When New York State partnered with Poughkeepsie to build the city’s arterial system in the mid-20th century, people daring to question the wisdom of urban renewal were practically run out of town for treason. The north/south arterial amputated the city’s waterfront, the east/west highways sliced off the neighborhoods on each side of its core, and about 400 families were displaced. Nearly a mile of Main Street was closed and designated a pedestrian mall in 1973, and businesses vanished. The historic and predominantly African-American Northside languished.

But with strong core institutions in arts, education, health, history, and human services, Poughkeepsie was bound to make a comeback. And what looked, late last century, like a desperate struggle has become a vast, interwoven ecosystem of good works in progress and passionate partnerships. The arterials, though, will remain as they are until the state Department of Transportation sees fit to consider changes.

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