"There are those who would
claim that the Urban Renewal projects have caused
the deterioration in Newburgh. However, it is the
history of the older communities throughout the nation
that as transportation methods changed, and as population
shifted from area to area, certain ares which had
been popular at one time have become extinct, and
the Water Street area is no exception . . . the Water
Street area has ceased to be of importance and must
undergo a radical change in order to again take its
proper place where it can pay its own way in the community."
(Flynn 11)
The answer to
Newburgh's woes lay in the wrecking ball. According
to the city council and the 1967-1969 Comprehensive
Development Plan for the City of Newburgh, the city's
antiquated buildings and streets designed for trolleys
and horses needed to make way for the car-driven economy.
The "slums" of Water Street had to disappear.
The images above outline the urban renewal area, which
was approximately twenty blocks along the river, and
four blocks deep.
water street before renewal
. . . water street after renewal
photo credit: detroit publishing co.,
1906 (first image)
After all was
said and done, the city had completely leveled Water
Street and, in effect, took down the entire waterfront.
The city demolished more than 700 properties in the
heart of the city, disconnecting it from the waterfront.
Is it the renewal itself that's responsible for Newburgh's
continued woes, or the fact that for 30 years nothing
replaced what the city had destroyed? Had planners'
ambitious visions for the site (discussed in the "20/100
vision" section) come to fruition, perhaps the
city would have suffered less.
