Michael DiTullo, President & CEO of Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, a Newburgh-based smart-growth think tank.

Optimist, organizer, pragmatist, strategist, and visionary: regardless of how anyone describes Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress president and CEO Michael J. DiTullo, his commitment to the Hudson Valley Region is unquestionable.  Regardless of our problems, including everything from suburban sprawl to restoring abandoned industrial areas in our cities, DiTullo believes the potential of the region can continue to be maximized if its leaders and organizations continue to develop a regional perspective.

According to DiTullo, fostering collaborative regionalism and a spirit of interdependence among the nine counties in the region has been the organization's focus since it was first established in 1964.  "The Hudson River Valley can't continue to behave like a bunch of Greek city-states.  We have to think of ourselves as a region.  Yes, there's home-rule and local and county governments.  That's New York State; we're stuck with it.  But that doesn't mean we can't collaborate and cooperate," states DiTullo.

DiTullo, the organizer, describes Pattern as an "entrepreneurial think tank."  It develops ideas and strategies pertaining to regional initiatives and then forms committees to study these plans.  Once these committees are operational, they become a spin-off of Pattern and take on a life of their own.  "Today's Hudson Valley Greenway Communities Council is a perfect example of collaborative regionalism.  It began as one of our Pattern committees and has grown into an organization that's now doing a tremendous job in galvanizing a regional perspective regarding land use decisions," explains DiTullo.  Approximately 200 communities have signed on to the Greenway and haven't given up home rule; however, they do state that they agree with and support the Council's standards and guidelines pertaining to growth and development.

In addition to promoting a regionally coordinated approach to land use decisions, Pattern has also been responsible for organizing a regional Smart Growth Alliance, consisting of Pattern, Scenic Hudson, the Builders Association of the Hudson Valley, several county economic development corporations, and some of our local colleges.  The group's focus is to develop working relationships between developers and environmentalists.  And it's here within the context of the Alliance's work that DiTullo emerges as the strategic planner.

The Newburgh waterfront.

His solution to suburban sprawl in the region is similar to what experts across the country are exploring: clustering.  "We here in the United States have been spoiled because we've had so much land.  Now we need to start looking at land as a precious commodity," he says.  "If you have a town with one-acre zoning, it doesn't mean you have to put one house on every acre.  You do little clusters where the houses are grouped on a third- or quarter-acre lot, and within that subdivision, you have open space."

DiTullo believes, as do many others, that another environmental and economic solution to sprawl is concentrating residential growth closer to our cities.  "Focus residential growth closer to our cities where we already have water and sewer lines, electricity, telephone service.  If you can have four residential units per acre instead of one unit per four acres, you're going to use a fewer resources and less tax dollars to bring the infrastructure to those sites," explains DiTullo.

Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, DiTullo thinks that concentrating residential growth closer to our cities would also help better protect the countryside from spread cities: "Hypothetically, a two-hundred house subdivision goes up maybe thirty miles from a nearby city.  Hundreds of cars are now on the road every day going from the residential area to the urban work center.  That creates an economic opportunity along the road for commercial establishments: convenience stores, gas stations, shopping centers.  Route 9 in Dutchess County between Rhinebeck and Fishkill has become a spread city, and that's what we want to avoid in other areas of the region.  A little bit of spread is okay.  But control it in a two- or three-mile stretch, and then stop it.  This is one problem where environmentalists and developers can collaborate, work together to preserve our open space while solving our housing needs."

In addition to protecting our open space and agricultural lands from suburban sprawl and spread cities, what DiTullo refers to as the greenfields must also be protected from intense industrial and commercial development.  The pragmatist in DiTullo understands why manufacturers previously wouldn't invest in brownfields, which are cities rife with abandoned or underutilized industrial or commercial properties.  The cost of potential environmental clean-ups at any of these sites was believed to be financially prohibitive; developers wouldn't even consider them.  They would look instead at greenfield sites, hundreds of acres of pristine land just waiting for a manufacturing company to break ground.

Restaurants lining the waterfront.

Committed to protecting our greenfields, a Pattern committee was formed in 1998 to study restoring brownfield sites in our region's cities by clarifying their actual or perceived contamination problems.  That original Pattern committee is today the Hudson Valley Land Revitalization Partnership, a consortium of six cities and three counties.  The Partnership unites the public and private sectors in its effort to bring brownfields into new usefulness by identifying and inventorying such sites.  Pooling their resources and working with the Environmental Protection Agency, Partnership has been able to hire an engineering firm to do phase one environmental assessments of all of these sites.  And its current Web site has become an invaluable resource of information for parties interested in selling, purchasing, or redeveloping brownfields.  "The Land Revitalization Partnership is an excellent example of Pattern's philosophy - thinking regionally is the best way to think competitively," says DiTullo.

A graduate of Empire State College with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics, he adamantly believes that thanks to the counties and communities that are already working together on a variety of different initiatives, the Hudson Valley is on a roll.  Rather than seeing the Hudson River as a dividing line, he sees it as a common thread that crosses county lines and weaves together our common goals making them more attainable.  The visionary in DiTullo sees the river as a metaphor for our region: "For awhile, it flows steadily on its course; then its runs into an obstacle, and maybe it's even balked for awhile.  But then it either removes the obstacle or goes around it.  As a region, we run into problems.  But like the magnificent Hudson River, if as a region we're persistent, sometimes even obstinate and stubborn, we'll keep flowing, figure out a way to overcome the obstacle."

The staff of Pattern for Progress - Logan Miller, Edda Eller, Michael DiTullo, Laura Walls

Despite his optimism, DiTullo acknowledges the naysayers who tell him that regionalism is never going to work, that people can't cross political borders and work together, and that New York State home rule prevents communities from organizing consolidated efforts.  "The pessimists actually motivate me even more," he admits, grinning.  "What they're saying can't be done is already being done.  It's happening!  Collaborative regionalism is the future, and based on my six years of experience steering this organization, I'm confident that Pattern is a vehicle for optimizing the strengths of the Hudson Valley Region."  Smiling, he adds, "If the Hudson Valley Region were a state right now, we would have the eighteenth largest economy in the nation and a higher population than seventeen other states.  Now, that is certainly evidence of our potential."