WHAT’S NEW & WHO’S NEWS
Rockland County Official Named President, CEO of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The Board of Directors at Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress has appointed Alexandra S. Obremski to be the organization’s next president and chief executive officer. Ms. Obremski, a native of Rockland County, has worked in public service in the Hudson Valley for nearly two decades, including roles in community development and municipal law. She will become Pattern’s seventh president since the organization was founded in 1965.
Ms. Obremski’s appointment was announced by Pattern officials at its County Leaders Breakfast held at the DoubleTree Poughkeepsie on Wed., April 8. She will join the Newburgh, NY-based Pattern for Progress on May 18.
“The opportunity to lead this renowned regional research and planning nonprofit is one I am grateful for and humble to take on,” Ms. Obremski said. “I am excited to expand Pattern’s longstanding commitment to regional planning and its passion for objective research on complex affordability and quality-of-life issues that are critical to the future of the Hudson Valley. I look forward to using my background in public service to continue Pattern’s impressive legacy and doing the work that has benefitted our communities, businesses, and municipalities for more than 60 years.”
Mary Beth Bianconi, chair of the Pattern Board, said Ms. Obremski’s background in community development and as a public-sector attorney with diverse experience “makes her ideally suited for this role. Her lifelong dedication to public service positions her to lead Pattern’s next chapter as the Hudson Valley’s premier research, planning and civic educational organization. She brings a clear passion for regional planning and evidence-based decision making that will support communities throughout the Hudson Valley as they consider the many challenges and opportunities that are shaping our region.”
Ms. Obremski has been the director of the Rockland County Office of Community Development since 2022, where she oversaw the development and implementation of the county’s first comprehensive housing plan. She also led the effort to create and manage Rockland’s $13.5-million Housing Action Loan Opportunity (HALO) fund to develop and preserve affordable and workforce housing. She previously worked for a number of state and local government agencies, including the Rockland County Attorney’s Office, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. In addition, Ms. Obremski currently serves in leadership positions for the New York Women’s Affordable Housing Network and the Rockland County Women’s Bar Association.
Ms. Obremski will become the first graduate of the Pattern Fellows Program, its a regional leadership and education program created in 2007, to become the president of the organization.
She is a graduate of the University at Albany and St. John’s University School of Law. She lives in New City with her husband and four children.
Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress is a nonprofit organization that provides objective research, planning and educational training throughout the region. Its work identifies civic challenges and promotes regional, equitable and sustainable solutions to constantly improve the quality of life in Hudson Valley communities. Pattern develops its work upon a considerable foundation of facts and experience, without political aims or affiliations.
Pattern was founded in 1965 by the region’s academic, business, and nonprofit leaders. Its work focuses on housing, community and urban planning, downtown revitalization, land use, infrastructure, transportation, demographic change, and more. Pattern serves the counties of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester.
NYC Launches Office of Curb Management At DOT to Create More Order, Efficiencies
NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Mike Flynn announced on April 7 the creation of a new Office of Curb Management within NYC DOT to modernize how the city uses curb space and bring greater order and ease to New York City streets.
The new office will oversee curb policies across the city’s 6,300 miles of streets and roughly three million curbside parking spaces, with a focus on improving safety, reducing double parking and better managing competing demands—from deliveries and outdoor dining to bike parking and waste containerization. The office will also streamline interagency coordination on projects requiring curb management.
“How we manage our curbs is how we show our streets are for everyone—from cyclists and drivers to sanitation workers and delivery workers to food vendors and outdoor diners,” said Mayor Mamdani. “This new office will centralize planning so that our curbs can keep up with the new and growing ways New Yorkers enjoy our city. By modernizing curb management, we’re delivering a streetscape that is the envy of the world.”
“Creating streets that are the envy of the world starts at the curb, because the curb lane is critical to a street’s success—if it isn’t working, the whole street isn’t working,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn. “New York City’s curb regulations have not evolved quickly enough since 1950, when overnight street parking was legalized. The result is a curb that too often feels chaotic and unsafe, and that must change.”
The new office will bring the city’s curb into the 21st century by taking a modern approach that utilizes curb space to meet a wider range of public needs, including multi-modal transportation options, loading zones, microhubs, vehicle pick-up and drop-off zones, secure bike parking, outdoor dining and more. This approach will better organize curb space and support safer, more efficient streets, city officials stated.
The Office of Curb Management will improve coordination by consolidating planning functions and positions that are currently spread across multiple teams, helping ensure a consistent, citywide approach to curb policy and design. The office will expand upon the city’s efforts to install loading zones, designate vehicle pick-up and drop-off areas, use parking strategies to promote more vehicle turnover at the curb, allow roadway outdoor dining and pilot on-street waste containerization.
NYC DOT will begin forming the new office immediately, including posting key leadership roles in the coming days.
The new Office of Curb Management builds on a number of other recent agency structural changes that center our streets, curbs and sidewalks on the needs of all users, including the creation of the Office of Livable Streets, which houses the new Public Realm team and the Cycling and Micromobility unit, and the creation of the Reconnecting Communities Planning unit that focuses on connecting neighborhoods divided by infrastructure.
Published: April 21, 2026