Parks advocate to oversee feds’ Sandy efforts in New York

New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Holly Leicht is taking up the director role at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for New York and New Jersey.

Leicht, nominated to the position by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, will oversee the continued roll out of Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts in her new role.

She will replace former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. in the post, which newly-sworn-in Mayor Bill de Blasio held in the 1990s during the Clinton administration. In her work as a parks advocate in the city, Leicht  most recently led a push for increased open space along Manhattan’s East Side. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland