The Urban Action Agenda

The Urban Action Agenda is a multi-year regional planning process to promote the revitalization of urban centers throughout the nine-county Hudson Valley Region. The UAA supports the capacity for communities to plan using these guiding principles: preserving green and open space, avoiding urban sprawl, and attracting and retaining population through informed urban growth practices.

A half-century ago, the cities and urban centers of the Hudson Valley were “All-American,” a term synonymous with success. They were places at the tops of their games. The generous breadths of Broadways and Main Streets were alive with commerce. Proud waterfronts harbored ferries and shipyards. Factories and shops could not get enough workers.

Not so today. Industry has all but disappeared, many places are faced with blight and too many residents are looking elsewhere to live and set down roots. We believe it doesn’t have to be that way. Pattern actively seeks to map a new course for the Valley through the revival of its urban centers.

Though it is part of the larger New York City Metropolitan Region, the Hudson Valley does not have a single urban center that acts as the region’s heart but instead consists of a constellation of urban centers, large and small, located along the Hudson River and other historic transportation corridors. For purposes of the UAA, urban centers include cities, villages and other areas where population, social, cultural, civic and economic activity have traditionally clustered. Today, these places face a number of challenges such as concentrations of poverty, aging infrastructure, declining or stagnant population numbers, lack of affordable housing and jobs, commercial vacancies, among others; but some of the Hudson Valley’s urban centers are starting to turn the corner. Nationally, trends show a renewed interest in urban living by young adults, empty nesters, and seniors. Vibrant downtowns and waterfronts, walkable neighborhoods, access to high quality public spaces and other amenities are attracting the well-educated workers, innovators and entrepreneurs that are necessary to grow local economies in cities across the country. The urban centers of the Hudson Valley are poised to take advantage of this shift; and to varying degrees some already are.

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress sees this as a historic moment to focus attention on the revitalization of the region’s urban centers. With their existing infrastructure, these communities are best suited to accommodate the region’s future growth. A focus on urban centers is consistent with our region’s environmental ethos and also serves to aid the preservation of the region’s abundant scenic beauty for residents and visitors alike. In our view, the long-term economic, environmental and societal sustainability of the Hudson Valley is tied to the revitalization of these centers. Vibrant and diverse urban centers can and should be a key part of the Hudson Valley Region’s identity going forward.

Consistent with Pattern’s role as a policy, planning, advocacy and research organization whose mission is to promote regional, balanced and sustainable solutions that enhance the growth and vitality of the Hudson Valley, the UAA will seek to place the revitalization of our population centers squarely at the forefront of the region’s policy and investment priorities at the local, regional and state level. To accomplish this, Pattern will:

  • assess the state of the region and benchmark existing indicators;
  • convene and collaborate with local officials, regional agencies and organizations;
  • educate through written reports about our research and by periodically hosting urban strategists and experts to speak on a variety of topics facing our communities, from transportation and housing to economy and quality of life;
  • use public engagement to solicit ideas;
  • integrate our work with initiatives in the larger New York Metropolitan Region; and ultimately
  • prepare a regional strategy based on local and national best practices that can guide revitalization efforts at the local level and inform decisions at the regional, state and national level.

Twenty-five (25) communities in the Hudson Valley have agreed to participate directly in the UAA initiative over the three-year period. They range from large cities like Yonkers, to mid-sized cities like Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Poughkeepsie, and White Plains, and smaller cities like Beacon, Hudson, Kingston, Middletown, Newburgh, Peekskill, and Port Jervis. They also include the Villages of Brewster, Catskill, Ellenville, Haverstraw, Highland Falls, Liberty, Monticello, Nyack, Walden, and Wappingers Falls, the hamlet of Nanuet, and the towns of Fishkill and Saugerties. Each of these communities has its own unique issues and opportunities; however they share many similar challenges as well. As part of the project, Pattern will develop data profiles for each of these UAA communities and assist them to identify:

  • revitalization strategies that are working and which may be transferable,
  • unique amenities and assets that should be promoted, and
  • transformative or catalyst projects that can be advocated for under the UAA banner

The UAA is funded in part through a grant from the Ford Foundation, with assistance from the Regional Plan Association (RPA). Other funders include Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley and the Hudson River Valley Greenway. Orange & Rockland Utilities, AKRF, and St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital are the primary sponsors of UAA events. In addition, this project, and all of Pattern for Progress’ work in the Hudson Valley, is made possible through the contributions and generous support of our members.

The Urban Action Agenda Topic Areas

The UAA covers a broad range of topic areas, ranging from Demographic Changes and Housing to Education and Public Safety. Successful urban areas must maintain an awareness of all of these topics, and must strive to improve across a variety of metrics.

Eleven main topic areas were selected through community and regional input to become the core focuses of the UAA. Together, they link to create vibrant communities. Other topics can be addressed as the UAA moves forward. They pose these questions and discussion points:

Communities of the Urban Action Agenda

As part of the Urban Action Agenda, Pattern focuses on 25 urban centers across the 9 county region to strengthen their urban fabric, reduce sprawl, and preserve the green space that is one of the region’s strongest qualities. Collectively, these urban areas have over 25% of the region’s population and an even larger share of the jobs and economic activity.

In January 2016, Pattern for Progress, working in partnership with the Regional Plan Association, completed 25 community profiles for the participating Urban Action Agenda (UAA) communities. In March, 2018, Pattern for Progress released the second edition of the UAA Community Profiles, updated and expanded with new information. The profiles capture a broad spectrum of metrics, including housing, income and poverty, education, quality of life and the economy. Where possible, statistics for the county in which the community is located are given to provide perspective. These indicators were chosen in order to establish baseline conditions in each community and to allow for observable trends in the future. Communities may find these profiles useful in a variety of ways, from grant applications to business recruitment efforts to planning studies.

Urban Action Agenda (UAA): Progress Update

July 2015, By Paul Hesse and Mike Welti, Pattern Staff

The Pattern Board of Directors adopted the Urban Action Agenda as one of two main strategies supporting its 50th anniversary goals, and since September 2014, Pattern has been working hard on moving the UAA from concept to reality. Staff was hired at the beginning of the project, with Paul Hesse joining the team in mid-September 2014, and in May 2015, Michael Welti, AICP was brought on board. As Senior Planner and as Vice President for Urban and Regional Planning, Paul and Mike comprise the core team working on the UAA, with support from the rest of the Pattern staff, the Pattern Board and other regional partners.

Pattern Fellows

Starting in October 2014, Pattern re-engineered its Fellows program to be aligned with the UAA, with each Fellow assigned to a community to gather baseline conditions data and to conduct a deeper examination of three UAA communities: Fishkill, Middletown and New Rochelle. Individual Fellows have been asked to present their work in villages like Liberty in Sullivan County. The subsequent two Fellows classes will also be incorporated into the UAA.

Information Gathering and Outreach

In November 2014, Pattern hosted a well-attended initial project briefing with mayors, supervisors and municipal staff from the twenty-five (25) participating UAA communities, and throughout the project thus far, Pattern has been meeting individually with UAA community partners to provide updates on the project and discuss specific issues facing each community. Also throughout the project, Pattern has been meeting with various community groups working in UAA locations, including Community Voices Heard, Habitat for Humanity, Hudson River Housing, Latinos Unidos and others. In January 2015, Pattern organized and hosted an outreach event at SUNY New Paltz as part of Regional Plan Association’s (RPA) 4th Regional Plan, which had over 60 attendees including many UAA community partners, to discuss the future needs and goals of the Hudson Valley.

In February 2015, Pattern began working with a web developer to establish a dynamic and interactive web presence for the project, allowing a platform for Pattern to engage the public and UAA community partners. Once launched, various data will be available for use by the public, including UAA community-specific profiles that Pattern has been developing in coordination with RPA. Pattern has also gathered data on a number of different topics for the UAA communities, including spare water and wastewater capacity, which was presented during Pattern’s annual infrastructure conference; housing cost burden for renters and owners; property taxes; building permit data; jobs and local economy data; and school district data.

Unique Initiatives

In March 2015, Pattern launched a pilot effort in one UAA community – the City of Newburgh – with the Times Herald-Record (THR) called “Newburgh Block by Block,” which will complement the work of Habitat Newburgh and the Newburgh Community Land Bank. The project seeks to highlight current successes in reclaiming distressed parts of the city and advocating for strategies that work. The THR devoted four pages to the project in its April 26th 2015 edition.

Coordination with Regional Priorities
Pattern has worked with the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council (MHREDC) to ensure that investment in urban centers is identified as a priority in the Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI). In May 2015, Pattern hosted a well-attended workshop on the 2015 Consolidated Funding Application round and the URI for UAA communities. Also in May, in addition to several previous occasions, Pattern hosted some of the most distressed UAA communities – those communities identified as “Opportunity Areas” by the MHREDC – to discuss strategies for inclusion of their particular needs in regional plans.

Events

On June 23rd, Pattern hosted the first UAA event of 2015 called “Downtown Turnaround: Restoring the Promise of Our Population Centers.” This event focused on hot topics in urban communities, including transit-oriented development and downtown parking policy; housing issues such as redevelopment in urban centers for mixed-use mixed-income projects, and urban infill and adaptive reuse of downtown or urban center properties. The event also featured keynote speaker Tom Murphy, senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute and former mayor of Pittsburgh from 1994 to 2006. Pattern plans to hold a second event – a roundtable discussion for the UAA communities – this Fall.