behind Seminary Avenue, at the bottom of the famous slopes, the owners of Bee Line Wheel Alignment considered one of Auburn’s best areas, a bustling corridor of old brick low-rise buildings.

Now he thinks it sucks.

This is largely due to two smoke shops and unlicensed cannabis outlets that have opened in East Hill in the last 18 months. Talala told Citizen that the doors to his business opened and he was called “all the names in the book” by customers at the store who regularly parked in front of his garage. I am dissatisfied with the fact that I have not been able to help

“When I go to City Council, they just roll their eyes. I gave up. No one is helping us. hmm,” said Talara. “I know New York is in a gray area[in terms of selling cannabis]but if you don’t have a license, you shouldn’t be in business. Hair salons need licenses. Auto repair licenses. I need it.” Without the facility, I cannot do it. ”

However, Auburn City officials say they are aware of the legal and other issues attached to the store and are trying to help Easthill.

For two smoke shops, the Auburn Express Jr. Smoke Shop at 4 E. Genesee St. and the Blue Smoke and More at 30 E. Genesee St., the City is working with the Cayuga County Health Department to enforce tobacco licensing requirements. are being implemented. The department has banned many stores, including the Auburn Express store at 33 Columbus Street and 104 Grant Avenue, for illegally selling flavored e-cigarettes and selling tobacco to minors. The county’s license was suspended and fined. The agency also tried to suspend the Auburn Express state license, but found it to be expired. The county is currently considering changes to laws covering the sale of tobacco products that will “strengthen some of the enforcement mechanisms,” Chief Assistant County Attorney Rich Graham told The Guardian in March. I told Citizen.

Blue Smoke, on the other hand, has not been fined or faced a county or state tobacco license suspension. Both are valid.

Blue Smoke owner Rawid Alrashi and Auburn Express owner Alae (Adam) Albadeh did not respond to requests for comment by The Citizen.

A city ordinance was passed this winter Classify It uses unlicensed businesses like the Auburn Express as a public nuisance and gives the city’s nuisance control board power over them, corporate counsel Nate Garland told The Citizen. The ordinance follows his six-month moratorium on new smoke shops passed by the city council last June and efforts by the city’s Office of Ordinance Enforcement to remove bright LED signage from some windows. . The owner of the East Hill business interviewed by The Citizen said signage wasn’t as much of an issue as it was when two shops opened there.

Still, Garland hopes the city can do more about smokeshops, especially when it comes to cannabis.

Possession of cannabis has been legal since New York passed the Marijuana Control and Taxation Act two years ago, but a license is required to sell cannabis. This is also true of stores such as Blue Smoke and Auburn Express, which are widely suspected of selling cigarettes in addition to cigarettes. Police seized cannabis from a similar business, the now-closed Auburn He Smoke Shop at 67 Franklin Street, during a February 2022 raid.

The raid followed five police calls over the past six months, according to the city’s database. According to the same database, since the opening of the East Hill store, four Bluesmoke gets a call from the police, six To Auburn Express four I’m Stuck is a Wayne County-based “consulting and marketing firm” that opened a store at 9 E. Genesee St. in East Hills in January.

Cannabis licensing requirements also apply to I’m Stuck. But by exploiting a loophole, companies charge for consultations about cannabis products, not the cannabis products themselves, so technically it’s a gift.cannabis control bureau Disagree,and Sent I’m David Tulley, owner of Stuck. Until this week, the state lacked the means to further coercively punish “gray market” shops like Tully’s, but a law accompanying the new state budget accord provides $16 million in funding and new enforcement tools to the state. provided to the office.

For example, fines for unlicensed retail possession of cannabis jump from $500 to $7,500.

“I was shocked at how generous the penalty was,” Garland said. “But states must kill the gray market to enable all the good things that marijuana regulation and tax laws are intended to do.”

State budget agreements also make it easier for landlords to evict unlicensed clinics.

The owners of the three new East Hill locations have been criticized by Talala, Wendy Goldman of The Liberty Store and Matt Bartolotta of Angelo’s Pizza. According to Cayuga County real estate records, the landlord is Brendan Grillo, his BMG Capital Company, located at 4 E. Genesee Street. Sam and Laurie Buttaro of Weedsport at 30 E. Genesee St.; Capflow Capital LLC at 9 E. Genesee St. Tarala called them “slumlords”, but Bartolotta was more diplomatic. He said landlords should be more responsible for their property and more concerned with the people doing business there.

Grillo and Sam Butaro, who sold E. Genesee 9 to Capflow in October, did not respond to The Citizen’s request for comment. Capflow Capital LLC was not available for comment.

But Bartolotta declined to criticize the store itself. They’re business owners just like him, he told Citizen.

“They are trying to put food on the table,” he said. “I’ve never set foot in a smoke shop before, so I don’t know what they sell, but they cater to people who need the product.”

Stephanie DeVito, executive director of the Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District, feels the same way.

The store represents people’s livelihoods, DeVito told Citizen, and that should be respected. This includes foot traffic, loitering and foul language on the sidewalks that the family regularly uses. Some business owners have even asked DeVito about relocating, she said.

“I have to play musical chairs,” she said. “That’s a big concern of mine. I don’t want them to leave because they’re being negatively impacted by another business.”

DeVito added that counterparts in several downtown New York business districts are dealing with similar issues from new smoke shops. But she believes she can coexist with other businesses, citing her Evolve CBD at 12 South Street as an example of her “good neighbor.” Finding what she calls “the right fit” will require the shop owner and her landlord to work with the community.

As the eastern gateway to downtown Auburn, it’s important that East Hill makes a good impression, says DeVito.

Instead, Goldman believes the new shops in the area are creating a “negative vibe.” She, who ran The Liberty Store with her husband Marty for many years, recalled that when her Express in Auburn first opened across the street, she saw a large knife in its window. I remembered. Unlike Bartolotta and her DeVito, Goldman also questioned the legitimacy of the business.

“I’m not sure they’re completely fine,” she told Citizen. ”

Talley, who has defended the legitimacy of his business by claiming it didn’t break the law, told Citizen that I’m Stack is “trying to be a neighbor as much as possible.”

Tully said store staff have been told to park in a nearby parking lot rather than on the street. He also said several East Hill businesses have welcomed him and some customers I’m Stuck has brought to the area.

“I’m sorry if we’re bringing more business downtown than they’re used to, but I think that’s the point of business,” Tully said of his critics. They are dying but we are trying to rejuvenate and bring people back to those areas.Sorry for not bringing in the “right type of customers” but that all types of people are I hope you’re allowed to be downtown. ”

Gallery: Smoke Shop in Auburn’s East Hills