What’s Missing from this Article on Newburgh?

  |  November 11, 2013
Newburgh Gothic Mansion

We wrote up this piece for the New York Times about ex-New Yorkers helping to revive Newburgh, mostly by way of architectural restoration but also by joining the passionate community of Newburghers who work tirelessly to ameliorate the city’s troubles.

There were some good comments at the end of the piece, pointing out what was missing, including a discussion of the race riots that marred the city; the effect of suburbanization, which stole business from the city of Newburgh and moved it to the town; and that, eventually, when all of Newburgh’s 700 (or more) abandoned buildings are restored, it will indeed be gentrified, and the poor population will largely be forced out. All of those people are correct, and we appreciate their pointing it out. (It’ll be a heck of a long time, though, before the place is truly gentrified — right now, there’s plenty of room for residents of all stripes.)

We liked the following comment, although we thought it missed the point of the article, which was to focus on the community hard at work to revive the place: “This dismal and lopsided view of The City hardly reflects the accomplishments and energy of the New Newbughers–many of whom are artists, musicians, writers and photographers who not only support each other but provide an ongoing welcome to anyone who shows any interest in living/working here. Sure, it’s great to have housing stock at rock bottom prices but really? The deep-gut pull of Newburgh is possibility.”

We couldn’t agree more, at least with the latter part of the quote.

P.S.: The best resource for info on great stuff in Newburgh is the Newburgh Restoration blog — another important aspect of Newburgh that we didn’t have room to mention!

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