Please join us for a free half day conference which will feature expert panelists discussing topics such as adaptive reuse and funding downtown revitalization. In addition to being informative, Tools for Main Street Revitalization will offer attendees excellent networking opportunities.
Press Release: City of Newburgh, NY. Newburgh celebrates the Arts! Over one hundred artists will participate in the Thirteenth Annual Newburgh Open Studios organized by Gerardo Castro and Michael Gabor, […]
You are cordially invited to the THIRD annual shopping crawl in the City of Newburgh! Spend the day strolling between shops and restaurants all while enjoying the unique experience the […]
April 30th 2020, This IS Newburgh from Ruedi Hofmann on Vimeo. Sadly, Ruedi Hofmann, Ann Stratton, and their family is leaving Newburgh. They have done some amazing projects while they […]
Photo by Newburgh photographer Walt. 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 forget to […]
Photo by Newburgh photographer TeeJay Melvin. 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 forget […]
I almost stopped reading after “expert panelist”. Revitalization isn’t a new concept and neither is analysis paralysis. Newburgh does not subsist in isolation. With the latest U.S. gdp coming in at -.6%, despite ‘expert’ estimates of 3 +%, alongside an economy that is, by majority, consumer driven there is minimum potential for real growth. This fact is reflected in decades low labor participation rates and decades high welfare rates. It stands to reason that mortgage applications are also at decades low and over 60% of residential sales are cash transactions. The talking heads haven’t a solution to generating cash flow from a tapped out consumer (credit isn’t revenue for either) and have resorted to a shuffling of assets and liabilities between local, state and federal balance sheets, aka “funding”. Newburgh, like many other municipalities, should have been operating in crisis mode since 2007 with across the board austerity but instead opted for the status quo washed down with a little kool-aid handed out by the “experts”.
It’s a math problem and exponentials are shining the light on the posers.
Posers! Ha, that’s for sure. This symposium takes place during hours when few people who are looking for guidance- most likely with jobs- will be around. But the “experts” are being paid a nice salary to put on the show during their most convenient hours. The real experts are the business owners in Newburgh that have somehow managed to make it work in spite of the facts.
But to be fair, Walt, there is a movement towards urban revival after the disaster of sprawl, sparse public transportation and rising fuel costs, is becoming clear. And if anyone’s paying attention, the insecurity of online and bigbox shopping will help bolster the advantages of urban investment and new business.
Agree, there have been mass closings amongst the ‘big boxes’ and I for one keep it local when my requirements are met. As I commented on previous posts, I’m ‘invested’ in Newburgh much to the dismay of my urban acquaintances. Admittedly, I recognize that my ‘knowledge’ of the built environment and economics has me biased in that sense. However, I’m patient and my objective opinion remains that, as you allude to, a concentration of community and business will prove to be the sustainable model. That said, and I know it’s an unfavorable concept to some, a condensed vibrant economy cannot be juxtaposed with a heavily subsidized one. If anyone has a long standing example to the contrary please enlighten me.
Codes? We don’t need no stinking codes…
1:16:50 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiqUGojmqdU&list=UUV5WAVf4DXJLCSU2yXImM2g
Spend sixteen months, countless man hours and x dollars to bring the City of Newburgh up to 21st century
Zoning Codes standards only to have the results belittled in one brief individual’s cankerous sanction.
Lowered expectations about anything equates to lowered compliance for everything. Just a thought.
OMG, what an embarrassment! Watching her comment was like watching Borat in action. Who votes for this? BTW, Regina, if you’re reading this (or if one of your friends prints it out from the internets), be careful complaining about work on buildings that might not have proper permits. It can earn you a lawsuit.