September 23, 2020
An Open Letter to City Officials and the Cambridge Community
Regarding Proposed Recreational Cannabis Shop at 57 JFK Street
The signatories to this letter represent a coalition of local Harvard Square residents, business
owners, community organizations, and direct property abutters to 57 JFK Street. We are
writing to voice our collective opposition to the large recreational marijuana store called
“Cookies” proposed for this location. We believe 57 JFK is inappropriate for any marijuana
dispensary. It abuts the historic Winthrop Park, creates numerous problems for the community,
and does not meet several of Cambridge’s requirements for cannabis stores. We ask the City of
Cambridge that Cookies not be given a special permit to operate in this location.
Impact to the Community: Winthrop Park
Winthrop Park is a historic park and the site of Cambridge’s first marketplace in the 1630s,
pre-dating even the founding of Harvard University. It is a beautiful, multi-generational park
that adds to the richness and vibrancy of Harvard Square and Cambridge as a whole. This busy
public space is shared and used
by families with young children,
high school- and college-aged
students, the elderly, and
citizens of all ethnicities and
socioeconomic backgrounds, all
of whom gather under the
Park’s beautiful shade trees. In
short, Winthrop Park is the sort
of precious public space lauded
by Jane Jacobs and the New
Urbanism movement wherein a
diversity of people and uses
combine to create a rich,
vibrant urban fabric.
Two major reasons why a cannabis shop should not be located on Winthrop Park include:
(1) The proposed Cookies dispensary will sit less than 45 feet from, and open directly onto,
Winthrop Park. The Park will be a natural “landing spot” for people exiting the
marijuana dispensary looking to consume their recreational products nearby, and
Cookies, despite its best efforts, will have no way to truly control the consumption of
marijuana outside its front door. At best, the Park will require increased security and
policing to ensure customers do not use the Park to consume their products. That
increased security presence alone would transform the Park and deter some individuals
who currently use the Park from feeling comfortable and using it in the future. At worst,
even despite increased security and policing, the Park will become a place where
individuals consume their Cookies products after exiting the facility. Families with young
children, individuals with respiratory illnesses, the elderly, and many others who do not
wish to be exposed to cannabis will be deterred from using a Park that was once so
welcoming to all. Meanwhile, underage high school- and college-aged students who
continue to frequent the Park will now be exposed to cannabis use. Finally, at a time of
heightened tensions around the United States, the simple need for increased policing to
mitigate these issues will create the possibility of more frequent police-public
confrontations.
(2) The 57 JFK location has 110 linear feet of street-level frontage, and Cookies will
dominate an entire side of Winthrop Park. It risks promoting cannabis consumption to
all inside the Park, including the children and adolescents who play and gather there.
Cookies has suggested it
can downplay its signage
and put art in its windows
so that people in the Park
cannot look in and see its
customers queuing up for
its cannabis products.
However, that attempt to
rectify one issue merely
creates another, for that
approach will mean that
this long span of
street-level frontage —
which could otherwise be
activated for visible, vibrant
commercial activity — will effectively become a wall to the public. Harvard Square
financial institutions are now only allowed only 25 linear feet of frontage in the interest
of encouraging vibrant, diverse, transparent store fronts. The proposed Cookies site
would be over four times that in linear footage. At best, the proposed facility will create
a large dead zone along predominately-pedestrian Winthrop Street and JFK Street. At
worst, the site, with its vast corner location and floor-to-ceiling windows, will serve as a
massive billboard for cannabis use to anyone in Winthrop Park.
Impact to the Community: Social Services
University Lutheran Church is located at 66 Winthrop Street, less than 200 feet from the
proposed location. The Church houses the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, Sunday School
programs, and multiple programs to support citizens suffering from addiction. Many of these
programs represent crucial social services to the City of Cambridge. The placement of such a
large recreational cannabis facility so close to a population of vulnerable individuals – many of
whom are struggling to overcome addiction issues – compromises the safety and health of
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September 23, 2020
citizens in need and undermines the hard work that goes into offering these necessary
programs.
Impact to the Community: Youth Health and Safety
Given the large number of adolescents who use
Winthrop Park, Cookies is a particularly problematic
brand. From the bright playful colors of the Cookies
logo to its cartoon-based product marketing, the
entire brand seems designed to appeal to kids: Its
most famous cannabis strain is “Girl Scout
Cookies”1. Other strains include “Cereal Milk”,
“Berry Pie”, and “Snow Man”, each of which has
its own cartoon-based logo on Cookies’ product
packaging and the Cookies’ website.
(It is worth noting that although our concern
with Cookies’ youthful marketing derives
from pure common sense, there may be a
legal basis for concern as well: 935 Mass. Reg.
500.105, Section 4.b.4 prohibits marijuana establishments from “Advertising, marketing, and
branding including, but not limited to, mascots, cartoons, brand sponsorships and celebrity
endorsements, that is deemed to appeal to a person younger than 21 years old.”)
Cookies is likely to argue that regardless of what we think of their marketing strategy, they can
only legally sell their product to individuals over the age of 21. That is true, but once again, the
answer to one problem in this situation raises another one: In a neighborhood consisting of
more than 6,000 resident undergrads (the vast majority of whom are under 21 years of age) as
well as businesses catering to customers of all ages and a historic Park, it is highly problematic
to locate a business of such size in such a prominent location that can only be entered by adults
and which, by definition, does not present itself as an open and inviting space for all. Cookies
will be an adults-only fortress in what has historically been a multi-generational landscape.
Failure to Comply with Cambridge Ordinances
Cambridge has worked hard to formulate a set of modest requirements for cannabis
operations. These regulations are not intended to exclude, but rather to mitigate the
potentially negative impacts of recreational marijuana in the community. Two regulations are
particularly germane:
1
The Girl Scouts of the USA have issued cease-and-desist letters to all California dispensaries, including CA-based
Cookies, opposing the use of “Girl Scout Cookies” for the purposes of marketing marijuana. This has been a
trademarked term owned by Girl Scouts of the USA since 1936.
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September 23, 2020
(1) Distance from Public Parks: Article 11.803.3 of Cambridge Zoning Ordinance indicates
that cannabis retailers cannot be located 300 feet from public parks where children
play.
On any given day in Winthrop Park, you will find babies being pushed in strollers,
toddlers scampering about on the grass, and tweens and teens sitting cross-legged on
the ground together. On Feb. 26, 2019, the Cambridge Planning Board rejected a
marijuana dispensary application from Native Sun Wellness, in part because its location
was just over 100 feet from a nearby park. From p.6-7: “Furthermore, given the
concerns set forth above in these Findings related to the proximity of the site to public
parks and other facilities, the anticipated patterns of customer activity to and from the
site, and the lack of adequate parking…the Board finds that the proposed RMD at this
site would create patterns of access and egress that would cause a substantial change in
neighborhood character and would impair the integrity of the district.” W e raise these
concerns and more with the proposed Cookies operation at 57 JFK Street.
(2) Distance from other marijuana dispensaries: Article 11.803.1(b) asks that cannabis
dispensaries not be located within 1,800 of another cannabis dispensary.
Winthrop Street, a small, pedestrian street, already has a marijuana dispensary, Healthy
Pharms, located approximately 100 feet from Cookies’ proposed location.
There are sound reasons Cambridge adopted the above regulations. Of course, the special
permit process allows for these requirements to be waived when the community’s best
interests would be served by doing so. Given the negative externalities of the proposed Cookies
store, however, this is not a close case: It is not in the community’s best interest for Cookies to
be located within 45 feet of Winthrop Park and within 100 feet of an existing dispensary.
Other Marijuana Dispensaries in Harvard Square
As noted, there already exists a marijuana
dispensary on this small, pedestrian block of
Winthrop Street: Healthy Pharms. It is very
reasonable to ask: Why did some members of
this coalition support (and, in other cases, at
least not actively oppose) Healthy Pharms in
2017 but now find a Cookies dispensary at 57
JFK Street so problematic?
There are several salient differences. Most of
all, Healthy Pharms is a medical
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dispensary2. Its customers are referred by doctors for medically-prescribed cannabis. As such,
they tend to come by throughout the day to pick up their prescriptions for consumption at a
later time and place appropriate for their condition and symptom management. This mitigates
the concern that the Park might become a landing spot for consumption of cannabis by
customers exiting the Healthy Pharms.
Also, Healthy Pharms does not sit directly on Winthrop Park. It is located a bit further down
Winthrop Street away from the Park, approximately 100 feet from both Mr. Dhanda’s Galeria
property and Cookies’ proposed location.
Finally, Healthy Pharms is set back at least 20 feet from the street and has de minimis linear
footage along Winthrop Street (a door, basically). While it had limited interior queuing, the
facility was entirely appropriate for the expected demand of a medical facility where the only
people who can enter have to show proof of prescription from a doctor.
These characteristics were fundamental to the community support Healthy Pharms received for
its proposed operation in 2017 and, we believe, to the Cambridge Planning Board’s granting
Healthy Pharms a special permit. A more complete listing of the differences between Healthy
Pharms and the proposed Cookies location can be found in Appendix 1.
The Cookies proposal also differs from another cannabis dispensary recently licensed to
operate in Harvard Square. Cambridge resident Sean Hope and local cannabis leader Leah
Samura are African-American entrepreneurs who applied under Cambridge’s Economic
Empowerment program to operate an adult-use recreational cannabis dispensary called Charles
River Remedies at 31 Church Street in the building formerly occupied by Starbucks. Like 57 JFK
Street, this location is Class A street-level space. However, it has a modest 25 linear feet of
frontage compared to Cookies’ proposed 110 linear feet, and is 1,366 sq. ft compared to
Cookies’ more than 2,500 sq. ft. Most important, Charles River Remedies’ location does not
have the issue of residing alongside a public park that serves as an obvious landing spot for
customers exiting the store wishing to consume their product nearby. Signatories of this letter
either actively supported or did not oppose the opening of Charles River Remedies because it
did not raise the issues the current Cookies proposal does.
In short, members of this coalition are not opposed to the licensure of marijuana dispensaries
in Harvard Square and have previously supported Economic Empowerment licenses. This
coalition has no plan to oppose other new cannabis operations in the Square so long as those
operations are properly located and adhere to the relevant regulations and goals of the district
as detailed in the recently updated Harvard Square Conservation District Guidelines.
2
To this group’s knowledge, Healthy Pharms has not applied for a recreational marijuana licensure. However, if it
were to do so, this group would closely review that application given its proximity to Winthrop Park and the
change this new license would represent from Healthy Pharms’ 2017 application and approval.
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Property Owner at 57 JFK Street
Raj Dhanda is a Brookline-based real estate investor and developer who owns a number of
properties within Harvard Square, including the Galeria building at 57 JFK Street.
In the last several years, Mr. Dhanda has opposed marijuana dispensaries in Harvard Square. In
Sept. 2017, he filed a federal lawsuit against Healthy Pharms. Healthy Pharms was at the time
owned by Paul Overgaag, a local entrepreneur who also owns two Harvard Square restaurants
adjacent to the dispensary – Red House and Charlie’s Kitchen.
Appendix 2 offers additional information on Mr. Dhanda’s lawsuit, but in brief:
Mr. Dhanda filed his lawsuit under the RICO (racketeering) statute. The RICO lawsuit named
Healthy Pharms, Mr. Overgaag, and the following individuals and entities as Defendants and
“co-conspirators”: the City of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health, Maura T.
Healey, Century Bank, and the unnamed provider of Healthy Pharm’s property insurance and
general liability insurance. Mr. Dhanda claimed that the opening of Healthy Pharm’s medical
marijuana dispensary constituted a criminal “drug conspiracy” that would reduce the value of
his nearby properties by $27 million. He sought damages of 3x that amount, or $81 million,
from Healthy Pharms. In February 2019, Mr. Overgaag settled with Mr. Dhanda out of court and
sold the business shortly thereafter.3 Mr. Dhanda received significant funds in the settlement.
Now that Mr. Dhanda will be landlord to — rather than neighbor of — a marijuana business, he
says he has had a change of heart regarding the cannabis business4. After accusing his neighbor
of racketeering, naming the city of Cambridge and the state health department as
co-conspirators, and extracting a settlement from a small medical dispensary barely visible from
the street, Mr. Dhanda now wants to open a recreational shop with 110 linear feet of
street-level frontage in his own building and have the rest of us overlook the inconsistency of it
all.
Support for Social Justice
This coalition strongly supports a social justice mission. We support the Economic
Empowerment program regarding cannabis retail and its goals of increasing diversity and
promoting opportunity for people from communities that have been disproportionately
harmed by marijuana law enforcement. Both Cambridge and Harvard Square benefit from the
Economic Empowerment program.
3
From Cambridge Day, 8/22/20: “[Overgaag] confirmed Friday that the only reason Healthy Pharms sold – moving
ownership to Canada from Cambridge – was because of Dhanda’s lawsuit. ‘We had an extremely large liability on
us, of $81 million, which would have pretty much bankrupted all of us. And we were afraid of it. And because
we’re afraid of it, we found a suitable buyer,’ Overgaag said. No sale had been in his mind before the lawsuit.”
4
From an 8/26/20 open letter from Raj Dhanda: “Along with the general public, my opinion on the cannabis
industry has evolved. I realize now that prior views I had on many aspects of the industry were misinformed.”
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We agree wholeheartedly with Cookies’ local partners that Economic Empowerment applicants
should not be denied prime real estate locations for their businesses. What we disagree with is
that the location of 57 JFK Street is an appropriate location for any cannabis shop at all.
We stand ready to support this Economic Empowerment applicant – and others – in finding
locations that do not compromise the Cannabis Commission’s intended goals of balancing the
community’s various needs and interests.
Other cannabis companies arrived in the market before the current applicants, but we believe
there are other Class A retail locations within Harvard Square that do not reside next to one of
the city’s most historic and oldest parks — a park that is regularly frequented by children,
adolescents, and underage young adults from around the City. We urge the proposed operators
to seek an alternative location, and we ask the relevant city officials to deny a special permit for
operating a recreational cannabis shop on Winthrop Park.
Sincerely,
The Charles Hotel
An independently owned hotel operating in the heart of Harvard Square since 1985
Harvard Square Business Association
Established in 1910 to advance the commercial, industrial and public interests of Harvard
Square
Harvard Square Neighborhood Association
Focused on bringing together residents and others seeking to enhance the historic vitality and
livability of the Harvard Square neighborhood
The Winthrop Eliot Condominium Trust
Property owners and residents at 93 Winthrop Street in Cambridge and abutters to both
Winthrop Park and 57 JFK Street
The Winthrop Park Trust
Dedicated to protecting, preserving, and maintaining historic Winthrop Park
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Appendix 1:
Healthy Pharms (2017) Cookies (2020)
License Medical marijuana only Recreational marijuana
Population Narrow—Restricted to patients who Broad—Everyone over age 21
Served possess a medical marijuana card
Marketing Focus on medical and compassionate use, Focus on developing a youthful consumer
Approach esp. those suffering from chronic illnesses brand, with extensive use of cartoon logos
(e.g., cancer)
Street Frontage Very small and discrete, approx. 6 linear One of the most prominent locations in
feet H. Sq., with approx. 110 linear feet
Square Footage 1,250 sq. ft. Over 2,500 sq. ft.
Setback Meaningful setback and recess from Highly prominent and high-traffic location
Winthrop Street on the corner of JFK St. and Winthrop St.
Minimal setback.
Signage Modest signage that is not visible from Prominent signage that will dominate one
Winthrop Park side of Winthrop Park; or limited signage
and large dead zone
Entry and Exit Directly across from other business Directly across from Winthrop Park, less
establishments. Not across or visible from than 45 feet
Winthrop Park
Ownership Local ownership at the time of special 49% owned by large national cannabis
permit chain, with local operators owning 51%
Competition First marijuana dispensary in the area Seeks to locate within 100 feet of an
existing dispensary. Cambridge requires
at least 1,800 feet between dispensaries
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Appendix 2: Raj Dhanda RICO lawsuit against Healthy Pharms
From Mr. Dhanda’s 2017 RICO lawsuit:
“Amongst other matters, marijuana businesses make bad neighbors, which include
without limitation, emitting pungent odors, attracting undesirable visitors, increasing
criminal activity, driving down property values, and limiting the rental of premises.
Crimson Galeria, RAJ & RAJ, Harvard Square Holdings, and Charles River Holdings, are
property owners who have suffered serious and substantial injuries caused by the
operations of a nearby marijuana business, including, but not limited to, significant
diminution in property value, restricted ability to lease space, and infringement of the
ability to pursue a redevelopment plan to bring certain of their properties to their
highest-and-best use.” (p.10)
“Healthy Pharms’s licensing fees function as a payment to the DPH [Dept. of Public
Health] and the City of Cambridge for official protection for their illegal drug
business…the public statements of City of Cambridge officials heretofore identified
make clear that the City of Cambridge Defendants’ official policy is to join with,
condone, and facilitate commercial marijuana conspiracies that operate within their
jurisdiction.” (p.29-30)
“The sale of marijuana is a stigmatized activity, and when tenants and others visit
Plaintiffs’ properties, they are reminded of the nearby racketeering enterprise.” (p.38)
Finally, Mr. Dhanda’s lawsuit says that “…[the] issuance of marijuana licenses / permits poses
an imminent risk of harm to children and susceptible youth” and notes that within 1,000 feet of
Healthy Pharms are two
preschools, a Sunday School, and
Harvard University. “Such a
limited buffer zone endangers the
health, safety, and general
welfare of children.” (p.44)
Mr. Dhanda’s RICO lawsuit was
ultimately settled out of court
and resulted in Paul Overgaag
paying Mr. Dhanda a “substantial
payment” (according to Mr.
Dhanda’s lawyer) and agreeing to
several other restrictions to
Healthy Pharms’ operations going
forward.
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