Photo collage of pictorial highlights from Newburgh Restoration. Photo credit: Newburgh Restoration

The Newburgh Restoration blog celebrates its 7th year of publication this year, and the publisher, Cher Vick, has put together her yearly write-up of the highlights in Newburgh - among them, her graduation with a master's degree in Urban Planning. Her mission for the blog is "to be at the forefront of the Newburgh renaissance and encourage the revitalization of the city." She does this by "encouraging economic development, new businesses, rehabilitation of houses (vacant and occupied), home ownership, resident interviews, and the Newburgh arts scene."

Cher publishes almost every day, and if you sign up for Newburgh Restoration's newsletter, you can pretty much set your clock by it. At 6:02pm every day there is a new blog post, featuring a dose of what is going on in Newburgh. Like:

• The curious case of Caffe Macchiato, which has new ownership (again) from food veteran Jodi Cummings, whose current menu looks positively delicious. 
• The detailed coverage of the new letterpress shop RagHaus, followed by the home tour on Liberty Street of the owner, Marcus Hartel. 
• The latest home restoration post from new homeowners who discovered original fishscale and clapboard underneath their aluminum siding.
• Columbia University's urban design studio projects.

Pretty much, if you want to know what's going on in Newburgh, from home development, total house fixer-upper projects, new businesses opening, or the outcome of local events, Newburgh Restoration is your source to keep the pulse on Newburgh. If you are looking to move to Newburgh, or are a home improvement junkie, your eyes will be glued to Cher's site, if they aren't already.

Local blogging is coming into its own with growing readerships, and offers audiences a special view into the depth of a city from different vantage points. Beacon has its own local blogs, like A Little Beacon Blog, Beacon Bits, Wigwam Economy, the original local forum Beacon Citizen which is like a lot of personal blogs consolidated together in one giant forum, Hudson Valley Compass (as the name suggests, this covers several destinations; Beacon is just one),  Beacon Streets, and deep into the depths of Instagram there are such favorites as Beacon Transplant and so many others.

Just hit your #beaconny and #newburghny hashtags, and you'll discover all of the lovely and hopeful depictions of activities happening around here.

Congratulations on your anniversary, Newburgh Restoration!