Groups including the Partnership for New York City and chambers of commerce for all five boroughs say the city must pause its short-term rental laws from June 1 to July 31 so more people can stay in the Big Apple during the games — along with celebrations for the country’s 250th anniversary and Fleet Week.

FIFA World Cup games will be played at MetLife stadium in July. Getty Images

The groups said throngs of visitors expected to come for the special events won’t be able to land bookings at the city’s roughly 135,000 hotel rooms, where “occupancy already hovers near 97%.”

“Without additional capacity, hotel prices will surge beyond the reach of working families, spending will leak to New Jersey and the suburbs, and neighborhoods hosting events across the outer boroughs — where only 20% of hotel rooms are located — will see visitors but capture none of the overnight economic impact,” states a letter the business groups wrote the elected.

“New York will project to the world that it cannot manage the logistics of hospitality at the very moment it is hosting the planet’s biggest stage.”

The mayor’s office did not comment on the letter but said the administration will meet with business leaders next week to hear out their concerns ahead of the World Cup.

Menin did not immediately answer requests for comment.

While home-sharing apps are not technically banned in New York City, the business leaders noted “almost nobody uses them because city laws say the owner has to stay in the apartment with you.” 

The 2023 short term rental law – aimed at stays of less than 30 days – decimated Airbnb and the rest of the short-term rental market in New York City.

It limits the number of guests per booking to two and requires hosts to register with the city or face hefty fines.

Airbnb has spent millions on lobbying efforts to overturn or loosen the regulations. The San Francisco-based company blames the Hotel Association of New York City and the powerful hotel union for the stringent rules.

The law’s backers have said home-sharing apps like Airbnb made homes less affordable by taking units off the market.

Mamdani and Menin announce the opening of a new school in Manhattan last month. Matthew McDermott for NY Post

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce launched a digital campaign and petition to drive support for a temporary reprieve for short-term rentals.

 “Act Now, NYC! Or our sales will go to New Jersey this summer,” the group warns.

Airbnb’s market share in New York City has plummeted since Local Law 18 was enacted in 2023. AP

About 1.2 million visitors are expected to converge on the region for eight World Cup games at MetLife Stadium, the letter states.

Another 6 million visitors are expected for events around the 250th anniversary of the country, with which Fleet Week will coincide this year.

But there’s plenty of space, according to Vijay Dandapani, chief executive of the Hotel Association of New York City, who said claims of too few hotel rooms are an “absolute falsity and a red herring.”

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“The letter is untethered to any facts and is a propaganda piece put out by Airbnb with the chambers carrying their water,” he told The Post.

FIFA has actually been “canceling room blocks” in New York City because there is not enough demand, he added.

FIFA did not immediately answer a request for comment.

Airbnb is a member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, whose chief executive Jessica Walker testified at the City Council last week. 

The Hotel Association for New York City says there enough hotel rooms to meet tourist demand this summer. RightFramePhotoVideo – stock.adobe.com

“We are recommending a narrowly tailored suspension of the short-term rental ban for the World Cup window,” she said. “This costs the city nothing, while preventing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from leaking out of the city.”

Walker told The Post, “People see this is as a reasonable request that is meant to be temporary and have guardrails,” adding that “it’s clear who who we represent: small businesses.”

New Orleans, Kansas City, several southern California cities and other locales have changed their short-term rental restrictions in order to accommodate major events, the new letter stated.

The post NYC doesn’t have enough hotel rooms for FIFA World Cup, must suspend Airbnb restrictions: business leaders appeared first on Our Story Insight.

And after a punishing year that saw steep levies dent their bottom line, many aren’t expecting rebate checks yet.

“We’re not that confident we’re going to either get the money back or not have to pay a similar amount of tariffs going forward,” Khosrovian told The Post. “I’m dubious.”

Small business owners like Melkon Khosrovian, the owner of Greenbar Distillery in Los Angeles, are taking a wait-and-see approach after the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s main tariffs. Marc Royce

Last year, tariffs jacked up the price of glass bottles from China, exotic spices from India and coffee from Brazil for the spiritmaker, who uses the items to make canned espresso martinis.

He said he didn’t raise prices even though tariffs ate up about 20% of the profit margin at the distillery, which he co-founded in 2004 to sell classic liquors and specialty canned cocktails.

In a bid to contain costs over the long run, Khosrovian ordered $400,000 of equipment to automate hard tasks like bottling so he could eventually let go of three of his 15 employees. The equipment is expected to arrive next week. 

Those plans could come to naught after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, leaving Khosrovian and countless other business owners wondering what’s next. 

“The unintended consequence is we have to let go of staff and I’m sure no one wanted that to be the end result of all these tariffs,” he said. “We’re buying equipment from abroad to eliminate jobs in this country. Who wanted that?”

Khosrovian co-founded Greenbar Distillery in 2004 to sell classic liquors and specialty canned cocktails. Greenbar Distillery.

The court’s decision didn’t address the elephant in the room – whether Washington will have to repay the tariff revenue it has collected – and Trump has promised to keep an aggressive tariff regimen in place.

Khosrovian said for now he will continue with his plans to automate certain processes and cut jobs, regardless of the ultimate outcome with the levies.

The post Los Angeles small business owner takes wait-and-see approach after Trump’s tariffs are struck down appeared first on Our Story Insight.

President Trump just came to the rescue of the $60 billion industry, putting the drug in a low-level federal category in which dispensaries, farms and various weed-related products said they could finally get “banked,” or have access to banking services long denied weed entrepreneurs.

Or so they thought.

The Post has learned that the initial reaction to the Trump executive order (EO) lowering weed to among the lowest level of controlled substances — at least among big banks like JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup — hasn’t been a good one for the pot business.

Sorry, weed banking isn’t coming to the nearest JPMorgan branch near you, because Trump’s order simply doesn’t allow it.

It’s not like the banks don’t want the business, I am told.

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Executives running all three of these places aren’t potheads (though the image of Jamie Dimon smoking a joint would be hysterical).

Banking, like politics, is a business of addition and bankers thought they were about to welcome scores of new customers into their branches as speculation grew around Trump’s executive order.

When it hit on Dec. 18, in-house bank lawyers spent days reading every clause backwards, forwards and upside down, trying to find some clause or wording that would allow them to fully bank the cannabis industry.

They came up with nothing, I am told by sources at these institutions.

The specific language of the EO renders the vast majority of pot banking still illegal at the federal level, which is where the big banks get regulated.

“I can tell you that a battalion of lawyers at every major bank looked at the EO and we all came away with the same conclusion: It was written not broadly but mainly just for medical use, which makes banking this industry next to impossible,” said a senior executive at a major bank.

Far beyond med use

The issue for the banks is that most of Pot Inc. goes far beyond medical research or even prescriptions for weed-related pain-relief products that the EO suggests are now legal — or at least no longer a “Schedule-1” drug like heroin, but a “Schedule-3” drug like Tylenol with codeine.

Pot farms, for instance, could service medical usage, but they also service — probably in much larger volume — the business of supplying smokable stuff to the pothead community.

Based on the banks’ reading of the EO, that remains outside the boundaries of banking law.

If you’re confused by the legal stuff, you’re not alone.

Doesn’t reclassification away from heroin make pot legal?

Well, yes and no.

It’s still a controlled substance like anabolic steroids, according to the feds.

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And yes, pot has been legalized or decriminalized in nearly every state; no one gets busted for smoking a joint anymore, which is all too obvious to New Yorkers (like myself) who are tired of the stench of pot every time you walk down the street.

But those are state laws that don’t impact banks.

While the state-by-state legalization of pot has mainstreamed weed as a business, its growth has been stymied because big US banks still won’t lend to these businesses or provide them with credit card services; pot companies need to go to Canada to float stock or get financing from costly non-bank sources.

That’s because our banks are regulated by the Federal Reserve, and federal law — even after the reclassification — remains a banking roadblock, bank executives say.

This position will certainly draw some blowback from some of the leaders of Pot Inc. who had been lobbying the White House for a change in weed’s classification status.

One is former hedge fund trader Marc Cohodes, who’s now one of the pot industry’s leading advocates.

He has met with White House officials including people at the Treasury Department for the past year.

He says the big banks are misreading the intent of the executive order, how Trump wants pot companies to do banking here in the US as opposed to Canada, and how medical usage shouldn’t be debanked just because some pot from a grower makes its way to a dude smoking a joint.

He compares the debanking of Pot Inc. to what happened with crypto before Trump began to deregulate that business, and how big banks debanked conservative-leaning businesses like guns — and even Trump himself, whose businesses were denied banking services after he left office following his first term.

‘Huge market’

“Medical is a huge market and recreation is approved in 41 states,” Cohodes tells me.

“Canadian stocks can trade in the US, but the fact that US cannabis companies can only trade in Canada drives the Trump people crazy.”

The banks, meanwhile, say they’re not trying to deny Pot Inc. anything; they’re just looking to avoid getting caught in a regulatory quagmire.

What they’re hoping for is more clarity, like federal legislation that specifically allows banking services to the weed business.

“Without that, every time we make a loan to a pot grower, we will have to file a suspicious activity report,” the banking executive said.

The post Financing the cannabis business is not as easy as the banking industry appeared first on Our Story Insight.

A 24-year-old Israeli woman shared a text she allegedly received from Brett Dahan after applying for a job at The Garden of Eden Nursery in Albert Park.

The young woman, who has been in Australia for less than a month and wished to remain anonymous, told the Herald Sun she was “shocked” when she received Mr. Dahan’s rejection message.

In the message, Mr. Dahan told the Jewish woman that the position had been filled by “someone with a semblance of humanity”.

The business man wished the woman good luck on her journey before saying he hopes she leaves Melbourne “soon.”

“Free Palestine and end genocide NOW. You’re complicit in IT,” the text read.

Mr. Dahan reportedly told the Herald Sun over the phone that he “did not know” why he had sent the message, with the publication saying he did not answer any follow up questions.

The woman said she was “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the message, saying she had believed she would be welcomed after moving here.

“I came to Australia believing it was a fair and welcoming country but reading those words – so full of hostility – was heartbreaking,” she said.

“I was judged, not as a person, but as an Israeli.”

It is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant based on their nationality under Australia’s Equal Opportunity Act.

Brett Dahan, one of the co-owners of The Garden of Eden Nursery in Albert Park, sent an anti-semitic rejection text message to a job applicant.

The situation has sparked massive backlash from the Jewish community, with a protest being held outside The Garden of Eden Nursery on Monday.

The business, which is run by Brett and his twin brother Scott Dahan has since released a statement apologising to the Jewish community and expressing “regret” over the situation.

“The Garden of Eden Nursery would like to express its regret and extend its sincere apologies to the community in regards to the recent message sent to a member of the public by a staff member,” the statement shared to the business’ Instagram page reads.

However, it appears the apology did not come directly from Brett Dahan, as the statement notes the message was sent via a personal account and “we were unaware of it until it became public.”

The woman, a 24-year-old Israeli, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Herald Sun she was “shocked” when she received an offensive message from Mr. Dahan.

“We are deeply upset and disappointed by the content of the message, which in no way reflects the values, standards, or spirit of our business or team,” the business claimed, adding the matter was being addressed internally.

“Our commitment has always been to foster a welcoming, respectful, and inclusive environment for our customers, staff, and all communities,” the business said.

“Thank you to everyone who has reached out, we value your continued support and understanding as we work to ensure this does not happen again.”

News.com.au has contacted The Garden of Eden Nursery for clarification on whether Mr Dahan has apologised to the woman directly and what steps are being taken to rectify the situation.

The rejection message from The Garden of Eden Nursery owner included the caption, “Free Palestine and end genocide NOW. You’re complicit in IT.”

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, has slammed the apology, saying it “doesn’t cut it”.

“Mr Dahan’s repugnant text wasn’t a slip. It was a deliberate, written act meant to humiliate and degrade,” he said.

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“Apologizing ‘to the community’, blaming ‘a staff member’, and saying it will be handled ‘internally’ is not accountability. The message came from a co-owner. When ownership presses send, the business speaks in its own voice.”

Dr Abramovich said the community demands a personal apology from Mr. Dahan to the woman he “demeaned”, along with “real consequences” for his actions.

He also called for independent anti-discrimination training for all staff and a public update detailing the actions taken and how complaints will be handled going forward.

“Fix this today. Anything less is permission for hate,” he said.

The Australian Jewish Association (AJA) also criticised the nursery, branding the message an “ugly attack” and saying there must be “consequences”.

“If the Jewish community doesn’t stand up to this hatred, it will only grow,” the AJA said.

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