City Council Approves $295k to Raze Buildings

The City Council has approved $295,000 to raze three buildings in the Historic District in the City of Newburgh. Among the three is the house above at 159 Grand Street that was featured in a New York Times article. Another is 113 Washington Street that was featured as the very first Rescue Me post. The other is located at 10 Dubois Street.

The total cost will be $295,000 to raze the buildings. The destruction of these buildings is hard to swallow for those who have seen historical irreplaceable buildings of Newburgh disappear one by one. Especially those who have lived to see thousands of building already destroyed through urban renewal in the 60’s and 70’s. One person mentioned that these properties be sold for a $1, to people who would handle the tearing down or rehab of the homes. Or, it should be required that the historical details of the home be salvaged and reused when building new construction on the lot. So far, it seems the city is looking to tear down the buildings with no set plan for the lots in sight.

Take a look at them all now, soon they will all just be another empty lot in Newburgh.

7 Comment

  • Why does the city continue to waste $$ on demolishing brick structures. 113 Washington Street is salvageable as the walls are sound. It’s not collapsing. Wood frame buildings are a different story, as they are major fire hazards to neighboring buildings.

    Secure them, but let the brick building stock stand!

  • Wondering the same thing Michael. It’s a shame.

  • This is awful. Just what Newburgh needs is more empty lots. With all that money, couldn’t they afford to stabilize at least the brick building and put a roof on it, then offer it at a very low price (I like the $1 idea!) to someone who has the time, money and vision to bring it back to life?

  • It seems like an awful lot to pay for demolition. All that’s involved are a couple of guys with a bulldozer and some 30-yard dumpsters. That’s the outrage here. Why is the City paying so much to raze these three properties.

    Sadly, these houses may well beyond reasonable repair. Once a roof has gone, you have to reconstruct an interior from scratch pretty much and that costs a fortune. The unfortunate reality about the market in Newburgh is that many of these houses – even if purchased for $1 – simply require so much money to rehabilitate them that the buyer might as well purchase something that’s in good shape for the same price. If property prices were to go up, then maybe there’d be more of an incentive to save these buildings. I’m not advocating their demolition, just looking at the financial reasons why some much housing stock is sitting unloved still.

    Cher, I’d love to show you an extraordinary time capsule of 60’s/70’s black America that I’m about to purchase on Lutheran. Could you email me your contact info so that I could give you some more information.

    Thanks,

    Justine

  • Other news I have heard about these properties to be demolished is that one house is a rat infested drug house, and another probably contains asbestos that needs to go down safely in order to not harm children.

  • Also notice where these buildings are. They are in the GNP’s self-proclaimed “college heights” area. Why aren’t they paying for this work? These properties will end up in their control through their Land Bank scheme anyway. Why are we using taxpayer money- that we don’t have- to do this? Is there some immediate threat? We could hire like 6 police officers, or DPW workers for that kind of money for a whole year! Something’s fishy.

  • I thought that since these homes are in the Historic District and therefore part of the national register they would be protected from demolition. Why would the council want to repeat the same mistakes of the past. What make the city special is the historic buildings..