Weekly Link Round Up

21220506013_b1180f5f21_z

Photo by NR Flickr user Brian Wolfe. The weekly link roundup is a collection of links related to Newburgh, revitalization, urban planning and anything else that might inspire change or create dialogue.

Newburgh completes vacant property probe [THR]
Newburgh officials briefed on proposed waterfront housing [Mid Hudson News]
‘Call-in’ program seeks to reduce violence in Newburgh [THR]
Graduate students to study urban development in Beacon and Newburgh [Mid Hudson News]
Historical Society Director Quizzes the Public Strolling Through Downing Park [HV Blogs]
The Interplay between Entrepreneurship and Urbanism [Strong Towns]
A Dilapidated Bank Turned Stunning Cultural Center Opens in Chicago’s South Side [Slate]

Add your own photos depicting city life to the Newburgh Restoration flickr pool to be used on the blog, or email me. **Flickr users please do not forgot to remove disabling of downloading of pictures. Otherwise I can’t use them**

5 Comment

  • -Stony Island…I prefer Newburgh’s multiple venues.
    -What’s the ‘call-in’ # to receive the ‘fast & furious’ tax credit?
    -It takes fifteen minutes to ‘experience’ Beacon and vise versa. What’s the issue?

    Aside, thanks for the memo Mr. Ciaravino.

  • The follow up article to the proposed waterfront development unfortunately indicates that some council members had issues with selling a parcel of city property that would have made the total project a viable, non-tax subsidized project. Do I sound disappointed? I am. http://www.recordonline.com/article/20151016/NEWS/151019493/0/SEARCH

    Unless there are hidden issues, adding attractive market rate housing and increasing city tax revenue by a reliable business family made sense. Selling the property for less than the assessed value would have been an investment in this case. Unless there is another buyer willing to pay the full value and willing to develop it, what does holding onto it do for Newburgh?

    • Actually there are seven parcels involved of which the developer wants to do further testing on to determine if the project is indeed viable. http://newburghny.swagit.com/play/10132015-1085 Maybe, he’ll decide to build a parking garage. I’ve seen some pretty cool ones. Pegging the property as “prime” is as disingenuous as stating that “RE values only go up”. Perhaps the council should take five minutes and look up the AVs on Grand St. and Bay View. The developer took his cue from previous ‘City property sales below the assessed values. Values based on, which should be obvious by now, a discretionary ‘formula’. He called them on it. They balked. I commented previously how when opening the door to price intervention there would be blow back. Assessments have become a monetary tool to make up for lopsided fiscal policies, their reflection of actual values deliberately distorted. Rectifying a ‘must sell’ approach to propped up assessment values is proving to be cumbersome. Muni-bond holders should be waving a flag.
      Regardless, extend the developer’s license within a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the purchase price tied to some matrix. Negotiate a deal if that is the intent.

      • thanks for the additional info. it seems off the table for now…

        • Yet they green light an extension for the subsidized Broadway project, an ‘affordable’ housing and supermarket. Why is the ‘affordable’ mantra exclusive to subsidized housing? A subsidized supermarket equals free chit army incorporated. It’s telling that some council members negate the small biz owners and private landlords of Newburgh. Can’t get enough of the nanny state? Not the ‘neo urbanism’ you have in mind?