Nixon Talks Issues With Newburgh City Residents

NEWBURGH – Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Cynthia Nixon visited with City of Newburgh residents on Tuesday to talk to them about their concerns regarding housing availabilities and rental costs.

Community acitivist Omari Shakur organized the session with Nixon.

Last week, Nixon announced a major policy issue concerning rent regulation reform, so she reached out to a group of Newburgh community members to see what their concerns were.
Tenants, landlords and business owners from the community told Nixon the major issue, one affecting rents, quality of life, city image and business appeal, is the level of taxation in the city. Some landlords even said their taxes exceed their annual mortgage costs by double, or triple.

Beyond that, members of the community shared concerns that are specific to Newburgh housing, such as codes as they relate to the many historic buildings, lack of jobs and lack of community funding.

Nixon said going out to places like Newburgh and meeting with the people is something she’s committed to in order to solve these problems.

“You need to listen to the people in those localities because the people on the ground are the experts about their community and the experts about what that community’s priorities should be,” said Nixon. “Whether it’s building affordable housing, whether it’s paving the roads, whether it’s seeking a relief from onerous local taxes.”

The owner of the Blacc Vanilla café, Jarrod Lang, who hosted Nixon for the meeting, said he was happy with her feedback and openness to community concerns.

“I think her ideas are excellent and I’m glad she got to come and meet both sides of the spectrum, from the renter spectrum to the landlord spectrum,” said Lang. “It’s good to get both sides of the story and get the information out because that information is important.”
Nixon said one thing she is committed to is mandating rent control, for both the benefit of the tenant, as well as to keep landlords accountable. She said she intends to visit Newburgh again soon to tour the city and get a better idea of where solutions need to begin being implemented.