Patterns for Progress and New York City Announce Regional Planning Partnership

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress (Pattern) and the New York City Department of Department of City Planning (DCP) today announced a new partnership to explore regional connections between New York City and the Hudson Valley on economic development, tourism, agriculture, and other key issues. The partnership will include biannual meetings between Pattern for Progress and New York City officials, including discussions of how to build on the robust economic ties and transit connections between the regions and how to support jobs in life science, tech, food, and film production, among other industries.

The partnership was announced on Tuesday at a Pattern event at Marist University with New York City DCP Director Dan Garodnick, exploring opportunities for collaboration between the Hudson Valley and New York City.

“I am grateful that New York City has agreed to collaborate with the Hudson Valley to discuss a wide range of opportunities and actions that will benefit our regions,” Pattern CEO Adam Bosch said. “Pattern will coordinate routine discussions for civic and business leaders to connect with their peers in New York City. These collaborations will aim for specific actions on business attraction and growth, tourism, food systems, housing, transit, and other topics that stitch together the Hudson Valley and New York City. I want to thank Dan Garodnick and his team at DCP for bringing the city’s government agencies and nonprofits into this active collaboration between our regions.”

“New York City and the Hudson Valley are deeply intertwined, from our housing market to transportation infrastructure to supply chain and more. When New York succeeds, the region succeeds, and vice versa,” said Dan Garodnick, Director of the NYC Department of City Planning and Chair of the New York City Planning Commission. “That’s why this ongoing partnership is such an exciting opportunity to coordinate our planning efforts and further grow the largest regional economy in the western hemisphere.”

The partnership formally began this week with a discussion between DCP, Pattern, and the planning commissioners from several Hudson Valley counties following the Pattern event. The discussion identified several topics on which the Hudson Valley and New York City will collaborate, including economic development, tourism, agriculture, and other key issues. Planners also explored potential action items that might be pursued. For future discussions, Pattern and DCP will bring together economic development experts, tourism bureaus, farmers and food-system operators, and other stakeholders who would benefit from planning across both regions.

New York City and the Hudson Valley have strong economic connections. The two regions include more than 267,000 commuters, and account for more than half the jobs and nearly 40% of the housing permits in the greater metro area. Several planning efforts have recently pointed toward the need to develop inter-regional strategies that strengthen and develop these connections. For example, the city’s “New New York” action plan challenges its leaders to “develop regional strategies that foster mutually beneficial connections between NYC and the surrounding region.” The latest comprehensive economic development strategy for the Mid-Hudson Region, published by Empire State Development in 2024, also articulates this goal. It says, “Frequent communication between regional leaders and elected and appointed officials from New York City should be encouraged to explore the development and expansion of markets for goods that are made in the Mid-Hudson region.”    Pattern will provide regular updates to Hudson Valley civic leaders about the regional discussions with New York City, including action items that are identified throughout the year.