CITY OF NEWBURGH – The razing of Newburgh’s waterfront residential district during the country’s “urban renewal” movement still haunts the city’s black residents, who either owned homes that were demolished or are descended from relatives who lived along the Hudson River.

The memory also partly fuels concerns that longtime residents and businesses face will be pushed out again, this time as gentrification brings an influx of newer, wealthier people, higher tax bills as property values rise, and new shops that hurt existing ones.

“People are still in this place of hurt (and) distrust,” said Rae Leiner, director of a task force working on ideas for a $1 million grant Newburgh received under an antipoverty initiative launched by the governor’s office.

But gentrification does not have to harm older residents, according to a new Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress report that drew dozens of people, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., to a forum on the issue held in Beacon on Thursday.

The big takeaway: New residents and development can revitalize blighted cities like Newburgh while protecting existing residents and creating local jobs and new amenities and services.

“The biggest challenge is changing the minds of Bronxites as to what it is we believe we deserve,” said Diaz, whose borough has been attracting new residents and development.

Pattern’s report offers snapshots of four cities: Beacon, Hudson, Kingston and Newburgh. Each is in a different stage of revitalization, but among the trends they share: rents and housing prices that increased dramatically between 2000 and 2015.

In Newburgh, high property taxes are squeezing residents who have owned homes for decades, said Newburgh-Highland Falls NAACP President John Borden.

“That’s why the older people are going to have to leave,” he said.

Policies promoting local hiring and the preservation and creation of affordable housing are some of the key elements on Pattern’s list of recommendations for ensuring that gentrification benefits, and does not harm, residents.

Among the strategies: Agreements that bind developers to local hiring, and the use of land or inclusionary zoning to create affordable housing.

“Healthy communities must have a balance of housing that is affordable for all income levels,” said Joseph Czajka, Pattern’s senior vice president for research, development and community planning.

Bill Fioravanti, director of business attraction for the Orange County Partnership, was among the elected officials, nonprofit leaders and residents who attended the forum.

Newburgh’s diversity is what convinced Fioravanti and his wife to move to the city, and he believes that including everyone in the process of revitalizing the city is important.

“The people that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with in the City of Newburgh – black, white, green, everyone – they want the city to come back the right way,” he said. “They want it to benefit everyone.”

lsparks@th-record.com