Monteverde urges Newburgh to consider bike lanes on Broadway

Broadway is already changing in Newburgh, with Lutheran Street and Concord Street closed since April 6 between Broadway and Van Ness Street as work continues on the Broadway Pedestrian and Traffic Signal Improvements Project. Against that backdrop, Councilwoman Ramona Monteverde is pushing the seven-member City of Newburgh Council to think beyond signals and pavement and consider whether Broadway itself should carry bike lanes.

Monteverde’s argument reaches into the city’s bigger political fight over what comes first: road design, or the housing and development agenda that has dominated Newburgh’s public conversation. She has said the city should take bike lanes more seriously, especially on Broadway, where she sees room for a more modern streetscape that serves more than drivers alone. Her pitch lands at a moment when residents are already voicing concerns about parking and the pressure that could come with more market-rate and affordable housing downtown.

The stakes are practical as much as political. Broadway is one of Newburgh’s most visible corridors, and any redesign would affect curb space, parking patterns, pedestrian safety and access for businesses along the route. The Broadway Pedestrian and Traffic Signal Improvements Project already stretches from Grand Street to Robinson Avenue, also known as Route 9W, showing that the city is moving on the corridor in stages. Monteverde wants the next step to include a broader debate about whether Newburgh wants a street built for cars only or a downtown that also makes room for cyclists and pedestrians.

That conversation has been building for years. In 2009, an Orange County Transportation Council workshop described Broadway as a major piece of a transportation planning study and discussed street design changes that could better connect downtown Newburgh with the waterfront. More recently, Urban Cycling Solutions said it presented findings to the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and helped develop a grant application for a protected bike route linking Broadway with the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.

Kingston offers the closest local comparison. Its Broadway redesign includes protected bike lanes, cycle tracks and floating parking, and parking on Broadway from Pine Grove to St. James has been shifted to free two-hour parking. That kind of tradeoff is exactly what Newburgh may eventually have to confront if Monteverde’s proposal gains traction. For a city balancing redevelopment, traffic and safety, the question is no longer whether Broadway will change, but whose needs the street will be built to serve.