Weekly Link Round Up

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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. Photo by New York World

Editorial: Tenants and landlords need help from the City of Newburgh [THR]
US Immigration Center to open in Newburgh [Mid Hudson News]
A Fighting Chance at the Newburgh Boxing Club [HV Magazine]
Arts are economic generator in Mid-Hudson region, SUNY New Paltz study finds [Daily Freeman]
Is Home Ownership Still Part of The American Dream? [Apartment Therapy]
The Power to Change Our Communities [Art Works Blog]
Concerns raised over proposed new zoning rules in Newburgh [THR]
Happy Anniversary in the Hudson Valley [Style and Pepper]

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3 Comment

  • Thanks so much for including our story! We loved our time in your area, and are already looking forward to our next trip. 🙂

  • Using tax payer $’s to tear down vacant buildings while there are many unemployed and homeless seems like a misallocation of capital and labor imo. “Let’s hope this building doesn’t fall into such disrepair that it has to be torn down like thousands of other buildings in Newburgh. ” (http://newburghrestoration.com/blog/2014/07/17/rescue-me-242-broadway/ )
    Indeed, that might be the plan as the initiative of the proposed Rezoning seems to belie it’s directive.
    Cases in point: 242 Broadway and the Liberty St. school are currently zoned Tourist/Commercial with height and parking resrictions applied to each building’s usage. Under the Re-Zone, residential and commercial property to be zoned in a “Broadway Corridor Zone” will require minimum off-street parking. As well, a proposed “Downtown Neighborhood Zone”, an area comprising Liberty St. school, potentially doubles a building’s height restriction yet decreases its per unit off-street parking restriction.
    It’s foreseeable that the City of Newburgh’s built environment and river front landscape will appear a lot different in ten or twenty years. Placing Newburgh’s demograhics relative to the overall economy, the housing sector is a priority over the commercial. Again, Newburgh is not alone as it seems to be paralelling a state trend (think NYC), indeed a national trend, toward “affordable” high density housing. “Affordable” housing being an oxymoron; minus the subsidies to developers (aka grants,tax credits) and to the tenants the costs to build would be prohibited. In fact, it’s keeping housing costs inflated and perpetuates a growing rise of the rentier class. So yes, there is money to be made on the ‘subsidized economy’, it just doesn’t add the required capital necessary for growth and is proven to be unsustainable. A Cloward-Piven strategy ? Ideally, a proportional growth in the commercial sector is required in order to, in the least, maintain that status quo. Absent that, taxes will continue to rise disproportionately perpetuating the cycle.
    In its current draft, the new Rezoning illustrates the many challenges of revitalizing a historic, former industrial river city to 21st century pragmatic and idealistic standards of living while maintaining historical integrity. Successful archetypes for cities such as Newburgh are rare. A well thought out, balanced and implemented rezoning carries the potential to make the City of Newburgh an outrider…providing the economy cooperates.

    Residents provide thoughtful considerations…
    http://www.cityofnewburgh-ny.gov/city-council …Click on Video/July 14 2014

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-27/a-call-to-tear-down-10-percent-of-detroit-buildings-right-now