Joe's Thursday route is my favorite, so I often ride shotgun. If time allows, we have lunch by the river in one of the classy restaurants that have seemingly sprung from nowhere. While soaking in the water-views, it is very easy to forget that just a block or two away, a city lies in ruin. What must be the longest freight train ever chugs over tracks that separate this side from that... clearly creating boundaries for a study in contrasts.
Newburgh, once known to typify all-American perfection, has deteriorated beyond belief. Taken from the second link, below:
"Deemed an 'All-American City' by LOOK magazine in 1953, Newburgh began a steady decline. By 1981, it topped a federal list of the most distressed areas in the United States."
Yet there are visionaries who never fail in their attempts to restore a building... or maybe just a wall of a building... or a park... or perhaps (link) a theater. Little, loving touches that cast a glimmer of light. Imagine our surprise when we discovered the newly enhanced wall of The Ritz. We stopped for a photo shoot... and just moments ago, I researched the touching stories behind the wall.
"Deemed an 'All-American City' by LOOK magazine in 1953, Newburgh began a steady decline. By 1981, it topped a federal list of the most distressed areas in the United States."
Yet there are visionaries who never fail in their attempts to restore a building... or maybe just a wall of a building... or a park... or perhaps (link) a theater. Little, loving touches that cast a glimmer of light. Imagine our surprise when we discovered the newly enhanced wall of The Ritz. We stopped for a photo shoot... and just moments ago, I researched the touching stories behind the wall.
Read for yourselves about (link) Dmitri Kasterine and his incredible work of meaningful art, NEWBURGH: PORTRAIT OF A CITY. And visit, sometime, to witness the 61-foot mural appropriately named "Transcendence", created by Chile's Dasic Fernandez.
Where there is life, there is clearly hope.
