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In the late 19th century, Newburgh in the Hudson Valley represented the bleeding edge of industrial technology. Streams powering wool, gunpowder, flour and saw mills emptied into the Hudson River, where steamships carried industrial cargo. Thomas Edison in 1884 selected Newburgh to host one of the world’s first central power stations, making it the second electrified municipality in the United States after lower Manhattan.
A century later, Newburgh’s economic leadership had stalled, as manufacturers relocated and the river lost shipping traffic to trucking. The city of 28,000 now has the highest poverty rate downstate, and Newburgh’s mostly Latino and Black population struggles with high crime, water safety crises and rates of asthma more than twice the statewide average.
New York State Team
Aura Lopez Zarate passes through the snow-covered streets of Newburgh with the craftiness of someone who has lived there for all her life.
From City Hall, near a site that served as George Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War, she points out the lot where she and other activists air their grievances for a community that is now largely Black and brown.
And on a snowy Friday afternoon, she journeys past Tacos Azteca, a favorite place of hers. She passes the small bakery where she is allowed to freely meet other activists.
But with all her knowledge of the hills and valleys of this city, Zarate has always felt her status in this country was in limbo.
5:50
The City of Newburgh held a public hearing Monday night on its draft report on police reform. It’s part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order requiring local police agencies to modernize their strategies and programs based on community input. One of the related laws the city adopted over the summer faced a lot of backlash, and the city manager announced at the start of the hearing that the law was now tabled.
Newburgh City Manager Joe Donat made the announcement before calling the names of the 23 people who signed up for the virtual public hearing.
“Now I understand that there’s some concerns out there regarding the information that is being requested of the community when they interact with the police,” Donat says. “So what we have done is we have pressed the pause button here.”