Hope Cohen is Deputy Director of the Center for Rethinking Development. With over a decade of experience in New York City government at the Department of Parks and Recreation and MTA New York City Transit, she brings invaluable experience navigating the complex city bureaucracy and an acute ability to solve complex problems by building consensus among multiple stake-holders.

Supplementing her professional work as a public servant with voluntary public service as a Board member, Land Use Committee Co-Chairperson, and Board Chairperson of Manhattan's Community Board 7 (Upper West Side), she represented her neighborhood's land use and zoning concerns to a variety of city agencies, always working to get the multiple interested parties to a place of consensus and cooperation. She also developed recognized expertise on land use issues, ranging from the inclusionary housing bonus to the use of sidewalk space.

As Chairperson, she reorganized the Board structure, introduced streamlined processes, and recruited ambitious, civic-minded new members to represent the community. A major achievement of her administration was a review of the city's Solid Waste Management Plan that included acceptance of a role for the West 59th Street Marine Transfer Station, but also highlighted solid waste management as one of several key issues that need to be addressed seriously in the context of the city's development. She is intensely interested in the development and maintenance of the infrastructure required to make New York City work.

She holds a B.A. from Harvard and an M.A. from the University of Chicago.

Hope Cohen Participates in Discussion of Bloomberg's State of the City speech:
'This is New York City': Mayor Draws a Reaction, Citylimits.org, 01-21-08

Select Media

• "World Service", BBC Radio, 01-30-08
• "One to One", CUNY TV, 01-21-08

Articles/Op-eds

• Bulldozing Through New York By Hope Cohen and Rosemary Scanlon, The New York Sun, 08-07-08
• Clearing New York City Streets Gotham Gazette, 04-14-08
• The Critics of Mayor's Toll Plan Get Silly New York Post, 03-31-08
• A Simpler Alternative to Congestion Pricing Gotham Gazette, 01-07-08
• Public Transit Should be Cheaper Option NY Metro, 08-06-07
• Building Blocks Richard Ravitch and Hope Cohen, The New York Times, 08-05-07
• Ensuring It Doesn't Happen Here New York Post, 08-03-07
• A Fill potholes in congestion pricing plan New York Daily News, 07-26-07
• Improve Transit Before Congestion Pricing Gotham Gazette, 05-07-07
• We Will Clog You By Bruce Schaller and Hope Cohen, New York Times, 12-17-06

Center for Rethinking Development e-Newsletters and Podcasts

• Albany and City Hall: Here's What You Can Do to Slow Down Construction Costs July 2008
• Tolls, Fees, and Fares April 2008
• Fix the Drains (and Trains and Bridges)—and Train the Fixers August 2007
  • PODCAST: Hope Cohen discusses congestion pricing. 8-27-07
  • PODCAST: Cohen discusses technology and New York's infrastructure. 8-26-07
• Don't Wait for the Congestion Pricing Pilot: Fix Transit Now! April 2007
• Buses, Trains, and Automobiles December 2006

Testimony

• Testimony of Hope Cohen before the City Council March 24, 2008
• Testimony before the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, January 16, 2008
• Testimony re: Safety of New York City's Bridges, September 17, 2007
• Testimony Regarding Intro. 199 Testimony before the New York City Council on traffic congestion, January 25, 2007