| |
|
|
"We begin by offering a
friendly and candid admonition; what follows here is not for all
readers. Thus we warn that those who prefer their reality
sugar-coated may find these pages more bitter and sour than
honey laden. Nevertheless we believe that such measures are a
necessary medicine whose potential unpleasantness must be borne
so that the debilitating malady afflicting our patient is
remedied and the vitality of life restored. We humbly
entreat that those who venture into these pages bear us with
patient good humor and an openness of mind that is seldom found
in persons of ignoble and dim-witted character.
Facing the unvarnished truth is often the most grueling task of
all."
Dr. Ronald
"Red" Rayder |
Welcome
to the PortJervisNY.biz blog buzz. In these pages you will
find plain spoken observations and insights about Port Jervis,
New York, that are not offered elsewhere. It is our hope
that such an endeavor may project a beam of light into the
shadowy corners of Port Jervis so that the ample dirt and
cobwebs lying there might be cleansed and renewed.
July 17, 2007 -
As the saying correctly notes, time flies when you're having a
good time. So it is that our hiatus from contributing
observations to these pages has been spent. But now we
return once again to the work at hand and hold the unflinching
mirror of candor upon the scarred and worn face of our troubled
subject.
This year is the centennial of Port
Jervis having become a city. One would reasonably think
that such a special occasion, and opportunity, would warrant
great celebration with widespread publicity and fanfare.
It would be easy, for instance, to conceive of brass bands
greeting steam engine excursions arranged especially to bring
visitors and attention to the Port Jervis community. Civic
groups and esteemed local politicians dressed in period costume
might also be part of the festivities. Businesses could be
enlisted to host historical displays and horse drawn carriage
rides might be a novel and lucrative attraction.
Performers could act in plays or musicals that were popular in
1907 just as musicians might offer energetic renditions of
ragtime songs. A costume ball could provide the chance for
the willing to see, be seen, and photographed for posterity. The
list of creative possibilities for making the Port Jervis
centennial year one that will be talked about for the next ten
decades to come is limited only by one's imagination and
willingness to do what's necessary to make the plans reality.
It is, however, a revealing, if not
wholly surprising fact that the city's recognition of this
notable anniversary is as lacking in ambition as it is
generically unremarkable. For rather than making the
centennial the outstanding event it rightly deserves to
be, it has simply been tied to several renamed, routine
community events. What's so special or inspirational about
that?
While well-intended, such a
casual gesture possesses the vigor of an anemic centenarian who has spent
one season too many idly snoozing on a park bench as the
world passed by.
The object demonstrated in this failure
of the community's presumed movers and shakers to
capitalize on a rare and important occasion, kind reader, is
that the Port Jervis of 100 years ago clearly held more promise,
interest, and value than does the Port Jervis of
today.
Dr. Ronald "Red" Rayder
March 15, 2007 -
Our initial installment in this ongoing series noted that the
current trend toward revival in Port Jervis is not the
first. Nor was the previously described example a singular
episode. For shortly after the untimely and most
regrettable closing of the Pike Street Arts
Center, another rush of hope arose for Port Jervis in the
form of tourism development and, specifically, promoting the city's
substantial railroad history.
In the earlier years of the Arts
Center, a new task force was created by the Port Jervis
mayor. One of the objectives of this volunteer group was to
research, identify, detail, and provide conclusions about the
way tourism might be developed for Port Jervis.
Using any number of resources and data
ranging from universities and private sector tourism experts to
federal, state, and county agencies, the Port Jervis Task Force
on Tourism drafted a comprehensive study with
recommendations. Additionally, this group organized
and administered a three-day city wide tourism event called,
"The Orange County Delaware River Festival," that was
both groundbreaking and to this day remains unsurpassed in
success.
The study's recommendations were
presented to all members of the Port Jervis Common Council, city
department heads, the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce, and other
stakeholders in tourism development for the Port Jervis
community. Tellingly, with one notable exception,
not a single elected official or others receiving the study
offered a comment of any kind, much less acted upon the
recommendations. Even such a simple, common sense solution
to making the downtown business area more user friendly by enforcing the law
requiring motor vehicles to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, has not been
implemented. Many other communities, including those in adjacent
Pennsylvania, have followed this law? Why is it so hard for Port Jervis
to do the same?
The one person who did response was the
then city historian who was also a prime mover in preserving and
renovating the Erie
railroad turntable. To his credit, this selfless individual has done much good
service to the city of Port Jervis, including
acting as executive director of the Minisink Valley Historical
Society.
Those who are familiar with railroad
history know that turntables like that which was saved in Port
Jervis were once necessary for reversing the direction of steam
locomotives, whose power was most effective in pulling rather
than pushing the cars in their train. Likewise,
since the advent of diesel electric locomotives, turntables were
no longer required and had therefore become something of a
rarity. Renovating the turntable with an eye toward using
it in conjunction with developing tourism related to the history
of railroads in Port Jervis made perfect sense.
For a short time, this aim took form
and seemed to be a viable prospect. During this period a
steam engine, the Chesapeake and Ohio 614, affectionately known
as, "Chessie," made several trips to Port
Jervis. With its arrival Chessie brought not only hundreds of
visitors who paid to ride on the historic vehicle, and attracted many more train
enthusiasts to the city, but also shone a sorely needed
ray of hope on a community where such possibilities are not
often seen. Needless to say, local restaurateurs and
retailers could be nothing but greatly pleased by the business
the steam engine's visits generated.
However, as fate would have it, the
owners of the Chessie elected to sell the engine and the
locomotive was ultimately purchased by buyers who took it to British
Columbia, presumably for use there in the tourism industry as
well.
Rather than aggressively and creatively
working to capitalize on the momentum that had been
stimulated through the preservation of the turntable and visits
by Chessie, city officials did what they have historically done
best - nothing. Even though Chessie had been offered for
sale in the public marketplace, and other engines as well as
related historical train cars remain available, the opportunity
to purchase that locomotive or similar machines was not pursued. The pattern of inspired efforts by private
citizens being sidetracked by the Port Jervis city government's
lack of vision and effectiveness was thus demonstrated once again.
As with the arts center property, the
railroad turntable has been abandoned and fallen once more into a
state of decay, gathering little more than garbage and sad
memories of what might have been.
The lesson learned from this woeful
tale, good reader, is that even when much of the work is done
for them by private individuals, Port Jervis city government is
non-responsive and habitually fails to provide the style of
leadership that might result in the economic, social,
and perceptual boost that the community so desperately needs..
Dr. Ronald "Red" Rayder
March 8, 2007 - Today
is Easter Sunday. On this day most holy to Christians the world
around, faith in life eternal arises and with it hope for blessings on
humanity is renewed.
As in so many communities, Port Jervis has a long
tradition of holding a Sunrise Service to commemorate this special
day. The place where these proceedings occur has historically been
at the site where the most scenic, panoramic vistas in Port Jervis can
be enjoyed - Point Peter at Elks-Brox Park.
Located near the top of a mountain that overlooks
Port Jervis, from this vantage point the Delaware River can be seen as its
enduring flow passes through the city and divides New York from
Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania from New Jersey. On a distant peak
across the valley, High Point Monument marks the summit of
New Jersey. Sloping down the opposing mountain is Interstate
Route 84. Below it all, just as it has for many generations, the city of Port Jervis goes about its
business with births and deaths, love and loss, aspirations, anguish,
and plain everyday business of living..
But what most of those attending the annual
religious ceremony may not know, along with young lovers who have also
found this spot suitable for expressing fervent passions of their own, is that
this location has a history involving crosses of a different
kind. For here, serving as a beacon of fear, warning,
and intimidation that could be seen for miles around, the Ku
Klux Klan held their gatherings to burn crosses and proclaim their racist beliefs.
Thus it may well be that hate-monger
members of the Klan were among those Port Jervis citizens who
lynched Robert Jackson Lewis in 1892.
Following an oft repeated pattern,
Lewis, a black man, was accused of assaulting a white
woman. Hearing of the accusation against him, he fled
but was soon apprehended and thrown in a Port Jervis jail cell.
As rumors about the alleged crime
spread, a large crowd quickly gathered outside the jail. Despite the
efforts of some officials, including the brother of author,
Stephen Crane, the mob then took the defenseless man and their vigilante
brand of justice into their own hands.
Dragged up present day Sussex Street
by a rope around his neck, Lewis was lynched from a tree on
East Main Street near where the current First Baptist
Church stands.
The next day Lewis' bare body
was found hanging from the tree. His poor clothes
stripped from his lifeless form were reportedly sold to a New York City
museum where morbid curiosity seekers could pay a few pennies
to look at and touch the dead man's garments.
Despite eyewitness
accounts, a grand jury seated to consider the lynching
concluded that there wasn't evidence enough to prosecute and
essentially deemed that Lewis had committed suicide by hanging himself.
Known also is
that the route taken for many years in downtown Port Jervis as part of
the annual Fireman's Day Parade was the same as that used by
the Klan for their own white robe clad
processions.
There is little doubt
that some contemporary residents of Port Jervis may count
among their ancestors those who took part in the
lynching. Considering the November
2006 assault that occurred in Port Jervis where a black
New York City police officer was beaten by three white thugs
as they shouted racial slurs,
it seems that the ignorance of ethnic hatred is not confined
to the past.
The lesson learned from this
horrific history, good reader, is that what lies on the
surface of things today may not reveal what lies below and
restless spirits, literal or figurative, may still
linger, bringing troublesome reminders of justice not done.
Dr. Ronald "Red" Rayder
March
1, 2007 - Port Jervis, it seems, is undergoing another
revival. Such a spurt of promise is not unique.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, for
instance, a great deal of enthusiasm was generated when a group
of progressive community advocates bought the last theatre in
Port Jervis and turned it into a center for the arts.
Called
the "Pike Street Arts Center," this project
facilitated several years worth of outstanding fine and
performing art programs as well as classes and private
instruction. The encouraged excitement engulfing the Port
Jervis area as a result of that effort was palpable.
Among the factors that inspired
the project was the knowledge that community amenities, such as
an arts center, are considerations corporations take into
account when evaluating an area as a prospective location for
their businesses. It was similarly known that the
arts generally attract individuals who are relatively more
affluent. Studies had shown that for every one dollar such
patrons spent on a ticket to a performance, at least one or more
dollars were spent in the community on such things as dining,
shopping, and accommodations..
Needless to say, the impoverished
nature of Port Jervis would have benefited greatly from such
financial and social improvements.
Tragically, this important effort was
stymied not only by the economic aftershocks of the stock market
crash of 1987, but also by the selfish, backwards, and possibly,
illegal actions of Port Jervis city government. For rather
than releasing approximately $60,000 of a $100,000 matching
grant that, thanks to the generous contributions of local
citizens and businesses, the Center was due, city officials
retained the money until the project died a
lingering death for lack of funds. The city official
responsible for the fiasco very unceremoniously left Port Jervis
soon thereafter never to be heard from again. Where the
grant money went is also anyone's guess.
Demonstrating the
reactionary lack of vision that has helped keep Port Jervis down
for decades, the city then decided to raze the theatre complex
"to build a parking lot," or so they claimed.
While dumping the theatre's demolition
debris in Riverside Park, former site of the annual Mount Carmel
carnivals, the city caught the attention of the New York State
conservation department because of concerns regarding potential
pollution of the Delaware River.
So much for being good stewards of the
environment.
Today, about a decade after the city
destroyed the last operating theatre in Port Jervis, nothing
other than an empty space containing little more than crab grass
and dandelions remains. Not even the supposed parking
lot, the city's uninspired plan for the Center's real estate,
was achieved.
The lesson learned from this sad
episode, good reader, is that if the city's current revival is
successfully sustained, it will be in spite of rather than
because of Port Jervis city government.
Dr. Ronald "Red" Rayder
|
|
|
|
|