By Nancy Peckenham
“Welcome to Newburgh – Murder Capital of New York.” That’s the headline of an in-depth article in this week’s New York Magazine that details the high level of crime facing the city. “Despite its small size and bucolic setting, Newburgh occupies one of the most dangerous four-mile stretches in the northeastern United States,” the author, Peter Radden Keefe writes.
Keefe goes on to focus on the successful efforts of the FBI joint task force to bring down the Bloods and the Latin Kings, the gangs that have taken over many of Newburgh’s inner city streets. He paints a compelling portrait of FBI supervisory agent James Gagliano, who has personal relationships with some of the actors in the gang war that he is fighting. He also notes that the city’s own police force has been crippled by a loss in manpower while facing the uncertainty of future cuts.
In a city that is challenged to re-invent its image in hopes of attracting new business and jobs, Newburgh Circle asked leaders about their reaction to the article that went out to a half million subscribers.
City police chief Michael Ferrara acknowledges that violent crime in the city was the highest in New York State in 2010, a fact, he said, “that’s nothing to hide.” He focuses instead on the need to keep up pressure on the gangs that the FBI task force is taking down. “You can’t back down. You have to defend your city from that element moving back in,” Ferrara said in a phone interview after reading the article. It all fits in to his argument that the city can’t afford to follow through on the acting city manager’s proposal to cut another 15 officers made two weeks ago.
Mayor Nicholas Valentine said that the headline was sensationalist, but the article wasn’t that negative. “I thought the article gave a good picture of Newburgh and how the problems are not Newburgh created,” Valentine said, noting that he had spent 45 minutes with the reporter to tell him about the positive side of the city.
City councilwoman Christine Bello, who is the Republican candidate for mayor in the November election, agreed that the headline was disturbing because it hurts efforts to attract new business and homeowners. She argued that the city is taking steps to fight crime adding that it is “ridiculous” to cut any police officers when crime is the city’s number one problem.
Democratic mayoral candidate Judy Kennedy said Newburgh has a lot of positive things to offer but gets no positive press about it. If she is elected, she said she’d hire a marketing person to get the good word out, she said, while not ignoring the poverty and crime in the city, which, she added, she would address by seeking more help from the feds and state government.
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