"Newburgh is in a unique position
to pick itself up and move into a new era. It is the
center of a convergence of many forces. What it needs
now is delivery. It would be a disaster of the highest
order if Newburgh should fall through on its potential."
- director of a local non-profit regional planning
agency in 1970 (Favre)
Urban renewal
left Newburgh without its heart, disconnected from its
waterfront—a barren canvas on which to splash
grandiose visions. The 1967-1969 Comprehensive Development
Plan for the City of Newburgh was the guiding document
for renewal and redevelopment. Among the sensible proposals
was regionalization, through which the city would would
become part of a metropolitan district that includes
the richer suburbs. Tax revenues would be shared among
the towns and the city, which would help reduce the
disparity in municipal tax revenues. Unfortunately,
the suburbs rejected this proposal.
". . . the planned
renewal, of course, never came. Then city leaders
tied up the land with out-of-town shysters, who promised
the sun and the moon. It was at the height of the
last real estate boom, in the mid-1980s, and the men
wearing fancy suits managed to get all of two buildings
erected. Then they disappeared, surfacing now and
then mainly to try to extort some more money from
a city that doesn't really have any to spare . . .
" (Cunningham)
The clipping
above summarizes the visions for Newburgh in 1969. The
ideas themselves are valid, they required too much federal
and state funding, which the city never received. Some
suggest that sour relations stemming from the Mitchell
welfare debacle deterred government officials from funding
the renewal project (Hinkle). In addition, the city
took years to determine the proper owners of the renewed
parcels and settle confusing easement issues (Hinkle).
the legacy left behind by past prosperity
Many
factories once lined the river and often discharged
its wastes into the river, both legally and illegally.
Between the late 1940s to the late 1970s, General
Electric Company discharged 1.3 million pounds of
toxic PCBs directly into the river from their facilities
in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, N.Y. This has been
the bane of the river's well-being for decades. While
the cleanup job is nowhere near complete, the Hudson
River has never been as clean as it is today, thanks
to strong grassroots efforts and political commitment.
