"workfare" to "urban removal"

     For more than 200 years after the Revolutionary War, Newburgh hadn't caused a single stir … until 1961, when an unassuming man named Joseph Mitchell, possessing the ruthlessness and equanimity of New York City's Robert Moses, arrived in a troubled Newburgh and polarized town and country. As former city manager for Culver City, California and Marple Township, Pennsylvania, Mitchell hardly caused a ripple (Ritz 19). But in Newburgh, that would change.

     Newburgh was faced with an immigration of families from the South "who have no visible means of support," which compounded an already overcrowded city with dilapidated housing (Ritz 32). Mitchell asked, "why should a city like Newburgh be the receiving point for a horde of citizens seeking a new way of life when we are literally bursting at the seams with crowded slums and already high caseloads…"

     Mitchell believed that the city's liberal welfare policies encouraged black immigration from the South. He believed welfare recipients should work for their monthly checks and that many welfare recipients were cheating the system. Translating his philosophy into law, Mitchell drew up the 22-point Newburgh Plan, of which the City Council adopted 13. Among these provisions designed to discourage cheating and make the poor earn their payments (which is why it was referred to as "workfare") are:

• "All able-bodied males on relief of any kind who are capable of working are to be assigned to the chief of building maintenance for work assignment on a 40-hour week."
  
• All mothers of illegitimate children are to be advised that should they have any more children out of wedlock they shall be cut off from relief."
  
• "All recipients who are not disabled, blind, [non]-ambulatory or otherwise incapacitated shall report to the Department of Public Welfare monthly for a conference regarding the status of their case."

     The State Supreme Court struck down 12 of the points, but allowed number 13, which required recipients to report to the welfare department for a conference and to receive their check. The controversy scarred Newburgh and potentially hurt its reputation, which in turn probably reduced its level of Federal redevelopment funding (Hinkle). Newburgh 's woes made national news when it became the subject of an hour-long NBC documentary in 1961.

     Eventually Mitchell would resign, and the city would pick up the pieces as best as it could. The Republican city council continued its mission to do something about the "slums" of Water Street, which meant urban renewal. The guiding document for this and other urban renewal efforts were outlined in the 1967-1969 Comprehensive Development Plan for the City of Newburgh, funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hinkle). The plan attributed Newburgh's decline since 1930 to obsolete street design and antiquated buildings. The solution for promoting economic development would be to physically remove these impediments. The city's streets, which were designed to accommodate trolley cars, horses, and pedestrians, deterred people with cars from navigated through the city streets. Also, its commercial buildings and housing were too old and contributed to the blight.

     The plan was also laced with racial prejudice, blaming its problems on its increasing number of non-white migrants. The plan states: "unless the remaining white man non-Puerto Rican and his money can be encouraged to stay and additional large numbers of such persons reenter the eastern portion of Newburgh, it will go almost entirely black and Puerto Rican." Unfortunately most of the residents of the renewal area were not white.

     Executing the plan's recommendations meant leveling almost the entire waterfront and commercial district, Water Street, and most of the housing that was built before 1890 (which comprised most of the city's housing stock). In its place, the city had grandiose visions of a shopping area, convention center, government complex, and international port. Among the positive suggestions in the plan were construction of low- and middle-income housing units and a push for regionalism to correct the inequities in investment and tax revenues created by suburban growth (Hinkle).

     When all was said and done, the city completely razed Water Street and later replaced it with a road that gives cars easy access to the major highways. Unfortunately, the road is a barrier that disrupts the connection between downtown and waterfront. The city removed almost all vestiges of the old waterfront. Many Blacks and Puerto Ricans (victims of the "urban removal" plan) were displaced and ended up in the infamous Lander Street area, where the housing was equally poor (Hinkle).

     And what came of the city's grandiose plans? Aside from some affordable housing projects that went up (not without controversy over their location, of course), the renewal area remained empty for decades. It required too much federal and state funding, which the city never received. Some suggest that sour relations stemming from the Mitchell welfare debacle deterred government officials from funding the renewal project (Hinkle). In addition, the city took years to determine the proper owners of the renewed parcels and settle confusing easement issues (Hinkle).

     A New York Times article describes the post-renewal scene well:

"Water Street … is now a scene of desolation, destruction, and hope. Broken windows scar the vacant buildings, a large block cleared by demolition is becoming a grassy, park-like slope, and signs on the boarded up storefronts proclaim 'Urban Renewal Project.'" (Sikes 43)

       For almost 30 years Newburgh slid into an abyss. In 1981, federal officials put the city on the top of its list of most distressed areas in the country. The federal government, simultaneously, ended federal revenue sharing. By this time, crack and other drugs spread throughout the historic East End district and made Newburgh second in the state to New York City in drugs and violent crime.

       The Mitchell episode and the city's failed urban renewal plans revealed the flaws of Newburgh's political structure. Local politics were contentious, and a succession of mayors were at odds with the city manager (Demb 6). The roles of mayor and city manager were often not clear, which led to inconsistent leadership. The quarreling continues even today.

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