Looking Around

Read John Doherty's story: On William Street, far from the Renaissance city of the riverfront festivals, the news travelled fast: Hargrove heard before Rivera's family did.

If Newburgh's 30,000 residents packed into 3 square miles are a swirling mix of people and classes, William Street is Newburgh distilled to its essence.

The storefront First Born Church of the Living God draws second generation black Newburghers with traces of North Carolina accents still in their voices. Yemeni immigrants man the counter at local bodegas. Spanish-speaking families keep tiny, spotless house in buckling tenements. A few white families remain.

The Latin Kings, the homegrown Benkard Barrio Kings and La eMe street gangs vie with crazy-tough Jamaicans two blocks away.

There is a lot for a 19-year-old to look at.