CANNABIS 

ARCHAEOLOGY

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The Compassionate Care Act legalized the use of medicinal marijuana in the State of New York and created an opportunity for a new industry and regional connection among counties. This has the opportunity to help the city of Poughkeepsie, which is struggling from a high city deficit, high poverty rates and a failing education system. The city was once a thriving industrial city that depended on the Fall Kill Creek as an energy source. Nowadays the city has expanded and became victim of urban renewal that left spatial and social injustice scars on the city. The once productive Fall Kill is now an unused polluted waterway suffering from the contamination from various communities within its watershed. By establishing medicinal marijuana grow houses along the creek, the city can leverage a lucrative water dependent industry to provide economic benefit, while purifying the creek. Uncovering the past golden age of Poughkeepsie can help strengthen the social pride of the city and re-activate the creek to provide educational and recreational opportunities.

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Zarith Pineda + Kristen Reardon, Andrea Benavides, Nishchal Agarwal

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Spatial Justice Studio, MAUD, Columbia University, GSAPP

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