Newburgh, New York once one of the prettiest river towns on the Hudson, is now home to the highest violent crime rate in New York state. Earlier this month the town was the scene of one of the largest gang bust on the east coast. \u201cWe have brought federal narcotics charges against 78 members and associates of 2 notorious national gangs,\u201d\u00a0 told U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.<\/p>\n
In the 1950\u2019s Newburgh was a gateway town with its own commuter ferry that ushered upstate New Yorkers across the river and down to New York City, 60 miles away.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of history here in Newburgh. It is home to the nation\u2019s first official historical site: the house from which George Washington negotiated the British surrender and helped set up the country\u2019s first government.<\/p>\n
Nick Valentine is Newburgh\u2019s current Mayor and he says problems here started with the construction of the Newburgh Beacon Bridge in 1963. The bridge construction meant the loss of commuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything, everybody that would come downtown to the waterfront to take the ferry over to beacon went away,\u201d explained Valentine.<\/p>\n
Valentine also blames the federal government\u2019s urban renewal project in the 1970\u2019s which demolished homes and then failed to rebuild in the area. He credits the government for at least getting involved with law enforcement. He says the May gang bust was the first step in getting his city back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need greater law enforcement, personnel, and we need jobs and accessibility to jobs for the people who live here,\u201d says Valentine.<\/p>\n
If the government is able to provide the monetary funds to support Newburgh then it seems there is hope in bringing this beautiful river town back to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newburgh, New York once one of the prettiest river towns on the Hudson, is now home to the highest violent crime rate in New York state. Earlier this month the town was the scene of one of the largest gang bust on the east coast. \u201cWe have brought federal narcotics charges against 78 members and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6053,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6053"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}